On Thursday January 26th The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship (IAE) will be teaming up with WBEZ’s new project Front & Center to host a resource fair for the self employed, small businesses, start-ups, and freelancers.

Mini seminars and presentations will run through out the evening at the fabulous Catalyst Ranch located at 656 W Randolph St # 3W in the Polka Room.

Mini Seminar Topics Include: 

Entrepreneurship 101
Presented by Institute For Arts Entrepreneurship

Receiving small loans as an independent worker
Presented Accion Micro Lending

Doing your taxes as a freelancer, small business owner, or independent
Presented by Center for Economic Progress

Create. Innovate. Repeat: featuring 4 fabulous presenters, 7 slides and just 5 minutes each to pitch their most innovative business idea to you.
Presented by Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship.

Partial List of Participants Include:

Co-Lab Evanston providers of shared office spaces.

Northside Freelancers Network  who can help you connect to the growing Chicago self-employed community. Make sure to ask them about their weekly “freelancers soup” lunch.

Accion will be on hand to discuss how to get a  micro-loans to jump start your own business.

Northside Community Bank can help you find funding for your small, local project.

IndieMade is itself a small business. They create websites for independents, artist, small businesses, and start-up projects.

Rockstar CPA offers CPA services specifically geared towards the self-employed, with a specialty in creative projects.

The Law Project offer affordable legal resources for freelancers, independents, and small businesses, such as creating contracts, negotiating pay, etc.

Chicago! Come on out and celebrate self-employment with us! We hope to see you on January 26th.

Fair begins at 6pm @ Catalyst Ranch  656 W Randolph St # 3W, in the Polka Room

While 2011 was a big year for political unrest, another uprising was afoot in the world of content creators and artists. Everywhere you look, artists are taking more control over their own economic well being, in large part because the Internet has enabled them to do so. You see it in all forms of content, from books, to video to music.

A few examples from this year:

e-books: Probably the most active area in large part because there is huge shifts taking place in digital publishing. From former mid-list writers like Barry Eisler to superstars like JK Rowling, writers are increasingly making waves in digital publishing.

Video: The story of the year for artists-as-entrepreneur came at the tail-end, with Louis CK saying no thank you to corporate middlemen and putting his new concert video online for $5 a pop.

Radio/Music: All sorts of independent entrepreneurs are putting audio entertainment online, from the rise of podcast kings like Leo Laporte to a huge number of independents like Adam Carolla and Marc Maron. Music artists are being given freedom too, through new platforms to create and share their music like Soundcloud.

So what is driving this movement towards the artist-entrepreneur that will give it huge momentum in 2012?  Here are a few underlying trends:

The distribution chain is collapsing across content verticals

The middleman is under attack on all fronts, whether its in video, music/audio and e-books. As devices like TVs become connected, as books become e-readers and tablets, and music is now digital, the storefront is fast-becoming the entire distribution chain.  With e-books it’s Amazon or Apple, with radio it’s iTunes, with video it’s Google/YouTube, Netflix and other upstarts who are investing in original content, or simply direct-to-consumer efforts using web-payment platforms like Paypal.

Louis CK, who created his own site, paid for bandwidth, and used Paypal for payment, captured how many artists are beginning to think when he said in an interview with Bill Simmons that he “didn’t want to cut out the middleman, I just didn’t need one. There wasn’t any reason to have someone there. I just thought make this thing and put it up.”

Content production, distribution and monetization tools are becoming democratized through the web

In e-books, distribution and storefronts have already collapsed into one, but managing distribution across multiple channels is difficult since storefronts are still siloed (Amazon is separate from Apple iBooks, which is walled off from Barnes&Noble, etc). However, companies like Smashwords enable creation and distribution across multiple storefronts, while Vook, post-pivot, is working on SaaS tools to create e-books and manage their distribution, complete with reporting and management dashboards.

In music, artists are starting to embrace sites like Soundcloud to create music and share it, while others direct-to-fan sites like Topspin Media are enabling artists to create commerce sites to sell music in turnkey fashion. And it’s not just music sales, but actual concert tickets. The Pixies used Topspin to sell tickets for a recent concert, utilizing email campaigns and to notify fans and processed the tickets using an iOS app at the door.

With video, big middlemen still dominate, but that is changing as video creation and distribution costs come down in a world of connected devices. As Ryan Lawler wrote in a piece for GigaOM Pro:

“independent content creators stand to gain the most through massive reductions in the cost of recording equipment and editing software, as well as the greater availability of streaming video service on connected devices. They gain new distribution opportunities for their content and greater possibility for monetization. Consider any of the top YouTube video channels, which probably wouldn’t be able to survive in the pay-TV universe but have created thriving businesses due to the cost structure online.”

Generational shifts towards technology savvy-artists

As Matt Mullenweg put in in his New Year’s resolution on GigaOM:

“For a year now, I’ve said scripting is the new literacy. That’s something I strongly believe. In Douglas Rushkoff’s latest book, he talks about “program or be programmed.” That is, if you’re not in control of your inputs, you’re not really in control of your outputs either. You’re just a reactionary force.”

Matt is right, in that scripting is the new literacy, and a growing form of artistic expression. Tech-savvy artists are creating apps and developing sites to put their art into the world. Whether its Matt Inmann creating his work and coding his site at The Oatmeal or young app developers like Robert Nay, artists are becoming coders and vice versa, since, as Mullenweg states, scripting is “new literacy”.

No doubt, the vast majority of economic wealth is still distributed through large corporate media, but as new technologies enable artists to reach consumers directly through push-button creation and distribution, there is a movement afoot. Expect this movement to expand in 2012 as more artists take control of their own economic destinies and become part of the artist-entrepreneur generation.

On behalf of everyone at The Institute For Arts Entrepreneurship – our faculty, our students, our supporters and our families
- we would like to wish each of you and your family
 a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

As many of you may already know, 2011 has proven to be an exceedingly eventful and rewarding year for the IAE.  After several years of dutiful planning and extremely hard work, we launched our pilot program this past September.

About IAE’s Progress

Our recently concluded Module I coursework focused on student development of emotional intelligence, leadership aptitude and communicative skills.  And within only a very few months, we have witnessed a blossoming of growth and excitement from 15 artists – from fashion, music, theater, visual arts, food, skin care and design- in our inaugural class ranging in age from 24 to 63!  For those of us on the IAE staff, bearing witness to our student’s desire to learn, develop and flourish has served as a profoundly breathtaking experience.

