January 2017 – Adaptistration

Did You Sign The White House Petition To Save The NEA/NEH? If So, They May Not Have Counted Your Vote

Tuesday, January 31st, 2017 by Drew McManus

According to an article by Christopher Hooton in the 1/23/17 edition of The Independent and later expanded on by Jillian Steinhauer in an article at Hyperallergic.com, petitions requesting that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) at the WEthePEOPLE White House petition site are not properly registering signatures. Steinhauer ran her own tests and based on those results, it does appear that the …

How Is the Immigration Ban Impacting Your Organization?

Monday, January 30th, 2017 by Drew McManus

Since it was signed last Friday, President Trump’s recent executive order titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” has generated a significant amount of confusion throughout varying levels of Federal bureaucracy responsible for implementation. One section that impacts arts organizations and the communities they serve is the immediate ban on people hailing from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The story is in a …

The Adjective That Must Not Be Named Is Back…And It Brought Reinforcements

Friday, January 27th, 2017 by Drew McManus

Back in 2014, we started a campaign to eradicate the B-word from orchestra promotional material. At the time, it did a respectable job at keeping things under control but just like a virus that keeps mutating, “beloved” has found its way back. But this time, it brought a gaggle of old school “greatest-art” adjectives along for the ride. Here’s the latest example from an orchestra’s Facebook post (h/t to a colleague …

Brace For Impact: The Fight To Maintain Net Neutrality Heats Up (Again)

Thursday, January 26th, 2017 by Drew McManus

After dodging a bullet in 2014 over net neutrality (details), it looks like incoming fire is on the horizon thanks to the Trump Administration’s decision to install a forceful critic of net neutrality as the new chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). If proposing to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts wasn’t enough, the decision to install a FCC chair who has been a vocal proponent for giving internet …

Easier Gigs

Wednesday, January 25th, 2017 by Drew McManus

The 1/24/2017 edition of the Wall Street journal published an article by Charles Passy that examines the decision by New York Philharmonic president Matthew VanBesien to depart his position in favor of taking a position as president of the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society. VanBesien is the latest orchestra CEO to exit for an academic post. Recent examples include Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Trey Devey leaving for a position at the Interlochen …