National Arts Journalism Program

The idea behind long term planning requires an organization to look at their past, examine their present, and visualize their future.

But what if your organization isn’t a single entity such as an orchestra?  Is it possible for a loose confederation of individuals with a common tie to engage in long term planning?

The Music Critics Association of North America and the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University hopes they’ll be able to accomplish exactly that. 

Described by the conference hosts as an event that hasn’t taken place in half a century, the “Shifting Ears” symposium will be conducted from October 15-17, 2004 at the Columbia University School of Journalism, New York City.

Think of it like a gathering of a nation. 

For those of you out there unfamiliar with political science nomenclature, a nation is defined as a group of people with common customs, origins, history, and language whereas a state is a defined as an internally autonomous territorial or political unit constituting a federation under one government.  So it’s not far fetched to look at an orchestra as a “state” and music critics as a “nation”.

Historically, these gatherings sometimes produce a wealth of shared knowledge and result in defined direction and a new sense of unity and sometimes they produce less than exciting results.  But regardless of the outcome from this symposium, it’s guaranteed not to be boring.