And many new faces are sprouting up to support our work. This past fall over 12 individuals donated their time to mentor our students. We also have received immeasurable help with our curriculum design and development from Joyce Thomas, Deana McDonagh and Director Nan Goggin- all from The School of Art + Design at the University of Illinois.

And the interest has not stopped there. In January the IAE was selected to deliver our first paper about our innovative learning model at the U.S. Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference in New Orleans. Founder Lisa Canning was also invited to attend The U.S. Dept of State and The Aspen Institute’s 2nd Entrepreneurship conference in Marrakech Morocco in January. Additionally, 2 schools in Amman Jordan and someone who serves on the Fulbright commission in Sweden have all reached out to us to inquire how we can bring the IAE to their communities.

The IAE Needs Your Help to Bloom

During the past twelve months, we have been working hard to ramp up our fund raising efforts designed to firmly establish the IAE as a long-term, going concern with the ability to make a real difference – not only in assisting artists to develop meaningful careers applying their artistic talents – but to utilize their creative abilities in new ways that also can benefit our communities and local businesses.  And while these efforts have not thus far been quite as successful as those in the classroom – our commitment to advancing the IAE’s mission remains as strong as ever.

Year End Giving

As we prepare for the New Year, we will continue to do our best to fund our pilot program. Unfortunately, without more support, we may not be able to realize our full vision to help artists change their lives and the world with their creativity. I wish you would come to our classroom to see just how big the impact is we have already made with our students. We have quickly become an invaluable resource; something our students do not wish to lose.

With this being a time to reflect on our values and beliefs, we would like to ask that you consider an offer of support for The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship. Whatever you can give will show us you value our work and care about the future of our students.

A tax-deductible contribution to the IAE may be made through our secure giving site or by mailing a check to The Institute For Arts Entrepreneurship, 2257 N Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614.

To insure your tax benefits for 2011, online donations must be completed by 11:59 PM on December 31, 2011. Checks must be dated and postmarked by December 31, 2011. Please be sure to consult your tax adviser to confirm how charitable deduction rules may apply to your individual situation.

To each of you who generously support us, both today and over the past several years, please know we could never achieve our goals without you. Your kindness and generosity is so appreciated.

With blessings to you all for peace, love and prosperity in the New Year,

Lisa and Chuck Canning

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How can imagination become creative productivity? How can artists fuse the work of creative theorists to their gifts to help others to innovate? So far both Basadur’s Creative Problem Solving Profile and deBono’s Six Thinking Hat Theory have provided a structure that is relatively easy to understand, adapt and implement. But with our next creative theorist, Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, quickly that clarity disappears into the murky world of “flow”.

Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi (pronounced “chick-sent-me-high-ee”) is a Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22. Now at Claremont Graduate University,  Dr. Csíkszentmihályi is a distinguished professor of psychology and management in the school of organizational and behavioral sciences. He is also the Founding Co-Director of the Quality of Life Research Center. The QLRC is a non-profit research institute that studies “positive psychology”; that is, human strengths such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and responsibility.” Prior to his work at Claremont, Mihaly, was the head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.

Flow

Mihaly is known for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, and in particular for his years of research and writing on the ideas around life’s “flow.”  He is the author of a number of books on the topic including:

Csikszentmihalyi saw optimal activities in the "flow" channel moving outward as skills are gained. In short, flow can be described as a state where attention, motivation, and the situation meet, resulting in a kind of productive harmony or feedback.

To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur. Both skill level and challenge level must be matched and high; if skill and challenge are low and matched, then apathy results. The flow state also implies a kind of focused attention, and indeed, it has been noted that mindfulness, meditation, yoga, the Alexander Technique, and martial arts seem to improve a person’s capacity for flow.

Why is flow essential to creative productivity?

“Creativity is often defined as a parallel construct to intelligence, but it differs from intelligence in that it is not restricted to cognitive or intellectual functioning or behavior. Instead, it is concerned with a complex mix of motivational conditions, personality factors, environmental conditions, chance factors, and even products.” (Feldhusen and Goh, 1995)  The concepts of Flow, fit nicely into this construct.

In his book Flow Csíkszentmihályi lists a number of facts (not all of which have to be present) to create an experience of flow.

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one’s skill set and abilities).

2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).

3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.

4. Distorted sense of time, one’s subjective experience of time is altered.

5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).

6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).

7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.

8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.

9. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

What personality traits do those posses who frequently achieve creative “flow”?

According to Csíkszentmihályi, creative personalities are different from others, because of their complexity. Creative individuals show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an “individual,” each of them is a “multitude.”

Here are 10 paradoxical traits Csíkszentmihályi believes are often present in creative people.

1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest.

They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm. Yet it is surprising how often individuals who in their seventies and eighties exude energy and health remember childhoods plagued by illness. It seems that their energy is internally generated, due more to their focused minds than superior genetics. This does not mean that creative people are hyperactive, always “on.” In fact, they rest often and sleep a lot. The important thing is that they control their energy; it’s not ruled by the calendar, the clock, an external schedule. When necessary, they can focus it like a laser beam; when not, creative types immediately recharge their batteries. They consider the rhythm of activity followed by idleness or reflection very important for the success of their work. This is not a bio-rhythm inherited with their genes; it was learned by trial and error as a strategy for achieving their goals.

2. Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.

How smart they actually are is open to question. It is probably true that what psychologists call the “g factor,” meaning a core of general intelligence, is high among people who make important creative contributions.The earliest longitudinal study of superior mental abilities, initiated at Stanford University by the psychologist Lewis Terman in 1921, shows rather conclusively that children with very high IQs do well in life, but after a certain point IQ does not seem to be correlated any longer with superior performance in real life. Later studies suggest that the cutoff point is around 120; it might be difficult to do creative work with a lower IQ, but an IQ beyond 120 does not necessarily imply higher creativity.Furthermore, people who bring about an acceptable novelty in a domain seem able to use well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent and the divergent. Convergent thinking is measured by IQ tests, and it involves solving well-defined, rational problems that have one correct answer. Divergent thinking leads to no agreed-upon solution. It involves fluency, or the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas; flexibility, or the ability to switch from one perspective to another; and originality in picking unusual associations of ideas. These are the dimensions of thinking that most creativity tests measure and that most workshops try to enhance.

