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

On occasion in the history of my blog, I have deviated from talking about arts, culture, philanthropy, cultural policy, to talk about other things on my mind. Many years ago, when I became a father for the third time, I wrote about fatherhood, and being an "older" dad. Today, I want to share some thoughts on alternative transportation. I have been a lifelong bike rider, both for recreation and commuting. And in my family my wife and I share one car, so I am often using alternative modes of transportation. I was an "early adopter" of ride share programs like Uber and Lyft. Apologies in advance, because I am going to ramble a bit. Growing up in New York City, using mass transit was also second nature - hardly anyone I knew owned a car. And despite the recent woes of the aging mass transit system, it is still the dominant mode of getting around. While there is now an active bike share program, and a much better network of bike lanes (thank you Mike Bloomberg), a...

“Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” are not just buzzwords, but the subject of critically important conversations among funders, nonprofits, cultural organizations, artists and civic leaders. These conversations – which are often difficult and even messy – can and should lead to action. I have served on the Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) board for the past few years, and they have been a leader in urging arts funders to apply a racial equity lens to their grantmaking and operations. In fact, they developed and disseminated a  Racial Equity in Arts Philanthropy Statement of Purpose  in 2015, and followed it up with dialogue and in-depth training through their conference, webinars and publications. GIA has also been a leader in promoting the term ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native American) as a replacement for the more common “people of color.” No terminology is perfect, and it is easy to get paralyzed in this work by the fear of using the wrong term. There is ...

At the Americans for the Arts Convention in Nashville In 1993 I became the Director of New York Programs of the Arts & Business Council Inc., the national organization for the network of Arts & Business Councils and Business Volunteers for the Arts programs around the country, and in 1996 I became its President and CEO, the same year that the National Association of Local Arts Agencies and the American Council for the Arts merged to become what is now Americans for the Arts.  As head of a national partner arts service organization of Americans for the Arts, I began what has become a very long association with the organization, and the Annual Convention , literally attending the first Convention under the Americans for the Arts name, and nearly every one since. I have watched the organization, and its signature convening, the Convention, grow and evolve over time, responding to the field’s changes – and the external environment in which we all operate. There h...