Recent negotiation struggles on Broadway, at the Philadelphia Symphony, and elsewhere raise the complex issue of value in the creative experience. Any negotiation — especially for salary or pay — is an effort to assign value to each party’s contribution to a collaborative process, and to encode that value in cash. Behind that seemingly simple […]
A year ago today
It was exactly one year ago that I posted the very first entry on this weblog. It’s not an astounding milestone, to be sure, but worth a personal note. So far, it’s been great fun to spin, and rant, and connect some dots here and there. And I’ve met some great new colleagues through the […]
An engine shifting gears
The Washington Post has a great article on the seismic shifts in America’s Broadway touring circuit, as seen through the eyes of Equity (ie, unionized) actors, tour producers, and performing arts presenters. The monster touring mega-musicals with Equity casts — Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera — are gone now. Taking their place are […]
Big Night
In the guise of a story about an Italian family restaurant in 1950s New Jersey comes the best movie yet about arts and cultural management.
A few odds and ends
Two of my fellow ArtsJournal bloggers have been exploring topics related to my previous posts. I thought a few pointers would be handy. For one, Drew McManus picked up the trail of this entry on conductor salaries, and was gracious enough to ask and quote clarification of my point. Drew has been posting a lot […]
Cause or effect?
How often have you heard statements like these at conferences, in board rooms, or in the back of your head? Nonprofits are driven by mission. For-profits are driven by money. Nonprofit performances are engaging and ennobling. Commerical entertainment is crass and pandering. Nonprofit arts organizations build community. For-profit organizations destroy bonds and values. Heads will […]
Missing the larger point
The Sunday New York Times splashed symphony conductor salaries in its arts section. Said the piece: Paralleling trends in corporate pay, salaries for orchestra leaders shot up during the late 1990’s. Among the 18 American orchestras with 52-week contracts, at least 7 pay their music directors more than $1 million, and 3 pay their managers […]
Numbers and rankings and lists
Americans for the Arts just announced a new study, some new findings, and a new mapping tool that seek to define the number and location of ‘creative industries’ in the United States, and how they cluster in cities, states, and towns. The study and mapping tool combine Dun & Bradstreet data and geo-economic analysis to […]
The difference that makes a difference
While attending the National Performing Arts Convention in Pittsburgh this past June, I had the opportunity to duck into several of the separate annual conferences that were running concurrently (Dance/USA, Chorus America, American Symphony Orchestra League, and OPERA America). While I had been to many of these association meetings before, there was never the opportunity […]
Flop or success? Ask the accountant
Depending on how you measure, the Toronto run of The Producers has either been a terrible flop or a cash smash. The Toronto Star‘s Martin Knelman unbundles the question in yesterday’s edition, suggesting that ‘flop’ is often in the eye of the beholder (and the accountant): Should a show really be considered a flop when […]
