Philanthropists to the Rescue: Should We Save European Arts the American Way?

I was somewhat surprised to see the New York Times article this week examining how the global recession has created a significant decline in public financing for arts in Eurozone countries. Maybe I should clarify; it’s not surprising to see this cause and effect scenario played out, rather that the American media all of a sudden realized that this is worthy of our attention. But can the American arts funding model be an answer to European woes?

Fundraising and Development

Going through my Google reader this morning I came across this gem from Arts Enterprise:

I was thoroughly inspired by class and decided to research different fundraising and development styles. I came across this website from the Texas Commission on the Arts - Fundraising. It lists links to articles on the fundamentals of fundraising and development, the ten principles of fundraising, as well as links to sample donor letters, thank you letters, sample budgets and many other fantastic tools.

If you are looking for a good resource on fundraising and it aspects, this is a good place to start and bookmark!  Being someone who enjoys lists (and the satisfaction of checking things off that list) what I thoroughly enjoyed about this website are the Mistakes to Avoid, Basics, 10 Principles and ESPECIALLY the templates.  You can tell me something all day, but until I see it, it’s difficult for me to visualize.

The Fundraising Website is here.

Janice Whaley’s New Model of Music-Making (Annual Reflections Part 2 of 2)

(for those you whose devices are not flash enabled, the above music can be heard here)
(for those of you unfamiliar with the music of the Smiths, a brief overview can be found here)

Keeping in mind Monday’s thoughts regarding the need to honor the talents, skills, and resources we already have at our disposal, I’d like to share with you the music of Janice Whaley, a new artist who, I think, presents a powerful model of music making that will be of interest to many of us here in the IPAP community. To my mind, it is a blueprint for what classically-informed performance can be in the twenty-first century.

Improv Insights: Improv Game of the Day

Dear Readers,

I am in LOVE with this new blog of Jeffrey Agrell, and wanted to share the Improv Game of the Day that just arrived in my inbox.  Check out this blog, there are wonderful teaching and performing tips to wake up the improviser in you and your students!

Thanks to Jeffrey for this new resource.

Laura Lentz for IPAP

Improv Game of the Day: Gregorian Chance

Posted on January 11, 2012

2 players. Player One plays a drone on a chosen note. Player Two uses a choice of one of the following scales to create a slow, chant-like melody:

Dorian mode: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

Phrygian mode: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Aeolian mode: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

go to http://improvinsights.com/ for the rest of the post…

The (Life) Lessons of Art

My creative practice has taught me more than a few invaluable lessons through the years.  Lessons acquired through the process of expression inform daily life.  Once the lessons of art are internalized, key principles become relevant in contexts which are independent of art, as well.
I’ve written about lessons before, such as the ability to See Anew or Explore Multiple Angles.  And I’ll be writing about others in the future, no doubt!  But for now…

1. Edit, Edit, Edit: Communicating an idea can be messy stuff. With any creative process, a “refined” idea is the result of a once “fuzzy” idea that has been articulated more fully.  Through the editing process extraneous elements fall away, allowing the crux of the idea to become more clear.  Early drafts and studies serve as evidence that this takes place.  As a result, this universal transition from “fuzzy” to “refined” is made more apparent.

2. Experience Dynamic Interaction: An important part of my process is allowing a painting or drawing to evolve in an organic way. Each step builds on the steps before, the result of dynamic interaction between my aesthetic judgment and the marks left on the page.  In many ways this practice of dynamic interaction that is integral to painting serves as a metaphor.  A similar type of active engagement helps us to thrive in the world; dynamic interaction with our surroundings develops qualitative reasoning skills.  The act of painting makes me more cognizant of this process in all contexts.

3. Embrace Mistakes: “Happy Accident” is a phrase that describes those fortuitous moments that sometimes shape the process.  It’s not uncommon for an artist to experience a mistake that ends up improving their work in some way.   Although the cause of the change was unintentional, the effect of  the mistake sometimes leads to an outcome that is more preferable.  The happy accident is about discovery, at its best.  When we persist through a mistake  we learn that unforeseen obstacles do not need to deter our progress.  And, in this way, we experience that a mindset of flexibility and adaptability often produces the most satisfying end.

© 2011 Kira Campo

Spotlight on interfaith creativity project: Poetry Pals — by Adam Shames

I wanted to share some about Poetry Pals, an interfaith non-profit creativity program building bridges between diverse communities, that I am directing here in Chicago.  We are experimenting with different ways to teach, engage, improve self-expression and have cross-cultural dialogue with kids–8-12 years old–through creativity.  We work on writing and performing poetry, and we also include a music portion.  We have some confines to work with, as the Muslim schools prefer no melodic instruments or overt dancing, but we have a theme song, lots of group voice play and two professional percussionists in the mix.

A Line By Another Name — by Kira Campo

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the creativity-innovation partnership.

The title ‘An Imaginary Line’ referred to the figurative device in the post…an attempt to illustrate the connection between innovation and the type of activities which influence our capacity to achieve the creative outcomes we so prize.  The line I described looked something like this:

______________________________

It seems that maybe I had the line all wrong.  I should have been thinking less linear.