Another way of expressing this dialectic is the contrasting poles of wisdom and childishness. As Howard Gardner remarked in his study of the major creative geniuses of this century, a certain immaturity, both emotional and mental, can go hand in hand with deepest insights. Mozart comes immediately to mind.

3. Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.

Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn’t go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance. Nina Holton, whose playfully claims wild germs of ideas are the genesis of her sculpture, is very firm about the importance of hard work: “Tell anybody you’re a sculptor and they’ll say, ‘Oh, how exciting, how wonderful.’ And I tend to say, ‘What’s so wonderful?’ It’s like being a mason, or a carpenter, half the time. But they don’t wish to hear that because they really only imagine the first part, the exciting part.

4. Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality.

Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality. Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present. The rest of society often views these new ideas as fantasies without relevance to current reality. And they are right. But the whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality. At the same time, this “escape” is not into a never-never land. What makes a novel idea creative is that once we see it, sooner or later we recognize that, strange as it is, it is true. Most of us assume that artists—musicians, writers, poets, painters—are strong on the fantasy side, whereas scientists, politicians, and businesspeople are realists. This may be true in terms of day-to-day routine activities. But when a person begins to work creatively, all bets are off.

5. Creative people trend to be both extroverted and introverted.

Creative people tend to be both extroverted and introverted. We’re usually one or the other, either preferring to be in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from each other and that can be reliably measured. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.

6. Creative people are humble and proud at the same time.

Creative people are humble and proud at the same time. It is remarkable to meet a famous person who you expect to be arrogant or supercilious, only to encounter self-deprecation and shyness instead. Yet there are good reasons why this should be so. These individuals are well aware that they stand, in Newton’s words, “on the shoulders of giants.” Their respect for the area in which they work makes them aware of the long line of previous contributions to it, putting their own in perspective. They’re also aware of the role that luck played in their own achievements. And they’re usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them. At the same time, they know that in comparison with others, they have accomplished a great deal. And this knowledge provides a sense of security, even pride.

7. Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping.

Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping. When tests of masculinity/femininity are given to young people, over and over one finds that creative and talented girls are more dominant and tough than other girls, and creative boys are more sensitive and less aggressive than their male peers.This tendency toward androgyny is sometimes understood in purely sexual terms, and therefore it gets confused with homosexuality. But psychological androgyny is a much wider concept referring to a person’s ability to be at the same time aggressive and nurturing, sensitive and rigid, dominant and submissive, regardless of gender.  Creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.

8. Creative people are both rebellious and conservative.

Creative people are both rebellious and conservative. It is impossible to be creative without having first internalized an area of culture. So it’s difficult to see how a person can be creative without being both traditional and conservative and at the same time rebellious and iconoclastic. Being only traditional leaves an area unchanged; constantly taking chances without regard to what has been valued in the past rarely leads to novelty that is accepted as an improvement. The artist Eva Zeisel, who says that the folk tradition in which she works is “her home,” nevertheless produces ceramics that were recognized by the Museum of Modern Art as masterpieces of contemporary design. This is what she says about innovation for its own sake:”This idea to create something is not my aim. To be different is a negative motive, and no creative thought or created thing grows out of a negative impulse. A negative impulse is always frustrating. And to be different means ‘not like this’ and ‘not like that.’ And the ‘not like’—that’s why postmodernism, with the prefix of ‘post,’ couldn’t work. No negative impulse can work, can produce any happy creation. Only a positive one.”

But the willingness to take risks, to break with the safety of tradition, is also necessary. The economist George Stigler is very emphatic in this regard: “I’d say one of the most common failures of able people is a lack of nerve. They’ll play safe games. In innovation, you have to play a less safe game, if it’s going to be interesting. It’s not predictable that it’ll go well.”

9. Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.

Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility.

10. Creative people’s openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment.

Creative people’s openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment. Most would agree with Rabinow’s words: “Inventors have a low threshold of pain. Things bother them.” A badly designed machine causes pain to an inventive engineer, just as the creative writer is hurt when reading bad prose.Being alone at the forefront of a discipline also leaves you exposed and vulnerable. Eminence invites criticism and often vicious attacks. When an artist has invested years in making a sculpture, or a scientist in developing a theory, it is devastating if nobody cares.Deep interest and involvement in obscure subjects often goes unrewarded, or even brings on ridicule. Divergent thinking is often perceived as deviant by the majority, and so the creative person may feel isolated and misunderstood. Perhaps the most difficult thing for creative individuals to bear is the sense of loss and emptiness they experience when, for some reason, they cannot work. This is especially painful when a person feels his or her creativity drying out.Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss. Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake. Without this trait, poets would give up striving for perfection and would write commercial jingles, economists would work for banks where they would earn at least twice as much as they do at universities, and physicists would stop doing basic research and join industrial laboratories where the conditions are better and the expectations more predictable.

Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of Flow, and how it is created, certainly builds a clear case for artists to use his or her artistry- in its pure form- to illustrate and teach others Csíkszentmihályi concepts of flow. Csíkszentmihályi’s theoretical constructs provides the necessary framework to communicate how the arts can facilitate creating an environment for creative productivity and innovation to emerge.

How can we turn our imaginations into productive creativity?  How can we use the arts to activate others imaginations and help facilitate the transform of them into creative productivity?

In my post Imagination, Creativity and Productivity I mentioned a long list of creative theorists who each have developed their own methodology for helping individuals and teams transform their imaginations into productive creativity. How can their ideas be applied, or further illuminate through an art form? In my post on October 10th I explored Min Basadur’s Creative Problem Solving Profile. In today’s post I will explore Edward deBono’s Six Thinking Hats.

About Edward deBono

Edward deBono, founder of The deBono Group,  is a leading authority in the field of creative thinking, innovation and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill.  Dr. de Bono holds an MA in psychology and physiology from Oxford, as well as a D. Phil (a research degree) in Medicine as well as a Ph.D. from Cambridge. He has held faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Harvard.  His instruction in thinking has been utilized by IBM, Prudential, Microsoft, Chick-Fil-A, BP,  Nokia, Siemens, Bosch, Quaker, Ericsson,  and many others.

