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

October 20-23 Denver was host to the National Innovation Summit for Arts + Culture , organized by Emc Arts , locally sponsored by the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation , and nationally sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation , James Irvine Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation . The roughly 250 participants included staff from organizations in several different communities such as Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Minnesota/Dakotas, New York, Oregon, San Jose, St. Louis, the Bay Area and Washington DC.; as well as staff from funders in most of these cities. Participating organizations were chosen by their local funders, which also covered their cost of participating. Many of the organizations had already done some work with EmcArts locally on innovation and adaptive change. This was a unique opportunity to bring together arts leaders - management and artistic leadership - from many communities around the country, all grappling with challenges of how to build...