A New Name...A New City

Now that I am fully settled here in Denver, I have decided it is time to change the name of my blog, "Arts, Culture and Creative Economy", which has been at the URL http://artscultureandcreativeeconomy.blogspot.com to http://milehighculture.blogspot.com. The full name will now be "Mile High Musings on Arts, Culture, Creativity and Philanthropy" - a bit long for a URL!

I am not sure if websites that have my existing blog or specific entries linked will direct traffic to the new name, so to be safe please update any links to the new URL and help spread the world.

Apologies for any inconvenience, but did not want to promote any confusion with my former position at the City of Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. All posts will remain on this blog, and my content focus will not be changing, other than the inevitable shift in geographic emphasis from Philadelphia to Denver, and from culture in a City government context to a foundation philanthropy context.

But I always strive to make my entries broadly relevant beyond just the immediate locality, and the professional confines of my position, and will continue to do so.

Hope you will continue to read and follow!

Comments

The Greatest Sacrifice Arts Workers Make for the Arts

With all the financial challenges arts workers are facing these days - struggling to balance the budgets of their organizations, or dealing with salary and benefit cuts on compensation that was modest to begin with - it is easy to view the sacrifices people make to work in this field as being entirely financial. Not to minimize the financial sacrifices - they ARE significant - but I would argue they are probably no more significant than a wide array of professions where people choose to devote themselves to the pursuit of "making the world a better place". This includes early childhood workers, teachers, social workers, the whole world of NGOs working in challenged communities, both domestically and abroad. And the sacrifices all these workers make are also not just financial. We all work long hours, and often under trying and unglamorous circumstances (though to outsiders arts work can seem glamorous). No, I think the more significant - and unique - sacrifice arts worke...

Is it a problem when an arts group is too dependent on a single donor?

Dancer Jin Young Woon of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet source: Cedar Lake Facebook page, photographer not credited The recent case of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York City shuttering as a result of the withdrawal of support from their major benefactor, Nancy Laurie, an heiress to the Wal-Mart fortune, has sparked a dialogue around the pitfalls of over-reliance on a single donor. The New York Times wrote about the dance company's closure here , and Michael Kaiser addressed the larger issue in a blog post here . Clearly, significant dependence on a single donor by an arts group poses serious challenges, and adds to institutional risk. On the other hand there has been a significant growth of arts institutions, largely in the visual arts, that are the creation of single donors/collectors. Would the excellent Neue Galerie in New York be able to survive without the support of Ronald Lauder and his family wealth? Unlikely. And many of our now-great institutions with d...

Inside/Outside - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders

Leon Jesse James, "Space Modulator", acrylic on board. SCI Graterford The Art in City Hall program of the City of Philadelphia has just opened a new exhibition, INSIDE/OUTSIDE - Art by Prison Inmates and Ex-Offenders . This is a wonderful, powerful, and thought-provoking new show and I encourage everyone to see it. It is open until October 29th, on the secod and fourth floors of City Hall. More information is available here . The show involves participating artists from SCI Graterford, The Philadelphia Prison System, Art for Justice , Snyderman-Works Galleries , Connection Training Services , and the Mural Arts Program 's Youth Violence Reduction Partnership Guild Program, as well as local ex-offenders. Thomas Schilk, "Beetle", melted plastic spoons, paint. When I came to my position in 2008 as Chief Cultural Officer, one of the appeals of the position was the fact that the administration of Mayor Michael Nutter viewed the arts as being integral to virt...

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

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