Dr. deBono is also the founder of the World Academy of New Thinking™ (WANT).  ‘New Thinking’ means new perceptions, fresh alternatives, a change of emphasis and the generation and design of new concepts and ideas. The role of this Academy is specifically concerned with new thinking in conflict resolution, problem solving, economic development, education, health and most areas effecting daily life.

Dr. deBono has written over 70 book. Here is a partial list of books he has written:  New Think, Mechanism of Mind, Six Thinking Hats, Lateral Thinking, Serious Creativity, I Am Right-You Are Wrong, Parallel Thinking, Conflicts-A Better Way to Resolve Them, Water Logic, Simplicity, Teaching Thinking, New Thinking for the New Millennium, PO: A Device for Successful Thinking, and Future Positive.

Six Thinking Hats & The Parallel Thinking Process

In 1999 Edward deBono developed a creativity technique designed to facilitate the shifting of focused thought for creative thinking and innovation to emerge. A process, which he calls  Six Thinking Hats®,  is a parallel thinking process. Parallel Thinking®, also developed by deBono, is where each thinker puts forward his or her thoughts in parallel with the thoughts of others; without attacking the thoughts of others.

After all, when A and B come together, each with an idea, its normal for each to want to judge, or debate, the merits of the other persons idea.  Its human nature for it to be difficult for A and B to stand side by side and allow their ideas to remain parallel to each other, without comparison, synthesis or judgment, so each can be fully explored. The reason for this is because argument is the basis of what most consider normal thinking. The purest form of this type of thinking comes from our courts of law where the prosecution takes one side of the argument and the defense the other side. Each strives to prove the other side wrong. The “truth” is to be reached by argument.

While there is a place for argument, and while argument is a useful tool of thinking, argument is inadequate as the main and only tool of thinking. Argument lacks constructive energies, design energies, and creative energies. Pointing out faults may lead to some improvement but does not construct something new. Equally synthesizing both points of view does not produce a stream of new alternatives. As such, traditional argument is totally useless to construct an innovative design process. To begin to do this, according to de Bono, we must separate out all of the different aspects of our thinking about an idea.

So how do we do this?

Think of full-color printing. When the basic color separations are made, each basic color is printed separately onto the same sheet to give us full-color printing. In the same way, when we separate the modes of our thinking and then apply each mode to the same subject, we end up with full-color thinking on the subject.

With deBono’s Six Thinking Hat Method the thinker can separate their thinking into six clear functions and roles.  For example, if the thinker metaphorically puts on the yellow hat, he or she may turn up new ideas which may cause the thinker to change his or her mind about the value of the idea. Likewise, when asked to think about the idea wearing a black hat a thinker who began as a euphoric supporter for it may discover difficulties that reduce their euphoria. Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic “thinking hat.” below.

	The White Hat calls for information known or needed. “The facts, just the facts.” The white hat represents neutral and objective thinking, and is concerned with facts and information.
	The Yellow Hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. Under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit.The yellow hat represents sunny and positive thinking, and is concerned with what has worked in the past.
	The Black Hat is judgment or why something may not work. Spot the difficulties and dangers; where things might go wrong. Probably the most powerful and useful of the Hats but a problem if overused.The black hat represents careful and cautious thinking, and is sometimes referred to as the “devil’s advocate” hat.
	The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition. When using this hat you can express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves, and hates.The red hat represents the emotional view, which never has to be justified.
	The Green Hat focuses on creativity; the possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas. It’s an opportunity to express new concepts and new perceptions.The green hat is associated with creativity and new ideas.
	The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process. It’s the control mechanism that ensures the Six Thinking Hats® guidelines are observed.The blue hat represents the orchestration of the multi-hat thinking process.

Today in business, as elsewhere, there is a huge need to be constructive and creative. There is a need to solve problems and to open up opportunities. There is a need to design new possibilities, not just to argue between two existing possibilities. deBono’s Six Hats method allows for all sides of an issue to be fully explored. Adversarial confrontation is replaced by a cooperative exploration of the subject allowing for ideas to become creative productivity.

Press Release from The NEA, July 19th, 2011

Cultural industries are economic powerhouses and states have the data to prove it, according to a new analysis from the National Endowment for the Arts.  Drawing on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Arts and the GDP: Value Added by Selected Cultural Industries is a new NEA research note that examines the value added by three selected cultural industries: (1) performing arts, sports, and museums; (2) motion pictures and sound recording; and (3) publishing (including software).  Combined, these three cultural industries contributed a total of $278.4 billion to the U.S. economy in 2009.  The NEA research note also looks at dollars and jobs added to individual state economies by these cultural industries.

Each year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates the value added by major industry groups, including performing arts, sports, and museums.  “Value added” refers to an industry’s contribution to the U.S. economy through its labor and capital, excluding material and energy costs.  More detailed industry breakouts that isolate the performing arts and museums from sports are conducted every five years, most recently for 2002 data.  That year, for example, value added from sports was $16.9 billion, value added from the performing arts was $7.2 billion, and value added from museums was $4.7 billion.

Key findings:

• In 2009, the performing arts, sports, and museums added $70.9 billion to the U.S. economy.  That same year, the motion picture and sound recording industries contributed $59.8 billion, while publishing (including software) added $147.7 billion.
• Cultural industries have contributed increasingly greater amounts to the U.S. economy.  Between 1987 and 2009, for example, inflation-adjusted value added by the performing arts, sports, and museums nearly doubled.
• The 2007-2009 recession affected cultural production. Real value added from the performing arts, sports, and museums fell by 1.4 percent in 2008; it dipped 5.5 percent the following year.  Contractions also occurred in the motion picture and sound recording industries and in publishing.

The note also analyzes how the performing arts and other cultural industries contribute to states in terms of jobs produced and value added by the cultural industry to the Gross State Product (GSP).  Among those findings:

• The performing arts contribute more to states with large, diverse economies, such as California and Texas. Each new dollar of value added by the performing arts industry in California adds $1.38 to that state’s economy.  The comparable figure in Texas is $1.28.  These findings indicate that these state economies have more of the goods and services (e.g. stage curtains, materials for scenery, sound equipment, printing of programs, advertising services) needed to increase performing arts production without having to import them from other states.
• Additional spending on the performing arts generates more new jobs in Utah, North Carolina, Ohio, and Georgia. In each of these states, more than 45 new jobs are generated for every additional million dollars in performing arts production.

