Mile-High Musings on Arts, Culture, Creativity and Philanthropy

I gave this talk at IgnitePhilly4 last October, but I think it only went onto You Tube relatively recently (or at least I just saw it was posted) so I am sharing it. Unfortunately the video includes a minute or two of technical problems with the PowerPoint slides, though it does offer the opportunity to watch my error in mentioning (while I was vamping so they could fix the projector) that I was a New Yorker who grew up a Mets fan - even though I mended my ways after moving to Philly: you will hear loud booing! It provides a pretty good quick overview of the public art assets of Philadelphia as well of some of the challenges. Quite a challenge speaking for only five minutes with 20 slides auto-advancing every 15 seconds! If you haven't spoken at or attended an Ignite event I highly recommend it!

There has been much attention recently on the growing challenge to arts education programs and funding in our schools, given the current fiscal challenges that we face. Richard Kessler has addressed it in his Arts Journal blog , recently with Jane Remer as a guest blogger, and I have also seen many tweets and blog entries from all around the country about school districts cutting their arts programs in response to the need to manage challenges budgets and focus on the "core" academic areas. Perhaps it is appropriate then that recently I was interviewed for the Ford Foundation supported Web site " KeepArtsIinSchools.Org ,"  which is part of their Integrating the Arts and Education Reform Initiative. The interview was just posted and can be both read and listened to here . The web site is basically designed to provide tools for arts advocates, for parents, for policy makers. It is a great resource, with lots of useful tools - highly recommended. It was a great opp...

There is a fascinating post on Edge , the Web site of the Edge Foundation. I found my way to them through a tweet about an article they published by Charles Leadbeater on the impact cloud computing will have on creativity. I know Leadbeater's work from my time in Private Sector affairs at Americans for the Arts, and before that the national Arts & Business Council. He is an internationally renowned expert on creativity and innovation. First off, I have to say, I was fascinated by Edge itself, a dense collection of provocative content from a global array of great minds; also quirky, eccentric, ideosycratic. It has been around since 1988, on the web since 1997 - how could I have missed it? Glad I stumbled onto it - it is now bookmarked! He analyzes the growing emergence of "cloud computing" - computing where the information is stored remotely and everyone can access their data from anywhere, using an array of different platforms - and provides a useful metaphor - di...

Two big announcements this morning: Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) - launched with an extraordinary $10 million gift from the late Leonore Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, this festival will take place April 7 through May 1, 2011.  It will involve innovative collaborations among scores of Philadelphia's arts organizations and artists, as well as international artists and arts organizations. The theme will be "Paris 1910-1920," drawing parallels between the artistic ferment that took place in the early 20th Century in Paris, and the artistic energy that is now flowing in Philadelphia. The programming principles will be: Collaboration, Creativity and Innovation. Programming details to be announced in early April, but there were some "teasers" - a first-ever collaboration between the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Roots in performance with "a French chanteusse," and circus artists performing in th...