All Entries in the "Terms and Ideas" Category
Yes, Quality Will Definitely Out
More and more the whole idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill seems to be bearing out. Last year I wrote about the astonishing excellence exhibited by Chitresh Das and Jason Samuels Smith in the India Jazz Suite. (And I guess I did a good job because that entry is now part [...]
Green Papers-Not What I Thought They Were About
Due to the imminent failure of my refrigerator’s compressor, I don’t have as much time to devote to the old blog as I had hoped.
With that in mind, I wanted to direct people’s attention to Americans for the Arts’ efforts at creating a conversation around green papers on topics of importance in the arts. [...]
Trash Talkin’ About The Arts
First it was Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art wagering paintings on the outcome of the Super Bowl. Now I hear Dallas and Ft. Worth are talking smack about which of them has better cultural assets.
Please people, art is only demeaned by using it as a prop in a bet [...]
My First Solicited Book Review
Disclaimer
I recently received a request from the authors of Performing Arts Management: A Handbook of Professional Practices to review the book. (Actually, it was from one of their student assistants.) While I have read and summarized books on this blog before, they have been books I have been interested in reading rather than ones I [...]
Information You Can Use: Tax Treaties and 30% Withholding
I was recently fortunate enough to get into a conflict with my disbursing office on the subject of the 30% withholding for foreign performers.
Well, admittedly, I didn’t feel lucky at the time. The whole issue is very confusing and time consuming. However, the outcome is such that I am a good deal wiser and [...]
Volunteering Your Way to #1
I was listening to Andrew Taylor’s interview with Artsjournal.com founder/editor Doug McLennan today. During the interview McLennan mentioned all the ways in which organizations were creating online communities to help them achieve things. One of the ways he mentioned people’s contributions were rewarded was via a ranking system to show who had been most productive.
I [...]
Emotional Satisfaction
A two years ago I had been entranced by a comment Neill Roan made about arts administrators being so emotionally satisfied with their jobs, they didn’t feel the need to keep current on the latest literature and theories about arts administration. Earlier this year, I was in touch with Neill on another matter [...]
Substitution Blues
Ken Davenport posted some interesting information about the impact of absenteeism in Broadway shows on Producer’s Perspective. He was curious to learn if the need to have an understudy stand in was having an impact on audiences so he commissioned someone to study the question.
The impetus for this was the increasing rate of absenteeism in [...]
Neither Carrot Nor Stick Does Creativity Make
A couple links as complement to my entry yesterday on motivation, customer service and volunteers.
First, Americans for the Arts, hearing President Obama’s call for Americans to volunteer more has created a website at which people can share their stories, pictures and videos – United We Serve.
A newly posted video on TED.com has Dan Pink talking [...]
A Folding Table, A Jug of Water and Thou Sweating In The Parking Lot
I am reading a book about customer service right now. My intention is to report some observations on the text as a whole at some point. However, I saw an illustration of one of the points made in an early chapter today. The book had noted the veracity of “time flies when you are [...]