Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

There’s Nothing Quite Like a Good Photoshop Template To Make The Day Easier

Fri, Jan 1, 2017
WACOM Guy
Odds are, you don’t have time to reinvent the wheel when it comes to designing social media header graphics. Fortunately, there are several good resources out there providing templates to make the job easier. I published an article yesterday at ArtsHacker that provides links to a popular series of Photoshop templates from graphic designer Pauline

Outreach Or Pandering?

Thu, Jan 1, 2017
Adaptistration People 086
One of the more sensitive yet pressing topics inside the field is how orchestras should go about creating stronger ties with their community and what does and does not constitute meaningful outreach. To better understand, let’s look at what might be best defined as one of the least effective examples where an orchestra will run

Get Empowered!

Wed, Jan 1, 2017
TAFTO
Yesterday’s post referencing the Take A Friend To The Orchestra program ended up inspiring me to take a spin through some of my favorite contributions. For readers who have joined since after the program went into stasis after 2013 but for nine years’ prior, the Take A Friend To The Orchestra project featured more than

Forget Walking A Mile In Their Shoes, Try A Stream Of New Concertgoer Inner Monologue

Tue, Jan 1, 2017
Adaptistration People 090
There’s an entertaining and thought-provoking article in the 1/7/2017 edition of The New Yorker by Kirk J. Rudell that provides an exclusive broadcast of his inner monologue as a first-time concertgoer. There is no shortage of amusing entries in his attendee stream of consciousness but the entire exercise reminded me of a Take A Friend

Buried Treasure Monday

Mon, Jan 1, 2017
Adaptistration People 205
If you’ve ever had to modify a large number of image files you know the pain of opening and editing each file one by one. Fortunately, if you’re Adobe Creative Suite user, there’s an easier method to the madness and although you might be tempted to look at Photoshop’s batch processing tools, the app you

New Year, New Gig?

Fri, Jan 1, 2017
Adaptistration Jobs
If you haven’t been to Adaptistration Jobs lately, you’re missing out on a flood of new listings; in fact, there are ten new listings alone in the last three days! There’s even a Featured Listing for a newly created position at California Symphony, Director of Patron Loyalty, which just happens to be the group where

Don’t Ask Me How I’m Doing If You Don’t Really Care

Thu, Jan 1, 2017
Adaptistration People 085
I’m going to steal something today from Joe Patti; specifically, his post from 1/3/2017 where he shares some insights from serving on the evaluation panel from ArtsHacker’s Most Creative People In Arts Administration. In his post, Patti dives into the deep end of one submission that ultimately tied for top honor: Aubrey Bergauer’s blog at California

If You’re An Arts Org Executive, You’ll Want To Read This

Wed, Jan 1, 2017
Adaptistration People 061
Make no mistake, it’s wonderful to see a staffer or manager nominate his/her executive; in fact, the panel ended up selecting two very deserving executives as recipients. Having said that, it was difficult not to feel somewhat dismayed when there wasn’t a single executive who felt compelled to nominate an employee’s creative and successful project.

Things That Make You Go Buh?!? When A Conductor Tells Children There Is No Santa Clause

Tue, Jan 1, 2017
No Santa
Sometimes, patrons leave a concert early to get at the front of the parking rush. It’s a reality of live events and yes, it can be frustrating for both fellow patrons and performers. But why on earth a conductor would be so offended as to retaliate by telling children there is no Santa Clause during

Here’s A New Year’s Resolution That’s Easy To Keep And Good For You

Mon, Jan 1, 2017
Adaptistration People 161
You don’t have to look very far to see that there’s plenty of anxiety throughout the field to go around. If history is any indication, we tend to have a hair trigger gloom-and-doom reaction when it comes to negativity (remember the economic downturn?). So much so, there’s always a risk of it evolving into self-fulfilling
Previous Next