Commentary

Valuating Art and Culture

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Adaptistration People 125

Just when I thought my day would be filled with nothing but mind-numbing quantitative tasks, Joe Patti comes along and makes me think. Case in point, he published a fascinating post yesterday examining the value of Arts and Culture to society. Specifically, he pushes back against the what has arguably become one of the cornerstones in valuation conversations: economic impact. [British philosopher, Dr. Julian Baggini] cautions that even framing the arts in …

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Levine Recordings: Should We, Shouldn’t We?

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Adaptistration People 131

Over the weekend, a pair of EU based media outlets reported that Sirius XM’s Met Opera Radio channel has removed all recordings conducted by James Levine. While details are slim, assuming the reports are accurate, one key piece of missing information is why they were removed. Given ongoing litigation, it’s plausible the recordings could have been removed at the insistence of either The Met or Levine. If the latter, we’ll see …

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#TBT Things That Make You Go Buh?!? Higher Education

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Adaptistration People 149

Just when you think higher education can’t get any screwier than it already is, someone comes along with a hold my beer moment. Case in point, this article by Nell Gluckman in the 4/24/18 edition of chronicle.com that examines an effort by the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to recruit unpaid adjunct faculty. Of course, they didn’t call it unpaid. Why do that when there’s perfectly good jargon to unbox (emphasis …

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Here’s Something I Wish Every Arts Org Conference Had

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Adaptistration People 096

Inside my file of crazy ideas that will never happen is a page that reads simply “every nonprofit performing arts manager spend one year attending conferences other than those run by the usual service org suspects.” While there’s no such thing as a perfect conference, there are no shortage of methods and attitudes that are commonplace elsewhere but for a number of reasons, are borderline heresy at usual suspect conferences. Case …

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Is There Anything More Inspiring Than Compliance Deadlines?

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Adaptistration People 062

The 4/14/18 edition of US News and World Reports published an article by Rachael Pacella that examines some a new program at the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) designed to being moving more minority music students toward careers as professional orchestra musicians. The ASO’s Annapolis Symphony Academy intends to fill half of the available openings with African-American or Hispanic-Latino students. This is a great step in the right direction. Having said that, …

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