I’ll Settle For Arts Education Helping People Recognize Their Creative Capacity

I am in the process of moving so I am shifting in to “throwback” mode for a week or so. I thought I would look back at a post I made about one of Ian David Moss’ contributions of a blog salon. In his contribution Moss wrote took the view that arts education put children … Read more

Could It Be That Pretty Much Anything Is More Engaging Than Test Focused Learning?

Via Artsjournal.com is a piece from the Brookings Institution titled, “An unexpectedly positive result from arts-focused field trips.” After crunching some numbers as part of research being conducted for the National Endowment for the Arts, the article author Jay P. Greene writes, The surprising result is that students who received multiple field trips experienced significantly … Read more

End of An Era, Who Will Pick Up The Torch

Over the last week you may have seen mention that after 10 years in existence,  Createquity will be ceasing operations at the end of the 2017 calendar year. This is a great pity. One of the goals founder Ian David Moss had as he developed his blogging project into a think tank was to facilitate … Read more

Considering The Essence Of Being Mainstream Or Culturally Specific

Earlier this month Ian David Moss wrote a piece challenging the arts and culture community to evaluate the language and mindset in which we frame artistic and cultural expression and practice. He make a case that: Separating our concepts of “mainstream” and “white” could allow us to treat European art forms as just one of … Read more

Shared Leadership Provides Opportunity To Manage Up

Last month Non Profit Quarterly suggested that organizations undergoing executive leadership transition consider the shared leadership model that many performing arts organizations employ.  They note that it can be valuable to have one person focus on artistic or programmatic issues freeing the executive director up to focus on developing organizational capacity and funding. This week, … Read more

Myths And Truths About Your Brain On Music

Pacific Standard had an interesting piece about the misconceptions music teachers and students studying to be music teachers have about the neurological benefits of music and music education.  The study was conducted in Germany so the author the article suggests that perhaps neurologists in the US do a better job of communicating the truth about … Read more

What We Know And How Well We Know It

Createquity just released a valuable tool for arts advocates. They compiled the data from all the studies they could find to provide a comprehensive report on Everything We Know About Whether and How The Arts Improve Lives. I haven’t had an opportunity to dig deeply into the data and ponder what it all means. What … Read more

Middle School Is Too Young To Start Suffering For Your Art

There is a lot of conversation about the importance of advocating for the funding and inclusion of arts in K-12 education but according to a recent study, some attention needs to be paid to the social aspects experienced by students interested in the arts. According to a recent piece in Pacific Standard (h/t Createquity), students … Read more

Post-Graduate Education Is The Answer

Createquity tweeted a piece on Pacific Standard covering a study investigating the way musical taste reflects class divisions. Despite the claim music streaming services are helping to dissolve genre labels, the study found “even among people who expressed liking for several different types of music, Veenstra found a clear delineation between “highbrow” genres enjoyed by … Read more

Dear Arts: It’s Not Your Challenge Alone

Last week Createquity published an analysis looking at why people in lower socioeconomic status (SES) don’t attend arts events. Their research challenges the common assumption that price, lack of time and geographic proximity are the main factors in the decision not to attend, at least among this demographic. Unfortunately, the real impediment might be deeply … Read more

Info You Can Use: Point Some Strong Light At Your Brainstorm

Hat tip to Ian David Moss at Createquity who linked to a New Yorker article on brainstorming in one of his “around the horn” summaries. The article talks about how the whole idea of brainstorming without criticism for fear of causing someone to censor themselves is less effective at generating good ideas than having someone … Read more