For the third year in a row, the Knight Foundation has conducted a survey of the top 55 charitable foundations with the intent of measuring the diversity of those managing the assets. Of the 50 eligible to be measured, (five do not have funds under active management or engage in other approaches which don’t meet … Read more
A heads up to people who have, (or know people with), innovative ideas using technology to connect people with arts and culture, the Knight Foundation is looking for project ideas via the Knight Prototype Fund. Unlike some of the other projects the Knight Foundation funds, these projects don’t need to be set in the communities … Read more
A guest post today. Barry Hessenius asked if I would spread the word about study being conducted by the Knight Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation and WESTAF who are looking into the ways in which the non-profit arts field communicates. They are seeking answers to many of the basic questions we all ask like, “Is anyone … Read more
If readers have been paying close attention, you probably know I currently run an historic theater in Macon, GA. Last week, the Macon Arts Alliance released the cultural master plan the community had been working on for the previous year or so. It won’t surprise you to learn that it had originally been slated to … Read more
Joi Ito who serves on the boards of both the Knight Foundation and MacArthur Foundation wrote a piece for Wired on the importance of finding the right metrics for measuring non-profit effectiveness. He notes that if you use circulation as a measure, public libraries have been failing for years given that circulation has been continually … Read more
On Saturday, the Knight Foundation will be issuing a call “for ideas exploring how arts institutions can present immersive experiences to engage audiences” (disclosure: Knight Foundation has funded projects for my day job and supports tons of stuff in my community.) In the announcement, Knight Foundation staffer Chris Barr writes about how virtual and augmented … Read more
Yesterday I got to do something I have been dreaming of doing for a long time. Now keep in mind, as an arts and cultural policy nut, my dreams tend to be a little different than everyone else’s. Yesterday I participated in On The Table Macon, a project whose goal was to get people out … Read more
Yesterday BikeWalk Macon sponsored an Open Streets event in town. Open Streets is a program that started about 30 years ago in Columbia. It closes streets down and turns it over the use of the community. (There is also a Play Street program I wrote about that started in London that appears to have a … Read more
I mentioned last week that I was in the process of moving. Today I started a new job at the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA. I am really excited by this opportunity. The Grand is a storied theater having undergone many evolutions, and renovations over its, depending on how you count, 134 or 104 … Read more
Two months ago I confessed I may have misread the impact and potential of the Pokemon Go game on attracting new customers and audiences. However, the Knight Foundation feels that the basic technology and dynamics of the augmented reality game may have potential use for engaging communities. Earlier this month, they announced a multi-year partnership … Read more
It is probably no surprise to learn that food brings communities together. CityLab recently had a piece about a group in Tallahassee, FL that received a grant from the Knight Foundation to support a project called “The Longest Table,” intended to bring 400 strangers from all parts of the city, “…to use the dinner table … Read more
On my Twitter feed I got a link to an announcement that a documentary on Knight Foundation’s Random Act of Culture program won a regional Emmy. As I watched the first brief video where Dennis Scholl talks about first getting the idea from a pop up opera performance in Valencia, Spain where they ended by … Read more
This week we made our first foray into the Classical Revolution movement with the help of CutTime Simfonica. Mr. Cuttime, or Rick Robinson, as his friends call him, helped us coordinate this in conjunction with the formal concert by CutTime Simfonica we presented last night. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Classical Revolution … Read more
I will be traveling abroad for the next couple weeks, but as I am wont to do on these occasions, I have prepared a retrospective of some interesting entries from the blog archives. Back in April 2007 Drew McManus and I had an interesting crossblog conversation with Bill Harris of Facilitated Systems about how you … Read more
NPR recently teamed up with the TED people to present the TED Radio Hour which takes three TED talks on a similar theme to revisits them with the speakers. The one I heard run this weekend was about how our brains trick us and confuse us about what we value. It was the second segment … Read more
