Category: AJBlogs

In 1944, Bernard Herrmann collaborated with the producer Norman Corwin on Whitman, a half-hour dramatic presentation invoking America’s iconic poet to rally the home front during World War II. It was heard by millions of listeners. It’s a classic exemplar of a forgotten creative genre: the radio drama. – Joseph Horowitz

Arts and culture organizations that can learn to grow their audiences and leverage these connections into long-term financial stability may learn that a successful pivot is often one that turns toward their neighbors. – Doug Borwick

Call me Cassandra. The “slippery slope” of monetizing museum collections, which I previously prophesied would get more dangerous under the Association of Art Museum Directors’ temporarily relaxed guidelines, has just been greased. – Lee Rosenbaum

Harvey Lichtenstein took me out to lunch and informed me that the Brooklyn Philharmonic had lost over two-thirds of its subscribers in two years. Would I be interested in taking over? I said yes, provided I could do what I wanted. And what is it you want? Harvey asked. Cross-disciplinary festival programming, I replied. Harvey said OK – he had nothing left to lose. – Joseph Horowitz

Knowing that I’m sticking my head into a lion’s mouth, I strongly disagree with sanctimonious art critics, artists and scholars who have piled on against a decision by four museum directors to postpone (not to cancel) their Philip Guston Now retrospective. – Lee Rosenbaum

Crazy-making. So much so that, of course, it’s hard to concentrate on issues around community engagement. Even so, occasionally something bubbles up that returns me to my CE thinking. One such instance was a New York Times article, “How to Actually Talk to Anti-Maskers.” – Doug Borwick

Happy 90th birthday, Jasper Johns! Many thanks for sharing your present with who knows how many thousands of people. It’s entirely appropriate that the “gift,” titled Event² for Jasper Johns, began and ended with James Klosty’s 1969 photograph One Way to Dry a Leotard (Johns’s Flag painting with a leotard hooked over one of its corners). – Deborah Jowitt

Missions are squishy; buildings and bottom lines are not. Judgments about art are subjective. Human beings are often self-interested. The nonprofit form lends itself to manipulation and to serving the interests of a few rather than the general public. Arts organizations need to be aware of these dynamics and can’t hang their hats on mission statements and values statements as enough to keep them moored to their purposes. – Diane Ragsdale

The American Alliance of Museums’ Code of Ethics for collections, which states that sale proceeds can be used only for “acquisition or direct care of collections” [emphasis added]. Brooklyn’s disposals may serve as a role model for other financially pressed art museums, because it’s a pioneer on this new trail. – Lee Rosenbaum

Many of us in the arts are cynical about holiday productions. But these performances are meaningful in the lives of our audiences and I think should be respected as such. I’ve been thinking abut what is lost when audiences miss out on holiday shows this year. – Hannah Grannemann