The Artful Manager

Arts managers who don’t watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central (could there be any?) missed a particularly sarcastic perspective on public art, as this Monday’s show focused one its fake news segments on Christo’s new installation in New York, The Gates. The fact that the segment was titled ‘Piles of Sheet,’ […]

I was off-line yesterday, serving on a selection committee for an arts-related position in our local community (won’t say which). This interview team was the fourth such search and screen process I’ve been part of in as many months (for positions ranging from public library director to campus arts coordinator to administrative staff), and I […]

The Christian Science Monitor offers a short article on Broadway’s attempt to woo the next generation of theater goers. Not surprisingly, the tactics include deep discounts, hip marketing (temporary tattoos, anyone?), and an emphasis on family-friendly content. Says the article: ”The movement is more toward producing material that will appeal to a wider age range,” […]

Two news tracks suggest both a new boon and a growing threat to community-based giving. On one side, the popularity of giving circles (sort of like investment clubs for philanthropy) seems to be galvanizing the charitable impulse of many. On the other side, the aggressive moves of Wal-Mart into banking services might be threatening the […]

The supremecy of the Apple iPod among portable music devices is about to be challenged by a new batch of hopefuls. The new contenders are attempting a business model different than Apple’s — in which you actually buy extensive rights to each song for 99 cents (you can burn it, run it on multiple computers […]

I had a wonderful time in Toronto over the past few days, talking with over 300 arts managers and other colleagues about defining and promoting the healthy arts organization, and the healthy staff therein. I’ll provide some background and summary in future posts, but I promised the group I would post my Monday morning keynote […]

I’m off to Toronto this weekend (and Monday) to speak and to join the conversation for Re-Generation: The Healthy Arts Leader (ou en français), an arts management conference hosted by the Ontario Arts Council. With sessions on succession planning, mentoring, compensation, professional development, and other issues of worklife in arts and cultural management, the conference […]

There’s lots of chatter these days in the consumer products world (especially technology products) about the ‘end-to-end experience’ — or the start-to-finish engagement a consumer has with a particular product, from when they first hear of it, to when they perceive its marketing, to when they buy it, open its packaging, use it, and live […]

Last week, UK arts minister Estelle Morris suggested a distribution problem in England’s museums…with too much stuff hidden in city-based museum storehouses, and not enough out in the fringes. Said she: ”We want to see the cultural centre of gravity start to move from the capital. Part of this could involve sharing works more — […]