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.

Creating a new identity in the performing arts

The title of this post is my vision statement. My 5 year goal is to create a new identity for myself as a physical therapist, Andover Educator, flutist, teacher and writer. How did I get on this path and how do I plan to do it all?

Musicians are quite accustomed to wearing many hats. In addition to just loving music and wanting to engage with it for a living, I’m also attracted to how my routine isn’t so routine. I can be doing any number of different things in a normal day, and I love that. It keeps things fresh.

So maybe you’re saying, “OK. I get that you’re a flutist, teacher and writer but what’s an Andover Educator and how is physical therapy related?”

Audience Development Specialists presents Working with Mobile Technology to Develop your Audience

On Friday, March 16 at Noon ET, Audience Development Webinars will present the workshop, Working with Mobile Technology to Develop your Audience.

This is the second webinar in the series. The information is below and feel free to forward this to anyone that you think would be interested. ADS is bringing in David Dombrosky from InstantEncore to give us all a point by point about using mobile technology to build our audience. He knows his stuff!

March 16th – Noon ET
Working with Mobile Technology to Develop Your Audience
With the rapid adoption of web-enabled cell phones, smartphones and tablet computers, what options are available to arts professionals who want to engage their audiences via mobile devices? How can artists and organizations implement these options cost effectively without taking focus away from the art?

If you have any questions, please contact Shoshana Fanizza at sfanizza@buildmyaudience.com. Hope to “see” you there!

Sunday Soup: Food-based micro-granting projects around the world

Thanks to Keith Hampton at UW-Madison for passing this along.   Sunday Soup funds creative projects through community meals.  Read on!

From sundaysoup.org:

What is Sunday Soup?

The Soup Grant is a grassroots model for funding small to medium sized creative projects through community meals. The basic formula is that a group of people come together to share a meal and that meal is sold for an affordable price. All the income from that meal is given as a grant to support a creative project. Grant applications are accepted up until the meal, everyone who purchases the meal gets one vote to determine who receives the grant. The grants are completely unrestricted and will be awarded at the discretion of the customers. Granting projects affiliated with Sunday Soup in different cities operate based on their own needs and context. The meals are more or less elaborate in different places and some people have presentations by potential grantees or past grantees as part of the event. Please check the individual profiles for more information.

Onwards and (Back) Upwards: Classical Music and the Everyday

The movement of classical music into non-traditional venues has been a major trend over the past few decades — initiated by groups like the Kronos Quartet and accelerated by Classical Revolution, Knight Arts, and, somewhat famously, members of the Cleveland Orchestra. Chloe Veltman’s latest ArtsJournal.com blog post points out that, at least in San Francisco, these have become “run of the mill.” Exciting! Maybe San Fran and other cultural epicenters are finally driving a collective, societal shift towards a more expansive display of classical music.

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.

Set Your Goals, Set Your Life

“In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.”

– Robert Heinlein

I think this is a brilliant quote – so obvious and yet, how many of us get caught up in the minutiae of day-to-day living saying we wish we could do this or that or go here or there or get this or that done, but it never happens?  Then we look around and suddenly 5 years have gone by?

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.