Clik here to view.
Philanthropy and Politics: The David H. Koch Story
Two months ago, David H. Koch resigned from the board of New York’s American Museum of Natural History, having served as a trustee for 23 years. We can speak at a later date about term limits for board...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Panama Papers, Philanthro-Capitalism and the Arts
The world was rocked by the recent release of The Panama Papers, the largest leak of confidential documents in the history of investigative journalism. The millions of leaked documents from the firm of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Giving Assistant Gives “Conscious Capitalism” Good Karma
Is it possible to do good for a community, provide good wages to employees and high value to customers, and earn a profit, all at the same time? Many companies, like Giving Assistant, think so....
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Frontier at Tippet Rise Art Center: Access for All
Tippet Rise Art Center, a sculpture park and music venue that opened in the summer of 2016, just may exemplify an embryonic movement in arts philanthropy. Located outside Fishtail, MT, (population...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Out-of-the-Way Arts Institutions Build Community
This is the second of a two-part series on arts-activist philanthropy with the focus on expanding access to culture for the benefit of society. Part one is here: New Frontier at Tippet Rise Art Center:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How the CEO of Hanky Panky Became an Off-Broadway Producer
Lida Orzeck, producer of Susan Miller’s new Off-Broadway play, 20th Century Blues, sounds like a character from a play. By day, she is CEO of the lingerie company Hanky Panky. At all other times, she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Should Museums Decline Donations From Big Pharma?
In December, The New York Times published an article raising the question of whether or not museums should be more thorough in vetting donors. The article, “Gifts Tied to Opioid Sales Invite a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
New Met Admission Charges Are an Unfair Tax On Tourists
Most art historians are well aware of Stendahl’s Syndrome. My dictionary defines it as “a psychosomatic disorder that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Space, the Final Frontier: Sokoloff Is On To Something Big
Robin Sokoloff doesn’t wait. The NYC-based executive director-dancer-choreographer-producer needed a space for her own performances and for those of her friends — many of them women and minorities. She...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jeff Bezos $2B Pledge: Just Another Amazon Promotion?
Nonprofit arts organizations, you’ve all been had by Amazon. More precisely — pardon me — you’ve all been whored by Amazon. There’s an old story about a nobleman who offered a million pounds to a woman...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fundraising for the Arts: What’s Broken, How We Fix It
A few days after my mom’s cancer returned for an encore performance, I asked her a simple question: “Mom, is there anywhere you want to go? Anything you want to do?” Her eyes lit up and twinkled. She...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Athens Burns Bright: Cultural Industry Tour Set For 2019
Arts producers: check your passports, make sure they’re valid. You’re invited to participate in a major tour of the cultural industry of Athens, Greece during February of 2019, as the economic recovery...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two Cities Getting Arts and Culture Right: Kansas City
Last month, the third season of Queer Eye premiered on Netflix. I confess I binged all eight episodes, mostly because the season was shot for five months in and around Kansas City, a city bridging two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can Economic Impact Make a Case for Arts Nonprofits?
Arts nonprofits provide huge positive cash flow to their communities. So do casinos, malls, stadiums and any other establishments that offer ample opportunity for secondary expenditures from a patron....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Spurning the Sacklers’ Money Seems Easy Now, But…
There are two salient quotes in the May 16 New York Times op-ed by Anand Giridharadas, which takes as its cue the announcement by Daniel H. Weiss, president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to reject...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!’ (Or, ‘Don’t Pay Artists!’)
Dario Fo’s We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! is a contemporary Marxist farce. In the play, the cost of living is high and growing. Wages are stagnant. Minimum wage pays for nothing. So a proletariat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Time for Arts Nonprofits to Prove They Inspire Change
This is what was heard in Seattle during the radio broadcast of Super Bowl XLIX: Second down and goal from the 1. Shift Baldwin over to the left side. Lynch in the backfield. Russell looks, throws...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cancel Culture: Biting the Hand Feeding Arts Nonprofits?
Last week’s news that Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry will be renamed for the billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist Ken Griffin isn’t unusual. Despite all the controversy this year...
View Article
