For those who don't know, for the past three years I have been working in NYC at The New School, a progressive university with a rich history, located in the West Village of Manhattan. I was hired in 2017 as an assistant professor and program director at The College of Performing Arts to help build a new MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship for artists. That program (MA AME) has now come to fruition, having graduated two cohorts---a total of 30 talented and socially engaged artist-entrepreneurs---and has a third cohort of 15 terrific … [Read more...]
When to Stop? My essay in “A Moment on the Clock of the World” in the context of Covid-19 & Black Lives Matter
In a 2018 I was invited by Melanie Joseph to write an essay for a book that would mark the final production of the company she founded 25 years earlier, The Foundry Theatre. The book, A Moment on the Clock of the World (pictured above) was published by Haymarket last fall. I am deeply grateful to Melanie Joseph & David Bruin for the invitation to make a contribution as well as for their editorial support, which made it a much better essay than I could ever have written on my own. Melanie Joseph is a true activist-aesthete and The … [Read more...]
With a country “on the brink” does it matter if your arts venue is shuttered?
In three short months Americans have shifted from tuning into the daily drama surrounding the democratic primaries, to daily Covid-19 briefings and debates over whether or not lives matter more than money, to now 24/7 coverage of the protests erupting across a reported 350 cities in the US (as of June 2) in the aftermath of the horrific killing of George Floyd—an act that has quickly become emblematic of systemic racism and the longstanding and escalating hatred, violence and injustices toward people of color in the US and in particular black … [Read more...]
The Changing Face of Arts Engagement: My remarks at the Stratford Festival Forum
Earlier this month I had the privilege and pleasure to speak at the Meighan Forum at the Stratford Festival--a public lecture series hosted by the renowned theater festival in Stratford, Ontario, launched in anticipation of the opening of the new Tom Patterson Theatre in 2020, which will feature a dedicated forum space. I was particularly grateful for the quality and depth of the questions, moderated brilliantly by Ted Witzel a theatre-maker and programmer who also has a blog, which I highly recommend. Since the Q&A was not captured in the … [Read more...]
My panel remarks at the IU Center for Cultural Affairs Symposium: New Frontiers in Arts Research
This past Wednesday I participated in a symposium at Indiana University, as part of the opening of its new Center for Cultural Affairs. Among other programs, the Center features a new Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Lab launched in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts; and will also help to support a new a doctoral fellowship program. It was a terrific day of discussions aimed primarily at surfacing possible areas of future research for the Center. I was on a panel moderated by Doug Noonan, Professor at the O'Neill … [Read more...]
My remarks at the 8th World Summit on Arts & Culture
This past week I had the privilege to participate in the 8th World Summit on Arts & Culture, produced by the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA). The Theme of the 2019 Summit, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was Mobile Minds: Culture, Knowledge and Change. And the panel on which I spoke was listed as a provocation called: Actors in Change. Below is a transcript of my remarks. Good morning! It is a privilege and pleasure to be here with all of you and to have an opportunity to offer … [Read more...]
Is it time to resurrect the artistic leader discretionary fund?
[contextly_auto_sidebar] At one point in my tenure as a philanthropoid at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation I went back to the board dockets of decades past to try to piece together the evolution in the Foundation’s theater and dance grantmaking over time. In some early dockets I discovered a number of grants awarded to arts organizations to support what the Foundation called (if memory serves) an artistic leader discretionary fund. I was amazed by the discovery. After a recent conversation with Arts Emerson's David Dower, it struck me that the … [Read more...]
On artistic leadership and aesthetic values in a changed cultural context: A new keynote address
Last week I had the privilege, pleasure, and honor to give the keynote address at the Canadian Arts Summit--an annual gathering of the board chairs, executive leaders, and artistic leaders of Canada's major cultural institutions. It was a terrific conference all around. Here is a link to a transcript of my keynote address. The talk was also live streamed and, as I understand it, a video will eventually be available for download. Following a preamble (which highlights some of the key themes that I've been circling around for the past decade), … [Read more...]
On playwrights attempting to be in the driver’s seat: my experience at Dominique Morisseau’s “Pipeline”
I’ve recently starting working as an assistant professor and program director for a new MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship (MA AME) at The New School. If you don't know it, The New School is a progressive university based in New York City. Social justice is a core value of the institution and it ranks quite high on various dimensions of diversity. The MA AME is distinguished from other MA in arts management or administration programs in that it is intended for practicing performing artists only. When they apply, students are evaluated … [Read more...]
Tackling an inequitable arts funding system: A response to the report, Not Just Money
Helicon Collaborative, with a grant from the Surdna Foundation, has recently published a second report, Not Just Money, examining where US arts philanthropic dollars go. Some may recall that when the first report was published it set off a small quake across the arts and culture landscape—with many shaking their heads at the inequitable funding picture that emerged in the report and some (like me) finding it curious that this was news to anyone since these inequities are not only longstanding but, to a great extent, by design. (You can read my … [Read more...]
Art for ____________’s sake. What would you fill in?
A few weeks back I was in NYC and had the opportunity to attend a Public Forum event featuring the brilliant Jeremy McCarter reading from his new book Young Radicals: In the War for American Ideals, and an equally brilliant panel of renowned activists and artists doing a staged reading of the timely, and at once harrowing and humorous, 1917 one-act by Susan Glaspell, The People. It was a great evening and McCarter's book is now sitting on my Kindle, next in the queue. Toward the end of the evening McCarter turned to the rather large panel of … [Read more...]
On “looky-loos” and the institutions who are desperate for them and desperate for them to behave
On the recommendation of a couple friends who are artists I recently read Dave Hickey’s fantastic 1997 memoir Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy. As I was reading a couple essays, in particular, I kept thinking about the recent tizzy over the behavior of a pack of celebrities attending the Met gala, who hid out in the bathroom to socialize, take selfies, and smoke. AJ blogger, Judith Dobrzynski, who commented on the incident in her post, If This Can Happen at the Met and the British Museum … We Have a Big Problem, suggests that the … [Read more...]
On Entrepreneurialism and Publicness (or Whose Theatre is it, Really?)
This essay was originally published in Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts by the Pave Program in Arts Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University. Many thanks to Linda Essig for permission to syndicate it on Jumper. On Entrepreneurialism and Publicness (or Whose Theater Is It, Really?) by Diane Ragsdale But democratic society — in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves … [Read more...]
Is artistic leadership at America’s arts institutions lacking? Is this at the root of declining relevancy?
Joe Horowitz has written a stirring essay on the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, and New York Philharmonic on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Lincoln Center. In response, ArtsJournal has asked a number of people to consider the essay and to weigh in on a series of questions (paraphrased): Is artistic leadership at America’s arts institutions lacking? Moreover, is this at the root of declining relevancy of the arts? Is something more, or better, needed from America’s arts institutions, particularly at this vexing and critical … [Read more...]
What is our “Great Work” in light of this election?
Several hours ago now, Donald J. Trump was elected the forty-fifth President of the United States. I haven’t slept in 36 hours. As the results of the election became clear, more than a few theater friends on my Facebook feed began to post the words: “The Great Work Begins”—a reference to a phrase in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika. Fueled by confusion and concern, and with a desire to spur myself and others to both reflection and action, I offer this post (a combination of new thoughts and those … [Read more...]