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Diane Ragsdale on what the arts do and why

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On artistic leadership and aesthetic values in a changed cultural context: A new keynote address

April 30, 2018 by Diane Ragsdale 4 Comments

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...]

Art for ____________’s sake. What would you fill in?

June 26, 2017 by Diane Ragsdale 17 Comments

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...]

When communities become markets, citizens become consumers, and culture becomes an exploitable product

July 5, 2016 by Diane Ragsdale 7 Comments

A couple weeks back I had the privilege to give a talk in Christchurch, NZ at an event called The Big Conversation—hosted by Creative New Zealand, the major arts funding body for the country. The talk, Transformation or Bust: When Hustling Ticket Sales and Contributions is Just Not Cutting It Anymore (click on the link and it will take you to a transcript) was intended to address the general conference theme, Embracing Arts / Embracing Audiences. It was assembled on top of four cornerstone ideas: Michael Sandel’s argument that we have … [Read more...]

The role of the arts in our interdependent world: hopeful signs but there’s still work to be done

October 18, 2015 by Diane Ragsdale 4 Comments

While in NYC last month I attended a forum produced at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts aimed at exploring the role of the arts in an interdependent society. The forum was held in conjunction with the 13th annual Global Interdependence Day. To be honest, when I received the invitation I had no idea such a day existed and felt a bit sheepish that I had missed the first twelve. Global Interdependence Day is an initiative arising from Benjamin Barber's Interdependence Movement. (Again, I had no idea there was such a … [Read more...]

The Arts in a Civic World Upside Down

August 24, 2014 by Diane Ragsdale 14 Comments

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="BCkhv504PNyMLqaIFc3XpLPZvWwm0Kcs"] A couple months back I was asked to give a talk on civic leadership to a group of arts leaders participating in the fantastic UK-based Clore Leadership Programme. We tend to take for granted that subsidized arts organizations are, by default, key players in civil society--that is, civic leaders. But are they? I believe arts organizations can, and should be, civic leaders but that such a role will require that many organizations pursue a different relationship to their … [Read more...]

Beyond repair? On the loss of structural integrity …

April 8, 2014 by Diane Ragsdale 8 Comments

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="HUGScEGqXpFlTgmFU2f6jVTqnbt4ymzt"] There is an arts story that has been nagging at me the past couple months. It's the recent announcement of the revised plans for the NYC Performing Arts Center planned for the former World Trade Center site. The plan for an arts center at Ground Zero began more than ten years ago. At first the center was to house four arts organizations but three of the four were tapped out several years ago. Only one (the Joyce Theater) still remained as of last year. The project has never … [Read more...]

On the distinction between giving people what they want versus what they need.

December 1, 2013 by Diane Ragsdale 18 Comments

Recently, Nina Simon has written a smart post taking aim at the “Need versus Want” distinction often used to describe the role of (nonprofit) arts organizations—as in, “Our job is not to give people what they want but what they need.” As someone that has, at times, used this distinction to make points in various talks I was eager to read Simon’s post, Let's Stop Talking About What People Want and Need As If They are Different (and We Can Tell How). Simon makes three arguments: (1) it’s presumptuous for arts organizations to think they know … [Read more...]

Are the arts trading in happiness? If so, what kind?

January 22, 2013 by Diane Ragsdale 14 Comments

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post on changing definitions of success in which I, essentially, asked, Can we change them? And do we really want to? In a thoughtful comment to the post (well worth reading in full) a veteran policy advocate, Margy Waller at Topos Partnership (who worked with ArtsWave in Cincinnati on The Arts Ripple Effect) floated the possibility of happiness among citizens as a measure of our success. She wrote: Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota, … redefined the measure of success for his city: “If we in the Third … [Read more...]

Diane Ragsdale

Diane Ragsdale is an Assistant Professor in the College of Performing Arts at The New School, where she also serves as Program Director for the MA in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship. Alongside her post at the New School Diane teaches on the Cultural Leadership Program at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada and teaches a workshop on Cultural Policy at Yale University for its Theater Management MA. She is also a doctoral candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam (in the Netherlands), where she lectured 2011-2015 in the cultural economics and sociology of the arts programs. Read More…

Jumper

White's Tree Frog

About 20 years ago, when I was in graduate school, I came across the following poem: When an old pond gets a new frog it’s a new pond. I think the inverse also may be true. I’ve often been the new frog jumping into an old pond. Since 1988, I’ve worked in the arts in the US in various roles … [Read More...]

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Recent Comments

  • Richard Linzer on On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now: “Diane, the free manuals that we have created on fully secured borrowing for arts nonprofits, other nonprofits, and individual artists…” Jan 11, 20:48
  • Jon Catherwood-Ginn on On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now: “Diane and Jerry – thank you so much for your thoughtful responses to my question! Excellent points regarding the opportunity…” Oct 13, 21:08
  • Jerry Yoshitomi on On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now: “Thanks to both of you for your thoughts. One of the great opportunities available through electronic communications will be the…” Oct 6, 01:20
  • Diane Ragsdale on On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now: “Dear Jon, thanks for your comment and great question! I’d also be curious what others reading the post might think.…” Oct 5, 09:20
  • Jon Catherwood-Ginn on On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now: “Thank you for this, Diane! A fantastic piece. As an extension of your analysis of the interplay among economics, ethics,…” Oct 2, 20:41

Approaching Beauty Course Posts

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, … [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 … [Read More...]

Irvine asks: Is there an issue in the arts field more urgent than engagement? My answer: Yes.

A couple weeks back the Irvine Foundation launched an online Q&A series, Are We Doing Enough?—aimed at “exploring tough questions about engagement … [Read More...]

A Q&A on the Beauty Class with Students from the SAIC

Recently, I received an email from a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, preparing for a seminar on Arts Organizations in Society. … [Read More...]

It’s creative; but is it beautiful? (My talk at the Pave Symposium on Entrepreneurship and the Arts)

In May, I gave a talk at the Pave Biennial Symposium on Arts & Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University. The theme of this year's conference … [Read More...]

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A Few Things I’ve Written

"Surviving the Culture Change", "The Excellence Barrier", "Holding Up the Arts: Can We Sustain What We've Creatived? Should We?" and "Living in the Struggle: Our Long Tug of War in the Arts" are a few keynote addresses I've given in the US and abroad on the larger changes in the cultural environment and ways arts organizations may need to adapt in order to survive and thrive in the coming years.

If you want a quicker read, then you may want to skip the speeches and opt for the article, "Recreating Fine Arts Institutions," which was published in the November 2009 Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Here is a recent essay commissioned by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts for the 2011 State of the Arts Conference in London, "Rethinking Cultural Philanthropy".

In 2012 I documented a meeting among commercial theater producers and nonprofit theater directors to discuss partnerships between the two sectors in the development of new theatrical work, which is published by HowlRound. You can get a copy of this report, "In the Intersection," on the HowlRound Website. Finally, last year I also had essays published in Doug Borwick's book, Building Communities Not Audiences and Theatre Bay Area's book (edited by Clay Lord), Counting New Beans.

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