This is my sixth and final post about the Grantmakers in the Arts 2010 conference, where I was invited to take part as a live blogger. It was tremendous fun: I got to write morning, noon, and night, which is my preferred type of ecstatic meditation. It was also a perfect antidote to the anxiety …
On Tuesday, I attended a Grantmakers in the Arts conference presentation on “Participatory Arts and Community Health: Challenges and Opportunities,” organized by Amy Kitchener of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. It began with presentations on exemplary projects braiding art with individual and community well-being, offered by Maria Rosario Jackson of the Urban Institute, Beatriz …
Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons, was the luncheon speaker at Monday’s GIA meeting. His relaxed and likable presence comes across as realness personified. His low-key style gives me a sort of internal headshake. By the time Ito’s presentation ended, I was buzzing with a frequency of intellectual excitement I’d normally associate with verbal pyrotechnics. …
The first plenary session of this Grantmakers in The Arts’ conference focused on the National Capitalization Project, a GIA initiative launched this past January. It was premised on the plain truth that arts organizations are often under-capitalized. A task force of funders and experts studied the literature, agreed on terms, and has just now published …
Shine on me Let the light shine on me The Black Monks of Mississippi I spent the day at Grantmakers in The Arts’ Support for Individual Artists preconference (entitled Artists and Grantmakers: A Shared Enterprise). Dozens of artists and funders took part in the program, performing, offering panel presentations, Web pages, video clips, and PowerPoints. …
When you wake up three weeks from today, possession, cultivation, and transportation of marijuana for adults’ personal use will either be legal in California—or not. The polls are close for Proposition 19, the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010.” Nearly a dozen cities have initiatives on their own ballots allowing them to tax …
Earlier this week, I had a conversation with a friend about what might be called “fear of feeling too good.” Both of us had observed how peak moments, when delight fills us to overflowing, can be dogged by a censorious voice: Be careful, the voice says. Don’t get carried away! Sometimes people speak it aloud: …
The movie star Tony Curtis died this past week at 85. Curtis occupies a special place in my mental pantheon, as the embodiment of Hollywood’s shrewd and cynical rendering of cultural identity during the middle years of the last century. In the milieu I came up in, a much-loved pastime was identifying the hidden Jews …
This is my second dispatch from the brave new world of online dating, just over a month after I posted the first one. This essay comes with a premium, like the toy in a box of Cracker Jack: a pocket guide to constructive curiosity, a skill that will improve any man’s chances of dating success. …
Of all the powers in which I have placed my faith, my deepest and most lasting allegiance is to the power of speech. I eat, breathe, and sleep words. When I am lucky enough to happen on it, the delicious taste of le mot juste fills my mouth like melting chocolate. If words had volume, …