This is the latest in a series of NEA research notes to look at different ways to assign value to the arts.  The NEA research note Arts and the GDP: Value Added by Selected Cultural Industries is available for download in the Research section of arts.gov.

About NEA research

The NEA is the only federal agency to conduct long-term and detailed analyses of arts participation.  For more than 30 years, the NEA Office of Research & Analysis has produced periodic research reports, brochures, and notes on significant topics affecting artists and arts organizations, often in partnership with other federal agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The NEA is committed to extending the conversation about arts participation by making data available to both the research community and the public at large.

About the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.

Written by Steve Hendershot, July 18th, 2011 appeared in Crain’s Chicago Business.

Lisa Canning uses a plug-in reader and the Square app to process credit card transactions in her clarinet shop. Photo by: Stephen J. Serio

Email is so old school. These days, small businesses that are getting the most out of their smartphones and iPads are all about the apps: add-on programs that can help them do everything from process credit cards to sketch skyscrapers.

Of the small businesses surveyed in a March poll by AT&T Inc., 72% said they were using mobile apps. Thirty-eight percent reported they would struggle to survive without them.

Here’s a look at how Chicago entrepreneurs are using apps to transform their businesses, plus recommendations on which new ones might fit in their collections.

Lisa Canning using Square to process a transaction.Photo by: Stephen J. Serio

Lisa’s Clarinet Shop in Lombard takes in more than $1 million annually, but it’s only a 15-hour-per-week job for owner Lisa Canning. Ms. Canning, 47, sees clients by appointment and doesn’t keep regular hours, so she hasn’t invested in a traditional credit card terminal for the shop. That’s led to some awkward sales: She would write down each customer’s credit card information, take it home, process the card at her terminal there and then email a receipt to the customer.

That changed with the app Square. Using a small, free credit card reader provided by San Francisco-based Square Inc., Lisa’s Clarinet Shop can process credit card transactions for a 2.75% fee; there are no monthly fees or setup costs.

“I was embarrassed by my old-fashioned way of taking credit cards,” Ms. Canning says. “I built a great reputation online, but when people would come in and I (couldn’t charge them there), it felt unprofessional. Now I’m consistent. This was a no-brainer, and it also produces a really positive reaction from my customers that reflects well on me.”

Square, founded in 2009 by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, is growing quickly. Tech industry publication TechCrunch reported that the company is valued at $1 billion in its current fundraising efforts.

WHY IT WORKS: “There is a good reason why Square is already attracting a $1-billion valuation by investors,” says Brad Spirrison, managing editor of Appolicious Inc. “Business owners like it for its simplicity and the fact that it doesn’t require monthly fees, a merchant account or contract.”

SOMETHING ELSE TO TRY: “If your business finances are already run through another service, the Intuit GoPayment credit card terminal and the Authorize.Net credit card terminal are also good apps to turn your phone or tablet into a mobile cash register,” Mr. Spirrison says.

Photographer David Ettinger, right, uses an array of apps: Simplenote and Evernote for note-taking, Toodledo to make to-do lists, TripCubby to track mileage and Google Earth to scout locations for shoots.

In David Ettinger‘s gear case, you’ll find the collection of lenses, lights and camera bodies that you’d expect from a professional photographer. It’s nothing, however, compared to the staggering array of mobile apps he uses to run his Chicago business, David Ettinger Photography.

First, there are two note-taking apps, Simplenote and Evernote. Both apps are free; Evernote is more full-featured (you can include voice memos, photos and notes with formatted text), while Mr. Ettinger finds Simplenote to be faster. Lately, he’s been using Simplenote to collect all of his notes about a particular job inside unformatted text files.

“When I’m mobile, I want to be as fast as possible, even if it comes at the expense of features,” Mr. Ettinger says. “I hate being that guy standing there at the end of the aisle at the store, waiting for something to load.”

Then he breaks his notes down into specific tasks and enters them into Toodledo, the to-do list app he uses both to track his agenda and for record-keeping. It’s a $1.99 app that utilizes Seattle-based Toodledo.com’s cloud-storage system so that to-do items will sync across multiple devices. There’s a free version of the service, but Mr. Ettinger subscribes to a $14.95-per-year plan that allows him to store two years’ worth of completed tasks online.

Then there are the specialized apps: TripCubby, to track mileage; Analytics, for checking his website and blog traffic, and Google Earth, to scout outdoor locations.

“I can work wherever I need to work,” he says. “A big part of my business is being accessible to my clients when they need me.”

WHY IT WORKS: “Simplenote is basically a premium version of the iPhone’s built-in app, but I’m a fan because of the way it syncs to outside services like Dropbox. Getting data to the next place you’re going to consume it is the key,” says Phillip Leslie, CEO of ProOnGo LLC.

SOMETHING ELSE TO TRY: “Really advanced mobile workers like (Mr. Ettinger) have figured out how to complete 90% of their tasks using mobile devices, and they’re trying to tackle that last 10% where you’re still chained to your desk,” Mr. Leslie says. “They’re using GoToMyPC to access their office computers from a mobile device to complete those tasks.”

Sandy Marshall's firm, Marshall Creative, specializes in short films, audio projects and other digital content that's often too large to email. He uses the cloud-storage app Jungle Disk to solve that problem.

When Sandy Marshall is out of his office, the CEO of Chicago marketing firm Marshall Creative is as likely to be on a Caribbean cruise as at a client meeting across town. That’s because Mr. Marshall has a second job as a director for Second City’s comedic performances aboard the Norwegian Spirit, a cruise ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines.

The challenge for Mr. Marshall isn’t just staying in touch, it’s that his firm specializes in short films, audio projects and other digital content that’s often too large to email. He uses the cloud-storage app Jungle Disk to solve that problem. Through Jungle Disk’s free app (which requires a paid subscription to the storage service offered by Suwanee, Georgia-based Jungle Disk LLC ), Mr. Marshall has access to the 100 gigabytes of content that Marshall Creative stores online, even when he is at sea.

Mr. Marshall uses a similar free app, Dropbox, for client meetings and to share large files with clients. San Francisco-based Dropbox Inc. offers its users 2 GB of free cloud storage, and Marshall Creative uses a free account to host individual files for presentations.

