January, 2012

  1. Creativity over the long haul

    The National Endowment for the Arts blog, Art Works, has an interesting interview with Meredith Monk this week. Over her nearly five-decade career, she’s constantly found ways to re-invent and re-imagine her performances—mixing music, movement and visuals by working “in between the cracks” as she puts it.

    How has she managed to remain creative over the long haul?

    Sometimes it’s really hard. …I always say it’s like throwing seeds into the garden. And then some things take and some things don’t take. So it’s a little disconcerting, you know, before those seeds take. Like, “What am I doing?” That always ends up being pretty terrifying. I mean, I’ve been working over 45 years and I’m still scared to death every time. But I think that’s part of it. It’s, like, let yourself be afraid, because if you’re not, then you’re just doing something you already know. Listen to the full interview at Art Works.

    Meredith Monk will be part of the American Mavericks festival at the San Francisco Symphony in March, right around the time of our upcoming American Orchestra Forum live event Talking About Creativity.

    Topic: Creativity | Tags:
    January 27, 2012 by Beth Hondl | Comments (0)

  2. Malcolm Lowe of the BSO talks about teaching creativity

    Malcolm Lowe is concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the Tanglewood Music Center and the New England Conservatory of Music. We had the chance to sit down with him in December during the BSO’s visit to San Francisco.

    Topic: Creativity | Tags: , ,
    January 20, 2012 by Beth Hondl | Comments (0)

  3. A more structured approach to creativity: prototyping

    So often it seems arts organizations take a “build it and they will come” attitude towards innovation. If you get lucky, you’ll build exactly the type of experience that a new audience (or an existing one) will want… but too many times a new programming idea falls flat after a lot of investment of both time and money.

    That’s why I found this case study on prototyping featured on the ArtsFWD website so interesting. They argue that prototyping is important both to test out new ideas and to make sure you can show an early “win” to stakeholders so others at the organization get behind what you’re doing:

    Implementing an innovation doesn’t happen all at once. We suggest you take a measured approach to introducing your new strategy, rather than betting the house on it. For all sorts of reasons, you want to establish an early “win” that will help others see that this could be important, and that encourages their support. So design an event or activity incorporating the innovation, and make it one where the stakes are low. Read the full article.

    They also show prototyping in action at the Denver Center Theatre Company in a video case study. It was fun to see the three very different events they tested out on a Denver audience and the learnings from each. Is this more structured approach to creativity something the orchestra world should adopt?

    Topic: Creativity | Tags:
    January 13, 2012 by Beth Hondl | Comments (0)

  4. Creativity in action, for all to see

    Creativity in the orchestral world can be kind of a black box. As an audience member, the only preparation you often get for a new piece is the notation “World Premiere” next to a piece’s title in the program. Very people know an actual composer, and indeed this type of creative life seems very far afield for most of us. Some of us may sing or play an instrument, but very few of us have ever taken pen to paper (or mouse to mousepad?) to actually write music. (more…)

    Topic: Creativity | Tags:
    January 10, 2012 by Beth Hondl | Comments (0)