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

I recently spent several days in Israel engaged in an initiative to elevate the conversation around creative placemaking in the Negev region of Israel. For context, here is a map of the region: The Negev region is about a 60-90 minute drive south of Tel Aviv. It has historically had a somewhat negative reputation, as a place you would not want to live in unless you had to. Back in the 50's many Russian immigrants were settled there after World War II. Later, it became the home of the Ethiopian Jewish population when they emigrated to Israel, and it is also home to many Bedouins. Coincidentally, the New York Times recently ran a story on the Bedouin population in the Negev and its economic challenges. LtoR - me, Jane Golden, Mayor of Netivot Yechiel Zohar The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia has a "sister city" relationship with the Negev city of Netivot. About three years ago, the Federation helped support a Creative Economy conference in Netivot to r...

Andrew Taylor's newest blog entry , essentially expounds on another recent blog post written by Sarah Lutman. I have enormous respect for both these thought leaders, and think the issue they explore is critically important, especially in light of the growth in attention to "Creative Placemaking." Sarah, who used to run the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, muses about the current state of the Minnesota Orchestra, and uses the analogy of wine to argue for arts groups that are more deeply rooted to and OF their place. In wine, there is vins d'effort  - wine of effort  - meaning that that is the product of the work of the winemaker, versus vin de terroir - wine of place, or land that is a purer expression of where the wine is from - soil, climate, topography, etc. It does raise the legitimate question of the homogeneity of so many arts organizations, especially in the "classical" arts world. Every orchestra is striving to achieve a generic, global, objective ...