“I’m always a fan of in-person presentations, and getting that response,” he says. “With Dropbox, it’s a little easier (than with JungleDisk) to access audio and video files during a meeting.”

WHY IT WORKS: “Dropbox is far and away the best application, mobile or otherwise, to share multimedia files among co-workers. It works great on the iPhone, iPad and Android devices,” says Brad Spirrison, managing editor of the Chicago app-review company Appolicious Inc.

SOMETHING ELSE TO TRY: “Later this year Apple will be coming out with its own document-sharing service, which could be superior to Dropbox, at least on Apple products,” Mr. Spirrison says. “However, it is unclear if or how that product will interface with users with Android phones or BlackBerries.”

Helmut Jahn demonstrates a drawing program for his friend Howard Ecker. Photo by: Stephen J. Serio

Helmut Jahn has largely ignored the personal computer. The architect considers the device too complicated, too big and too heavy compared to his creative tools of choice: a sketchbook and camera. For years, as he traveled around the world, Mr. Jahn used fax machines to send and receive drawings to and from his firm’s Chicago headquarters.

Then, about eight months ago, his friend Howard Ecker introduced him to Apple Inc.’s iPad, and the device spurred a technological revolution in Mr. Jahn’s life.

“It has transformed how I think and how people in my office communicate with me,” Mr. Jahn says. First, he’s a more active emailer and better prepared for client presentations. But the centerpiece of his iPad usage is the $4.99 app SketchBook Pro, a drawing program from Autodesk Inc., the San Rafael, Calif.-based software company that also makes the AutoCAD engineering and architecture software.

Mr. Jahn, 76, estimates that he now uses SketchBook Pro for 90% of the drawings he makes while on the road, and even uses the program about a third of the time while working in his Chicago office. He also takes photographs of his sketches, then imports those images into SketchBook Pro so he can make notes and export the images. Drawings from SketchBook Pro can be emailed or transmitted to cloud-storage programs such as Dropbox.

Learning to draw on the iPad required an adjustment, but not a severe one.

“It’s a different medium, but the adjustment was no more different than working with a different pen or different paper,” says Mr. Jahn, who uses a stylus with SketchBook Pro. His drawings using the app “look a little more sketchy (than a similar drawing on paper), but I can actually work faster because I’m not attempting to get that accuracy.”

From processing credit cards to sketching skyscrapers, an increasing number of small businesses are harnessing the power of their smartphones and iPads.

In this video, architect Helmut Jahn and tenant representative Howard Ecker discuss how their favorite apps have changed their work lives.

Justin Seidenberg needs to be able to talk to his artists even when he's out of the office. Photo by: Erik Unger

Justin Seidenberg is accustomed to crises erupting at odd hours. Mr. Seidenberg manages a stable of musicians through his Chicago company, Kiqstart Music LLC, and it’s when his artists are at performance venues that they are most likely to require his help. In other words, he needs to be ready for action at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night.

“I’m out having dinner with my wife, but my artist gets to the venue and gets into a debate with the production manager. I need be available and prepared,” he says.

Mr. Seidenberg uses two iPhone apps to meet the challenge. The first is Skype, a free app from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Skype Inc. that allows him to video chat with his musicians, wherever they may be.

The second is GoogDocs from Fossil Software LLC of Austin, Texas. This app allows Mr. Seidenberg’s mobile phone to access spreadsheets he creates using Google Docs, Google Inc.’s free, cloud-based office suite. He keeps contract details there, such as the set length, sound-check time and financial arrangements between artist and venue, so he can quickly intervene if a dispute arises.

WHY IT WORKS: “A (video chat) app like Skype provides an extra layer of interaction that helps reinforce your message. If you have to air a grievance or a concern, a visual rendering can carry a lot more weight,” says Chris Pautsch, CEO of KeyLimeTie LLC.

SOMETHING ELSE TO TRY: For more formal video conferencing, Cisco Systems Inc. offers a free mobile app for users to join meetings that use the company’s WebEx Meeting Center. Mr. Pautsch uses the service at KeyLimeTie to stream video and share documents among participants.

Billy Dec uses UberSocial to streamline the process of posting to his 17,000 Twitter followers. Photo by: Erik Unger

There’s a common line among social-media critics that goes something like, “No one wants to hear what you ate for lunch today.” But that might depend on who you are and what you had for lunch.

Chicago restaurateur Billy Dec, for example, took a picture of the goulash he ordered during a recent trip to Budapest, and 45 minutes after he posted the photo on Twitter, 608 people had clicked the link to see his bowl. Mr. Dec, who owns four entertainment venues, including River North eateries Rockit and Sunda, commands a legion of more than 17,000 Twitter followers. His goal is to share his behind-the-curtain access to such scenes as a popular chef at work in the kitchen and a celebrity musician backstage.

He uses the free mobile-phone app UberSocial from Pasadena, Calif.-based software firm UberMedia Inc. Mr. Dec has been using the app for about six months and says its immediacy “allows you to see magic behind Twitter because everything is just instantaneous.”

Mr. Dec aims for 10 to 12 tweets per day.

“I feel bad if it’s more than 10 a day, but I also feel bad if I don’t get close to that because people have expressed an interest,” he says. “I didn’t realize people cared as much about this behind-the-scenes stuff as they do.”

WHY IT WORKS: “UberSocial has some neat features. It’s great to click on a tweet that includes a link and be able to see the web page in the same window,” says Brad Spirrison of Appolicious Inc. “UberSocial’s ‘Channels’ are a handy way to access ‘conference’ or ‘breaking news’ tweets.”

SOMETHING ELSE TO TRY: “Seesmic is a similar tool that allows you to view and update accounts for Twitter, Facebook and even multiple blog posts. It’s also easier to switch between multiple Twitter accounts (than with UberSocial). The free app lets you add Twitter accounts as giant buttons, so it’s easy to use in a dark nightclub,” Mr. Spirrison says.

Should you trust an app from an unknown developer?

Solo and small-shop app makers “are often creating the most innovative apps available,” according to Brad Spirrison, managing editor of the Chicago-based app-review company Appolicious Inc. However, it’s wise to vet any app before you start using it. To do that, Mr. Spirrison recommends reading reviews in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market, as well as on Facebook, in industry publications and on sites such as Appolicious.

