April 29-May 1 I attended the American Association of Museum's Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo in Minneapolis. It's a huge event, with more than 3000 attendees. (Remember "museum" includes zoos, aquariums, history museums, etc.) It's also a long-running show. The first meeting was something like 106 years ago. Coming from a performing arts background, it's fascinating to see what's up in the museum world. But the main hooks for me were the … [Read more...]
The Magic of Small Groups
In early April, as part of Americans for the Arts' Emerging Leaders blog salon, Gregory Burbage posted an article on small group organization in mega-churches and the lessons to be learned from them: Group Therapy in the Arts. The point he was presenting is that huge churches (the one he cited has a membership of 24,000!) organize (and grow) themselves through the establishment of small support groups unified around interests or age. This is a … [Read more...]
Rustbelt to Artsbelt
I am attending a conference in St Louis hosted by the Regional Art Commission of St. Louis and the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture of Cleveland. The conference’s title is Rustbelt to Artsbelt: At the Crossroads, Arts-Based Community Development Convening. I attended the initial At the Crossroads conference two years ago and found it a fascinating opportunity to connect with grassroots community engagement activity around the … [Read more...]
A Question of Focus
In my last post, More or Different?, I said I was going to present a sequel detailing an alternative way to think about expanding reach in arts organizations. What I have in mind is a mental model I suggest to students when introducing marketing ideas. I begin by asking them to explain why there are (seemingly) hundreds of kinds of toothpaste on the shelves in drug stores, grocery stores, and big box conglomerates. Their eventual conclusion is … [Read more...]
More or Different?
I have now officially been posting long enough that I can't really remember which topics I have beaten to death and which I have not.A recent ArtsBlog post, Is There a Point of Diminishing Returns for the Arts? by Michael R. Gagliardo, has energized me enough to take the risk that even though I may have been down this road before, I'm going again. The issue Mr. Gagliardo raises is the industry's need to reach more people. He begins by … [Read more...]
*Really* Not about El Sistema
This is just a very quick follow-up. My recent post, Not (Exactly) about El Sistema, has been one of my most-commented-upon. I should have realized that using El Sistema (in particular) to bring up an issue that really was not about that program specifically could be a tactical error. Most comments were, understandably, about El Sistema in particular. For that I am glad. It is a wonderful program from which there are many lessons to be learned. … [Read more...]
Art Forms and Engagement
WARNING: This post will most interest community engagement geeks like me. In Not (Exactly) about El Sistema, I introduced the notion that the nature of an orchestra (separate from the content of the music performed) was an important factor in its effectiveness as a tool for transforming young people's lives. That provides me with a good segue to consider whether individual art forms might be particularly well-suited to specific types of … [Read more...]
Not (Exactly) about El Sistema
El Sistema seems to be everywhere these days. The Venezuelan musical and music education phenomenon has recently been featured in at least three NY Times articles plus a video feature. I am guilty of fanning the flames (in my very small way) by having written about the group several times. This post is not directly about El Sistema, but the rash of coverage is reminding me of something I thought early on and it gives me an excuse to raise the … [Read more...]
Identity as Marketing
Marketing has been on my mind a lot lately, notably in my last post, Systemic Marketing. Several comments on that post expressed surprise (and, frankly, disbelief) that anyone in the arts community could (or ever did) think negative thoughts about marketing. Once upon a time there were some who did not want to identify marketing as a needed element of our work (or wished it could be avoided); now the field has grown up. Marketing is (and is seen … [Read more...]
Systemic Marketing
I have an innate tendency to believe that subdividing or categorizing things leads to more problems than doing so solves. I have throughout my career quietly disbelieved that a liberal arts education is served by breaking it up into separate departments. The structure leads to division, competitiveness, and, most importantly, missed opportunities for larger understanding. There is no such thing as self-contained knowledge. Everything is … [Read more...]