Many people I follow on Twitter made note of the flashmob activity that happened on Capitol Hill as part of Arts Advocacy Day. I clicked the link to see what interesting thing the arts people converging on the Capitol to talk to their representatives had done. I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. I … Read more
I was catching up on some of the TED Talks I had marked on the old Google reader today when I came across a fun, short talk dissecting what makes a TED talk work vs. what elements people don’t respond as positively. The speaker, Sebastian Wernicke, even created a web site with a TED talk … Read more
Well, Opera Company of Philadelphia is at it again. Back in June I did an entry on their flash mob performance of La Traviata at Reading Terminal Marketplace. In January, they were back in Reading Terminal Marketplace with a flash mob performance of “Toreador” However, this time it was under the auspices of the Knight … Read more
My recent entries on the statistical analysis and general content of the Knight Foundation Magic of Music Final Report has gotten me thinking quite a bit lately. I am looking forward to the report the Rand Institute produces about their study of the creation of effective arts education programs for children. I am wondering if … Read more
As I was re-reading the Knight Foundation Magic of Music report last week as part of my entry and comments on Bill Harris’ Facilitated Systems blog, I realized there were a few topics I wanted to address. Back in November, my entry on the report essentially deferred to my assumption that Drew McManus could provide … Read more
Over at Adaptistration, its Take A Friend to the Orchestra Month (TAFTO). I am not writing this year, but I am participating in a sense. The orchestra will be performing in the theatre I run. Drew prefaced today’s entry with a promise that it would wow readers with the concepts it was presenting. I have … Read more
As I was perusing Artsjournal.com on Tuesday, I came across a link to an OpinionJournal.com article covering the Knight Foundation’s final report on their Magic of Music Initiative. I have read earlier installations of this initiative and did an entry on Penelope McPhee’s remarks at an initiative retreat in 2002. What got me to read … Read more
Found an interesting report on the Knight Foundation website about an initiative they funded trying to provide a central arts marketing support system for communities. What is nice is that the case studies of the communities they worked with really run the gamut so they have lessons for everyone, including funders looking to replicate the … Read more
Since Drew McManus is the orchestra guy, I have waited a couple days to see if he would comment. It isn’t so much out of respect for him, this arts blogging business is so cutthroat after all, but simply because he is better equipt to comment than I. But he ain’t sayin nothin so here … Read more
Those of you who have been reading since October may be aware that I belong to a block booking consortium (some previous entries here and here) Last Monday we had the longest meeting to date trying to hammer out schedules for performers. Near the end, one of the newer members asked if it was always … Read more
I was visiting the Knight Foundation website and came across the aforementioned article, “Smart Concerts: Orchestras in the Age of Edutainment” by Alan Brown. It offers some interesting reading about the tension between offering classical music in a manner that is appealing to new audiences while adhering to the expectations of long time audiences. (Of … Read more
I have been closely watching a series of articles Drew McManus is writing on the topic “How to Save Classical Music.” He is using the docent program at the Denver Zoo as a case study of how to use volunteer labor to aid in the revitalization of orchestras. He begins by defining the problem, then … Read more
So I am of mixed feelings today. Yesterday, the last place I worked enthusiastically welcomed the news that I would return for two weeks to help them run this year’s festival thereby confirming that my skills are indeed valued. But I also got a letter from Wayne State saying they are hiring someone else for … Read more
You may not have caught it last week when the Knight Prototype Fund announced awards for the development of technology to support the arts. Of the twelve projects, four are focused on helping people interact and receive information about visual arts. Along those same lines, one seeks to utilize augmented reality glasses to deliver performance … Read more
Apropos of my comment at the end of yesterday’s entry that one should look at statistics with a critical eye, the same obviously goes for any news report. What I specifically have in mind in this case is the Washington Post story about how Josh Bell was ignored by rush hour pedestrians at a Washington … Read more
Wow! I didn't know that there were places forcing the use of smartphones. You'd think theaters would want to encourage…
I actually ran into this situation last month. No option to print at home. You had to have the tickets…
"Though while the author wishes they could buy it in Walmart..." Who is "they"? The kids? The author? Something else?…