It’s also worthwhile, even if you don’t have an iPhone or iPad, to see if Apple has approved an app.

“There is a higher bar set for getting an app approved for use on Apple’s iOS devices than by Google for use on its Android devices,” Mr. Spirrison says. “If an app is approved or promoted by Apple, that’s a good sign.”

This video was created from a workshop on developing community through creativity at The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at The University of Illinois. This is a very worthy 7 minutes.

Our 2010 most read posts are interestingly some oldies but goodies. From our top 25, 14 are from 2007 through 2009. Our oldest post from 2007, which also happens to be our #1 post, is about my  journey writing a book.

So for all you writers out there, this list just goes to show you that it’s important to get your writing our there because its more likely to become well read with the passage of time.

#1 Starving Artist Not
#2 The Four C’s of 21st Century Education
#3 Oh the places you’ll go by Dr Seuss
#4 Tongue twisters for actors and speakers
#5 Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs
#6 Ten steps to finding your artistic voice
#7 Best and worst marketing campaigns
#8 How to create a badge for your blog
#9 An artistic entrepreneurial case study: The story of blue man group
#10 Ben Cameron on change transformation and renewal in the arts
#11 One blank piece of paper
#12 Dinner in the sky
#13 Conservatory made me successful in business
#14 How to make your creativity explode create your own strategic implode
#15 North Africa Economic Partership announced between Aspen Institute and U.S. Department of State
#16 Top 20 arts entrepreneur blogs
#17 What does fame mean to you?
#18 I’m not an entertainer. I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker
#19 Artists as social entrepreneurs
#20 Our dirty little family secret
#21 The definition of a calculated risk
#22 Innovating through artistry
#23 Paradigm shifts build innovative companies
#24 Overcoming mediocrity
#25 What is your imagination worth to you?

Lisa Canning, Founder of EntrepreneurTheArts.com, TheIAE.com and LisasClarinetShop.com

Well, today I leave for Washington for my first PNB-NAPEO (Partners for a New Beginning- North Africa Partners for Economic Opportunity) Summit. Madeline Albright will kick off our meeting and then we will spend two days in meetings that range from a PNB overview from the ground to Entrepreneurship for Women in the Middle East to clean water initiatives. Great stuff.

IAE is supported by Partners for a New Beginning’s North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity (PNB-NAPEO), a public-private partnership created by the U.S. Department of State.  The mission of PNB-NAPEO is to build a network of entrepreneurs and business leaders in the United States and North Africa where both communities can identify projects that will foster entrepreneurship and job creation, especially for youth.

The meeting will be loaded with a lot of business folks interested in PNB’s mission from different vantage points. Gosh, what a big help this is going to be to The IAE. And what fun it is going to be attending such a high-voltage education oriented networking meeting. This will be a great opportunity to grow my network of support for The IAE and continue the transformation process- from idea into reality. Are YOU ready to transform from a caterpillar with 16 legs into a butterfly who, with just a single pair of wings, can fly?)

At the Summit, I am looking forward to meeting Naeem Zafar. Check out this blog post he wrote about the initiative.

Check out these ebooks that Naeem has written. I can’t wait to meet him. Imagine the possibilities for art and culture, as a ‘sector’, to create innovative new businesses and job strands in the U.S. and North Africa? I am.

Market Research on a Shoestring!

Get a Reality check on your big idea for under $100. By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

Entrepreneurs don’t like to do market research. Whether they find it unnecessary, think it takes too much time and money, or are simply terrified by the idea, they often start up their businesses without the necessary preparation or understanding of exactly what they are getting into.

But market research doesn’t have to be an expensive, unbearably time-consuming nightmare. It is an essential aspect of starting a new business that can be conducted quickly and easily if you know what to look for and where to look. Market Research on a Shoestring is full of techniques, tricks, and secrets that will help you ask the right questions and find the answers you need to better understand your business and the market it faces. If you want to raise funds for your startup or simply maximize your chances of success, you need this book!

 

Get Funded!

A Definitive Guide to Seeking the right funding at the right time and from the right source
By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

Entrepreneurs need funding at various stages of their companies’growth. This to-the-point book is your essential guide to the funding process. Organized into three sections, this book outlines the likely sources of funding and how they operate, how to approach investors, and the 12-step process of getting funded.

As a valuable bonus, Get Funded! includes the names of several hundred angel investors and venture capital firms.

If you are serious about seeking funding for your startup or simply want to know your options, you need this book! This book is the complete guide to seeking and getting funding that all entrepreneurs look for and seldom find.

 

The Entrepreneur’s Legal Guide to Starting Up

By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

A simple, to-the-point guide that outlines the decisions all entrepreneurs must make when setting up a legal entity. This eBook is packed with practical, time-tested tips and suggestions about incorporation, hiring the right lawyer, registering patents, and
minimizing your legal bill. The eBook includes a step-by-step guide to finding and hiring the right lawyer for your company and offers proven strategies that will save you thousands on your legal bill. There’s also an easy-to-understand chart explaining the differences between the various corporate structures and offering a quick guide to the most common legal issues plaguing entrepreneurs, as well as effective methods for overcoming them.

Knowing the ins and outs of setting up a startup and picking the right lawyer isn’t a matter of intelligence—it’s about experience and expertise. You may have a great deal of both when it comes to your industry, but most entrepreneurs don’t know much about the law. Your strengths lie elsewhere. As a result, you may find yourself intimidated by the idea of selecting legal counsel.

 

The Definitive Entrepreneur’s Guide to Lawyers:

35 Little-known facts, secrets, techniques, and tricks to making sure you get every penny’s worth of value from your lawyer By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkeley

Containing nearly three dozen money-saving, angst-minimizing tips, The Definitive Entrepreneur’s Guide to Lawyers is a go-to resource for the entrepreneur who wants to streamline the budget while leveraging the most effective legal services available. The guide includes a step-by-step guide to finding and hiring the right lawyer for your company, an easy-to-understand chart explaining the differences between the various corporate structures, proven communication strategies that will slash your legal bill by half each month, and a quick guide to the most common legal issues plaguing entrepreneurs, as well as effective methods for overcoming them.

