In my introductory course in not-for-profit management, early on I pose a question to the students, "For a not-for-profit corporation, which is more important: mission or survival?" There is usually some lively chicken and egg conversation around the fact that no good can be done if the organization ceases to exist, but when reminded of the structural theory of the sector, it always comes down to the public service mission. If that is sacrificed, … [Read more...]
Art for Art’s Sake? There’s No Such Thing
So here is a bit of heresy for the New Year. A recent post by Clayton Lord on his blog New Beans, This Is Your Brain on Art (sizzle, sizzle), reminded me of my first exposure to the Rand Corporation's 2005 Gifts of the Muse study. A distinction was made there between instrumental and intrinsic benefits of the arts. I remember feeling a bit uncertain about its reasoning at the time. I've remained so. Its central premise is that there are two kinds … [Read more...]
The Pot Is Simmering
Everywhere I turn in my Google Reader, someone is talking about core issues in the arts. (Yes, I know I said I was only going to do one post per week over the Holidays, but come on, how could I resist this?) Certainly the Occupy movement is an explanation, as is the NCRP report on arts funding. But in the last couple of weeks, in addition to Theatre Ideas and Jumper (about which I commented over the weekend) and Engaging Matters … [Read more...]
A Night at the Opera
For some of you the title of this post is going to be a "bait and switch" experience. This is not about opera but about a theatre piece at the recent Grantmakers in the Arts conference. (I am indebted to my friend Barbara Schaffer Bacon's post on ArtsBlog, Too Progressive, Too Elite: Public Value and the Paradox of the Arts, for first pointing me to the video of it: A Night at the Opera by Tommer Peterson and KJ Sanchez.) Based on interviews with … [Read more...]
Creative Placemaking
I am a huge fan of Americans for the Arts' Animating Democracy program. To my mind, their work is on the side of the angels. (And, of course, it has not hurt that Barbara Shaffer Bacon and Pam Korza have been kind to me and supportive of my work in many, many ways.) So, it was with great anticipation that I awaited the first Animating Democracy Blog Salon. I enjoyed myself immensely reading the posts, but on the last day of the event, I had (I … [Read more...]
Click
There is a thought experiment I give students in a not-for-profit governance class: A nameless, generic not-for-profit board recognized the need for more diversity in its membership. Aware that they functioned in a community with a large Hispanic/Latino population but had no members from that group, they placed an add in the local H/L paper to recruit someone to the board. What is wrong with this picture? When I first began posing the … [Read more...]
Why?
First, thanks to everyone who bothered to click through to see the New Blog on the Block post. It's gratifying to know that there are people out there interested in this stuff. That said, the pressure is on to see whether anything sufficiently interesting can be said in Engaging Matters to keep people coming back. (I almost said "engaged.") So, why, again, am I doing this? It has something to do with the fact that the arts are important; … [Read more...]
New Blog on the Block
You have just stumbled upon yet another "new blog on the block." To get immediately to the point, the fundamental premise of all that follows is: The arts have incredible, but insufficiently utilized, power to improve people's lives–instrumentally, instrinsically, extrinsically, schmeztrinsically . . . and every which way but loose. This is excellent news for people and it's good news for the arts. However, the unforgettable words of Fanny Brice … [Read more...]