When we do our work in the actual world, it’s striking how much feedback we receive. Every sense can find some evidence of our actions and the reactions to them: we hear the sound of our voice, see the reactions of those we’re speaking to, sense the acoustics of the space around us, feel the […]
The geography and demography of dating
Richard Florida offers us a useful map of the United States, showing metropolitan areas where one gender outnumbers the other by a significant margin (the graphic is better on his blog). While the map could certainly help predict and describe the singles scene in your hometown, it can also inform your marketing and audience development […]
Considering a Creative Scotland
If you’re looking for interesting listening on your iPod or computer while you tend to other elements of your life, the Scottish Arts Council is at your service with this wonderful series of keynotes and conversations from their recent cultural summit. The Scotland: Creative Nation Cultural Summit gathered over 400 participants in Edinburgh in late […]
Donors *already* have voting rights
An interesting post and conversation at Tactical Philanthropy wonders out loud whether donors should get to vote for nonprofit board members, much as shareholders get to vote in publicly traded for-profits (discovered through Donor Power Blog). The premise is that a proxy vote, and a real say in the organization’s governance structure, would lead to […]
What does your brand sound like?
An interesting two-part series (here’s part two) over at the AIGA web site explores the practice of audio branding and identity — ”the intentional use of music, sound and voice to create a connection between people and organizations.” Says the author: Well-designed, behavior-based audio branding is a critical part of the experience that we have […]
A new report on orchestral economics
Although American symphony orchestra’s and their professional association are clear leaders in gathering data on their operations, they’ve long been mysteriously quiet about publicly analyzing that data for its implications. Sure, we get gross attendance and wealth indicators (especially when they’re good). But the extraordinary educational and strategic power of this information, if placed in […]
The dull but necessary craft
It may not be the most glamorous or ”artsy” part of the job, but a significant part of any arts manager’s responsibility is to understand, assess, and manage risk. Our idealized vision of artistic endeavor is that it demands ignorance or arrogance to risk (creative, personal, physical, financial), and that any additional calculus in our […]
The ‘we’ inside of me
I know I talk about brain science and brain function in this weblog a bit more than I should. But it continues to strike me that arts and cultural managers are in the business of fostering meaning, emotion, and human discovery. In that work, it might help us to know how the equipment works. Which […]
When music ‘wants to be free,’ charge for something else
If you needed something to wring your hands about on a Friday morning, consider Chris Anderson’s feature in Wired on ”Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.” His premise is that when most products or services meet the web, they will eventually be ”free” to the consumer. Says he: Basic economics tells us that in […]
The self-organizing audience
Dave Hamilton at The Mac Observer offers an interesting example of self-organizing audiences, as facilitated by social networking technology. While attending the South by Southwest Interactive Conference, he noticed that the Twitter on-line service was guiding the real-time attendance and decision-making of conference attendees: More than once I found myself in a boring session, only […]