I should have been thinking of a squiggle…

I am referring to Damien Newman’s spot-on, brilliant depiction of the design process, shown here, as “The Squiggle”.

The creative process is not linear.  And given the many constraints and imperatives associated with innovative outcomes, why should we assume that any process of innovation would have the luxury of being linear?

Each day we are met by experiences, observations and ideas which have tremendous potential to influence our creativity.  In some instances the impact of this new data can be directly mapped to a creative outcome, and in other instances outward evidence of such connections may be less overt.  I refer to those activities that impact creativity as foundational activities. Engaging in foundational activities ensures that we are equipped with the thinking skills that are needed to construct outcomes that break with the status quo.  Examples of foundational activities are so abundant, and varied, that the concept of plotting such examples hardly evokes the image of a straight line!  Enter “The Squiggle”.

All figurative devices aside, the heart of this discussion is not lines, squiggles or an exercise in plotting!  Taking time to identify and articulate some of the foundational activities that lead to innovation is what is really of interest.  Foundational activities that are important to my creative practice have included painting, shooting photographs, practicing intentional observation…to name a few.

What activities are important to your practice?

© 2011 Kira Campo

Jazz Impact — Connectivity and Innovation Through the Experience of Jazz

Dear Readers,

This website and blog on jazz is worth checking out:

www.jazz-impact.com

From Jazz Impact:

Jazz is an art form unique to the modern world. Jazz isn’t about producing an object of art like a painting or a sculpture. Jazz is actually a social process that results in the constant creation of new ideas and innovative musical interaction.

The members of the high performance team called the jazz ensemble possess and practice a set of shared behaviors that we call the Five Dynamics of Jazz. These five dynamics captured in the acronym APRIL are:

• Autonomy
• Passion
• Risk
• Innovation
• Listening

Giving Thanks: Inspiring Tidbits from Across the Arts

At this time of year, I’m always (naturally) reminded of things for which we should give thanks. First and foremost, it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to work with my amazing new colleagues here at Mizzou and to continue to work with New Music Everywhere in Madison. And of course it’s a treat to collaborate with the visionary folks at Arts Enterprise and USASBE who are working so hard to make such good in this world.

Product or Process?

 I’m dealing now with performance anxiety, and how we might treat ourselves better, and prevent this in our kids. A lot has been written, but I am writing this now with a tinge of rebellion. The occupy wall street movement has got me thinking about my own small way to change commercialism, greed and obliterate the senselessness of the must-have mentality.  I ended up with performance anxiety on my mind. Give me a minute and I’ll explain.

 There’s the so-called “outcome oriented” performer, who pays attention to the result of the performance. This naturally produces uncomfortable feelings on the stage as they are worried about what the audience or jury might be thinking. Then there are the “process oriented” performers, who are able to do two things. First, they see each performance along a continuum where they set performance goals over a larger span of time. Second, they are involved in the process of making music while performing, bringing their attention back to the music itself. Paraphrasing Stanislavski, in order to get your attention away from the audience, you have to be interested in something on the stage.

All of this is probably not news to anyone, but when I looked into plastic arts, there are some classes that are called process-oriented, and the others are actually called product oriented; where kids as young as two and three are being taught that they need to produce something within the hour to take home. The expectation is that this product will receive praise from mommy which will encourage them to produce more. (By the way, since I moved back to US, I have only found product-oriented classes. The Sammlung Essl near Vienna was process oriented. http://www.essl.museum/kunstvermittlung/kinder.html)

The process-oriented kids are given paper and paint. They are given big brushes, little brushes, lots of color, combs, and sponges, whatever they want. The teacher merely assesses when they look a little bored and puts another type of tool in front of them.  She doesn’t say a word. She just puts it there, and they begin to experiment. She feeds them paper and when it dries, they can take it home, or not.

It’s not a mystery to me that these kids like to paint more. It is also not a mystery which kids are retaining more of their inherent creativity. It’s not a mystery how we are creating performance anxiety by presenting music foremost as a commodity. It is logical that we then let self worth, artistic worth and monetary worth become entangled. It makes sense that when we focus on process, the value someone assigns to what we create is secondary.

 

I’ve actually written a creed:

 

This is my personal occupation, to see my work and myself as a process and not a product. When I perform, I invite people to share in my process with me. I will do everything I can to dissuade my children and my students from becoming product oriented, measuring self worth by the monetary worth given to the art that they create.

 

I was going to write a bit more about art and music education here, about impatience and the denial of the necessity of time needed to give artistic tasks. However, I went to a local toy store, here in educated and affluent Brookline, Massachusetts. The pictures say it all. I’ll let them end this post.

 

 

I’m wondering about the cutesy misspellings on products for kids, but the progression here is what is a bit humorous.

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I don’t know why I should have anything against a saxoflute, except that it is neither “saxo” nor flute, it is a plastic tube.