The parody newspaper The Onion has a fabulous tradition of satirizing the arts within its pages…from the article on Congress’ accidental approval of more funding for the NEA to the artist protests outside a new exhibit that contained no combined religious iconography and excrement, to the classic story on the ‘Tony Danza Curriculum’ that harvested […]
Arts Administration Training: A rebuttal
My blog neighbor, Drew McManus, posted an entry earlier this month on ‘The trouble with arts administration degrees’. The underlying flaw with these programs, he suggested, was this: Simply put, arts administration degrees are too vague and don’t spend enough time focusing on the unique attributes of managing a particular medium of art. Each branch […]
A little whimsy goes a long way
If you’ve grown weary of the catch-phrases, slogans, taglines, and hucksterism of arts marketing, or the endless efforts to motivate an increasingly corporate staff, two nonarts organizations may hold the cure: Despair, Inc., and the Church Ad Project. One’s a joke (and a great one), the other is an honest attempt to market religion in […]
Says you…
If there were a encyclopedia entry on the challenges of high-power nonprofit cultural boards, American Ballet Theater’s board would certainly be the group photo. Yet another case in point for the uber-board’s dysfunction comes thanks to Movado watch chairman Gedalio Grinberg, who plucked his company’s traditionally generous annual support from ABT and gave it to […]
Oh yeah, this is supposed to be fun
An interesting bit of self-serving research comes from scientists in Utrecht, who discovered that an hour a day of fairly lame computer games can increase productivity and job satisfaction. Researchers allowed a target group of corporate employees to play up to an hour of computer games each day at work (they chose when), while a […]
Attack of the Rockettes
In an addendum to yesterday’s post about the Boston Ballet being bumped for the Rockettes holiday spectacular, the Boston Globe now reports that its a national phenomenon. Since 1994, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular has entered 17 markets nationwide, with five units now touring to eight cities. Denver and Boston are the next in line […]
Ousting the Nutcracker
Pointe shoes are flying in Boston after the Wang Center for the Performing Arts announced that it’s bumping the Boston Ballet in 2004 from their traditional performances of The Nutcracker, possibly replacing that slot with the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular”. The Wang Center has been the home for the Boston Ballet’s cash cow holiday performances […]
Zooming in on economic impact
I’ve gone on before about economic impact studies on the arts and their hazy logic (but astounding power among legislators). Now, two researchers in Toronto are attempting a different tack in assessing the civic impact of arts and cultural activity. Instead of taking the macro view of a city or community and its arts-related activity, […]
PAC: Miami
More plot twists and bad news in Miami-Dade, as the opening day of their massive performing arts center (PAC) is delayed again. As some will recall, I touched on this soap opera back in an early weblog entry. But it’s now become a ‘whodunnit’. Major errors in the construction of the facility, according to the […]
A new blogger joins the fray
I’m pleased to note that frequent reader and commenter on this blog, Drew McManus, today launched his own weblog on ArtsJournal, called ‘Adaptistration‘. It’s focus will be specifically on the status, potential, and challenges of the orchestra in American society. He and I have been flinging comments back and forth since this blog began, and […]
