The on-line arts research warehouse CPANDA has a new ‘quick fact’ this month that’s bound to annoy the aesthetically pure. Drawn from a cultural participation study in 1998, the summary shows the stated motivations of surveyed Kansas City residents who had attended an arts event in the prior year. The answers shouldn’t shock any of […]
Balancing the triangle at Steppenwolf
This exceptionally interesting case study of Steppenwolf’s first 25 years of growth and dynamic change is a great learning tool for any organization considering getting bigger.
The art of persuasion
Not sure how I missed it when it aired, but a link from the gang at Next Generation Consulting pointed me to the PBS Frontline past series on persuasion and persuaders — in advertising, in media, in politics. Fascinating stuff to watch and learn about high-concept advertising, emotional branding, the science of selling, narrowcasting, and […]
Construct your own marketing metaphor
Researchers have now concluded, through a recent study, that candy is more tempting when you can see it and it’s within reach. Shocking but true. According to the AP report on the study, the researchers ”gave 40 university secretaries 30 chocolate kisses in either a clear or an opaque candy jar placed on their desks […]
Drawing collective conclusions
Two items of interest today that may seem worlds apart, but to my mind are wonderfully resonant: 1) Last night, the Madison City Council voted 15 to 5 to support the refinancing of the Overture Center for the Arts (see my entry yesterday for details). I sat through all five hours of the public testimony […]
Would you buy your own facility for $1?
I often wonder what becomes of those grateful families on Extreme Makeover Home Edition in the years following the gift of a glorious new home. After the unveiling, after the tears of joy dry away, after they clean the yard of stray ”good luck” banners and coffee cups, they must eventually discover what it means […]
The interrupted life
Yesterday’s New York Times magazine explores the interrupted life of the modern office worker (login required). It turns out, as most of us will acknowledge, that distractions don’t interrupt our work, but rather distractions make up the bulk of our work. According to one researcher who measured actual drones doing actual droning: Each employee spent […]
The Hessenius Group
I’m writing in a different part of the blogosphere this week, as part of a group discussion hosted by Barry Hessenius. The topic at hand is the impact and response to the current stress on philanthropic dollars, in the wake of Katrina, Rita, and Pakistan, and on the heels of a down economy that had […]
Flat or spiky?…it matters to place-based culture
There are interesting conversations bubbling about the contrary positions of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and Rise of the Creative Class author Richard Florida (Wired magazine’s Chris Anderson weighs in on the debate, as well). Friedman’s book, The World is Flat, suggests that technology, transportation, and travel are increasingly ”flattening” the world, diminishing the […]
Filling in what we lack vs. building on what we have
Tom Borrup discusses asset-based community development and works to connect that way of thinking to the arts and culture world. In a nutshell, an asset-based approach seeks to discover and connect what a community has to work with — people, money, facilities, social networks, etc. — rather than working to import or create what it […]
