The MacArthur Fellowship can be seen as America’s equivilent to the Nobel Prize. Now in its 27th year, the Harvard Business Review profiled the work of its Program Director and asked him questions about the distinction between creatve individuals and business innovators. Excepts from his reponses are below. The full article can be found in the May 2007 issue, p 121-126 (subscription required) at www.hbr.org
“There’s no question that people of extraordinary creativity and originality are in business. The founders of Google are incredible. So are Steve Jobs and so many others. Our reasoning is that the market is a very effective support system for the best ideas in business. We serve those who do not fall under the influence of the market. That’s not to say that artists don’t live in the market economy, but we think that their driving motivations and rewards are different. And that’s precisely why the money is an important part of the fellowship. Look at the freedom and time this relatively modest five-year fellowship-with absolutely no obligations-can confer on an artist or scientist whose ability to experiment is often constrained by the need to satisfy the requirements of outside funders.”
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“Another thing we’ve learned over the years is that exceptionally creative people aren’t always the obvious suspects. It is a common trap in all areas”I’m sure in business, too-to give the limelight to people whose success isn’t the result of any special creativity on their part. They are just very good at promoting themselves. We have found that many of our winners are people whom others might never have thought of, at first, as MacArthur candidates. Many were unknown and ignored. So don’t assume that you can figure out who your creative people are all by yourself. Listen to others and look in the least likely places. As a business, you will probably start your search inside the organization. But to get a really good fix on somebody on the inside, you might want to ask those on the outside. Extend your networks and try to get information from as many people as possible, just as we do with the many evaluation letters we seek.”
Tagged with: BusinessLeadership
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:00am
Rebecca Borden
Americans for the Arts is proud to announce the release of Arts & Economic Prosperity III, our third study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry’s impact on the nation’s economy. These studies are the most potent and oft-cited advocacy tool used to justify public and private sector support to nonprofit arts organizations. This new study is our largest ever, featuring findings from 156 study regions (116 cities and counties, 35 multicounty regions, and 5 states). Data were collected from a remarkable 6,080 nonprofit arts and culture organizations and 94,478 of their attendees across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (more…)
Tagged with: About-UsAdvocacyBusinessLeadershipPolicyResearch
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:11am
Chad Bauman
Some of you may have noticed an email Americans for the Arts sent our a while ago about “The Members Project,” a new intiative being launched by American Express. Well, if you are like me, the e-mail may not have registered with you. Now that the project’s Web site is active and the initiative is underway, I wanted to bring it to your attention because I think it is pretty cool and innovative. Basically, American Express has combined an array of components - social networking sites, reality TV shows with public voting (like American Idol), growing public interest in philanthropy and voluntarism - into a single initiative. Here’s how it works: American Express cardmembers register to participate and recommend or nominate project ideas - new programs or initiatives that will make the world (or their community) a better place. Cardmembers have a few weeks to nominate, as well as to review ideas posted by others. (more…)
Tagged with: AdvocacyBusinessFundraisingMembershipVolunteerism
May 21st, 2007 at 10:08pm
Gary Steuer
It seems that every couple of months I run into an article somewhere with the above title. This time it was in the San Diego Business Journal. It has long been rumored that the MFA degree would be the “new” MBA degree as our industrial economy shifts to a creative economy. This always makes me chuckle, mostly because as having an MFA degree, I wish that I were paid anywhere near what most MBA alums are currently making. If the MFA degree is the deus ex machina of the new economy, one would think the value of having one would increase tremendously. I can only hope. (more…)
Tagged with: Arts-EducationBusinessLeadership
May 18th, 2007 at 11:45am
Chad Bauman
Annual Convention Advance Registration Cut-Off is Today!
Today is the last day to register in advance for Risk and Reward: Balancing Acts in Arts and Community, the Americans for Arts Annual Convention in Las Vegas, June 1-3, 2007.
Several of our speakers and activities at convention have been in the news recently:
New Hampshire Putting New Color into the Primary
This article highlights ArtsVoteNH, a partnership between New Hampshire Citizens for the Arts and the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, intended both to help candidates state their positions on the arts and humanities and to help voters learn those positions. “Our country, during the past three years, has exercised its communications primarily in some areas through military means, and through political and diplomatic means, and we’ve been sending out rough signals that the world has difficulty interpreting,” said Glen Swanson of Peterborough, who helped create the initiative and just stepped down as the New Hampshire Citizens for the Arts’ president. “One way to get across the true message of what America is all about is through the arts and humanities, and therefore we should put the arts and humanities up on top as far as the future of America.”
At the Americans for the Arts Action Fund Member Reception scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday, June 2 at the convention, Arts Action Fund Executive Director Nina Ozlu, will give details on ArtsVote2008, the Arts Action Fund’s latest initiative to impact the 2008 Presidential elections. The Americans for the Arts Action Fund was created for citizens and organizations who want to help advance the arts politically in America.
Other headlines:
Tagged with: About-UsAdvocacyBusinessEventsPublic-Art
May 18th, 2007 at 10:37am
Chad Bauman
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