Jan
11
“There’s something special about improvised music,” Ajay Heble, professor of English at the University of Guelph in Ontario, argues, “something about the kind of activist listening it demands, that helps to disrupt orthodox standards of coherence. It encourages us to hear the world anew.”
Professor Heble recently received a $2.5M grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to examine the relationship between improvised music and social change. Amazing news. Let’s think about the world without Jazz. What would life had been like without the musicians that made that music? Now that we can all feel a chill to even consider that the American people might have been alone during the better part of a century, the depression, two world wars and the civil rights movement, let’s consider the CORE beliefs and the fundamentals of improvisation: Active Listening and Fluid Acceptance.
Where else are we seeing these fundamentals? How could we consciously apply the skills of improvisation to other forms of Art (Are we considering life Art?) so that we might have a more positive impact on the world around us.
**It should be noted that the Author of this blog doesn’t need a grant to see the impact of improvisation on human awareness and social change. But if you have $2.5M we could certainly partner to create some change.
Tags: Acceptance, Active Listening, Social Change
Posted in improv, leadership | No Comments »
Dec
25
“With changes in audience behavior and the widening impact of technology, the live performing arts in America are facing unprecedented challenges.” – Ben Cameron
Ben Cameron, Director of the Doris Duke Charitable Fund (DDCF) made this statement with a November 2007 announcement of a $15M donation to the Nonprofit Finance Fund. The hopeful objective of the donation, to provide leading Arts organizations with the resources necessary to test ideas for responding and adapting to the world around them and the complicated trends affecting the performing arts.
Are the countless social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, YouTube, imeem, Google, SuperDeluxe, Flickr, and other online media sites preventing Arts organizations from reaching the next generation of supporters? Does the open source (read: FREE) state of the internet influence potential audiences to feel as if ALL Art should be available at no cost? Has the immediacy of the Information Age affected the longevity and impact of artistic works?
Ben Cameron believes that Arts Leaders must convey, not only the quality of the work produced, but the VALUE that the organization and its work offers to the community. He suggests that every arts organization answer three basic questions:
- Hard: What is the value of having my organization in my community?
- Harder: What is the value my group alone offers, or that my group offers better than anyone else? Duplicative or second-rate value will not stand in this economy.
- Hardest: How will my community be damaged if we close our doors and move away tomorrow?
Answering these questions will certainly help you reflect on sustainability. By considering the community as a potential audience that can exercise CHOICE, you are forced to reflect on your VALUE to that community and to reflect on what works of Art that potential audience might find meaningful and relevant to their lives.
Thoughts?
Tags: Artistic Value, Ben Cameron, Nonprofit
Posted in business, social media | No Comments »
Dec
24
“In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.” – David Ogilvy
In the Arts community disagreements about sustainability and subsidization have created a divide between actual working artists and “artists” who wish the world would see what they have to offer. The second group are the people who often fail to engage audiences in the way a business might engage the consumer of its product, so the audience (the Arts consumer) fails to support these people as artists, or the work they produce enough (monetarily) to justify the work itself.
I agree with David Ogilvy.
Posted in business | No Comments »
