While searching for something else, I stumbled onto a great (as usual) 2004 keynote by Ben Cameron of Theatre Communications Group (you can find the keynote here), which led me to a wonderful poem by Marge Piercy that Ben invokes in his comments. A favorite passage: I want to be with people who submerge in […]
Martinis and art, shaken and stirred
If you weren’t sure whether large quantities of distilled beverages, big crowds, and invaluable contemporary artworks would make a good mix, a celebration in February pretty much settled the issue. By many reports, the martini-themed rental event at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s stunning Calatrava addition was about as bad as you can imagine: People threw […]
John Kani and the spirit of UBUNTU
The International Society for the Performing Arts has posted an audio stream and a transcription from a recent conference keynote by Dr. John Kani, South African actor, director, and playwright. It runs about 40 minutes, but is well worth a listen as you work. The topic is ”UBUNTU,” an African aphorism with a rich and […]
Sandow on classical music…again
My weblog neighbor, Greg Sandow, has been attempting a bold experiment in publishing — ”performing” a book on-line, posting chapters as he writes them for feedback from the world. When he’s done, he’ll publish it the old-fashioned way. After some months of wonderful prose and intriguing comments on the future of classical music, Greg has […]
Just when you thought you had this web thing down
Lots of chatter on the Internet is celebrating the evolution of ”Web 2.0,” or the next generation of web systems and content. What is it, exactly? Depends on who you ask. Marshall Kirkpatrick offers a useful description, suggesting that Web 2.0 services and systems have the following qualities: They allow non-web designers to put their […]
Rethinking the arts ecology through health care
The Design Council of the United Kingdom has been rethinking the structure and goals of health care systems, particularly as they relate to chronic health issues that require constant and personalized attention. If you squint a bit, the results of their work, published in this report and others, could also be a conceptual map for […]
Programming by the numbers
Antonia Zerbisias at the Toronto Star is in a bit of bunch over leadership changes at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. To her taste, the new team is a bit too focused on business models, audience segmentation, focus groups, and modeling of past peformance in making their programming choices for the network. Developing and commissioning series […]
Mapping 100 years of music as subway stops
I’m rather fond of mapping projects, especially those that attempt to compress an impossibly complex ecology into two dimensions. Having to draw a static visual representation of a dynamic process forces individuals and groups to expose their hidden assumptions about how things are connected, what elements of that world are in the center, and what […]
The practical approach to board unity
I just had reason to revisit the wonderful writing of John Carver on governing boards (you can find a useful summary of his work here, or read the book). And I was struck again by the clarity and consistency of his approach to an otherwise hazy endeavor. If you can get past his personal hubris […]
A powerful study on aging and the arts
A continuing study on the impact of arts activities on older populations may finally bring two elusive elements together for arts advocates: good news and rigorous methodology. The study, being conducted by Gene Cohen, M.D., has already shown significant health and wellness impacts among arts participants over the control group. Said Cohen at a March […]