Knowing the ins and outs of picking the right lawyer isn’t a matter of intelligence—it’s about experience and expertise. You may have a great deal of both when it comes to your industry, but most entrepreneurs don’t know much about the law. Your strengths lie elsewhere. As a result, you may find yourself intimidated by the idea of selecting legal counsel.

 

Finance Essentials for entrepreneurs:
A Simple Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Statements for Your Business. By Naeem Zafar, University of California, Berkele

Finance Essentials for Entrepreneurs is a startup owner’s indispensable guide to basic finance. Zafar draws on two decades of entrepreneurial experience to create an eBook that offers a simple, proven method for understanding the most important elements of financial management for businesses. Zafar understands what entrepreneurs need to know about business finance. He also knows that their time is precious. In Finance Essentials for Entrepreneurs, he delivers that knowledge in practical, to-the-point language free of technical jargon and longwinded discourses. Spreadsheet examples
are clear and relevant.

 

About Naeem Zafar

• A member of the faculty of the Haas business school at the University of California Berkeley, Naeem teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the MBA program. Naeem is the founder of Concordia Ventures and focuses on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a company. Naeem’s entrepreneurial experience includes working directly with six startups, and he has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching founders and CEOs. Naeem is now the president and CEO of Bitzer Mobile, a company that simplifies enterprise mobility.
• Until 2007, Naeem was the president and CEO of Pyxis Technology Inc., a company specializing in advanced chip design software for nanometer technology. Naeem has also been president and CEO of two other high tech startups (Silicon Design Systems and Veridicom, a Bell Labs spin-off that invented the silicon fingerprint sensors today found on most laptops). Naeem has held senior marketing and engineering positions at several companies including Quickturn Design Systems that had an IPO in 1993 and grew to $125M in revenues.
• Naeem holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Brown University (magna cum laude), Rhode Island, and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.
• Naeem is a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs www.TiE.org ).He is also a charter member of OPEN (www.OPENSiliconValley.com ) where he serves as the president.

 

SNAAP is a wonderful long overdue project to track the lives and careers of arts graduates. I am so happy to see this work begin. However, with 13,851 respondents this does not (yet) even represent 1% of our sector. All the same, it is a beginning! So kudo’s to George Kuh and Sally Galski. This has great long term potential to tremendously help and shape our sector’s future.

• How much do arts graduates earn?
• Where do artists reside?
• How satisfied are arts alumni with their education?
• How many arts alumni have graduate degrees?

The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) has created this unique website to frame a clearer picture of arts alumni in America. This is just the beginning. Each year more and more survey respondents provide more information for the next generation of arts students.

Click through the site to gain current knowledge on issues regarding arts majors, skills, locations, degrees, occupations and debt & earnings.

Last fall, 30 top-level decision makers and thought leaders from government, business, education, and the arts gathered at the Sundance Resort and Preserve for the Fifth Annual Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable, to discuss this year’s theme – The Role of the Arts in Educating America for Great Leadership and Economic Strength.

Their conclusions are profiled in a new report issued last week by Americans for the Arts that calls for individuals across the public and private sector to recognize the arts as the transformational tools they are for making schools stronger and students more successful. Below is American’s for the Art’s summary and a link to the report.

The 2010 Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable
The Role of the Arts in Educating America for Great Leadership and Economic Strength

In a global economy where innovation drives prosperity, the United States faces increasing competition from around the world in maintaining its competitiveness. Business, education, and community leaders believe that education is core to whether our young people and workers will be prepared to meet these economic challenges. Yet, they also see the need to re-imagine as well as re-invest in American public education in order to improve workforce readiness; provide national security; and ensure our students have the skills, knowledge, and creativity to compete successfully in a 21st-century global society.

To answer this question, 30 leaders from business, government, philanthropy, military, education, and the arts (PDF, 351KB) convened on September 23–25, 2010, for the fifth annual Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable.

Below is an overview of the participant recommendations for improving public and private sector cooperation and action concerning the arts in education reform.

1. Messaging and Casemaking—Demonstrate the link between the arts and other reform priorities, such as creativity, innovation, and global competitiveness
2. Research—Demonstrate the impact of arts learning on the development of 21st-century skills
3. Strategic Alliances—Strengthen connections with key influencers in business, philanthropy, and the millennial generation
4. Public Policy—Focus on reforming federal policy to leverage change down the state-to-local pipeline

The full report (PDF, 1.52MB)
The briefing book(PDF, 1,037KB)

We are pleased to share with you the results of our efforts at the 2010 Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable, and hope that this report serves as a launching point to a new global dialogue between the public and private sectors and within our communities on the role the arts can play educating future generations of Americans.

Americans for the Arts gratefully acknowledges its partner, the Sundance Institute, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the NAMM Foundation, and the Ruth Lilly Fund of Americans for the Arts for support of the 2010 National Arts Policy Roundtable.

There is still time to get your ticket to The Chicago Michigan Avenue TEDx on Saturday May 7th at Symphony Center in Chicago.

The big question: How can we make changes to our industry to support the arts? Where do we begin and what will that future industry look like? David Zoltan will play host to people from all over the arts industry to answer these questions and more. Join him on May 7th, 2011 at The Symphony Center, “Club 8″ for his TedX talk. Together we can
create solutions and evolve!

8:00am – Registration and Welcome

9:00am-10:30am – First Group
David Zoltan, Organizer – Welcome
Seth Boustead - Executive Director, Access Contemporary Music
Gwydion Suilebhan – Playwright
Drew McManus – Orchestra consultant

10:30am-11:00am – 30 minute break

11:00am-12:30pm – Second Group
David Dombrosky - Executive Director, Center for Arts Management and Technology
Scott Walters – Director, Center for Rural Arts Development and Leadership Education
Lisa Canning – Founder, The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship

12:30pm-1:30pm – 60 minute lunch break

1:30pm-3:00pm – Third Group
Ian David Moss – Arts Policy Wonk at Createquity.com
Crystal Hall, Adam Marks, Melissa Snoza – Fifth House Ensemble
Tom Tresser- arts and business consultant, arts policy activist
Adam Thurman – Director of Marketing, Court Theatre

3:00pm-3:30pm – 30 minute break

3:30pm-5:00pm – Fourth Group
David J. Loehr – Playwright and co-founder of 2amtheatre.com
Julie Ritchey - Artistic Director, Filament Theatre Ensemble
Eric Ziegenhagen – Artist and funding consultant

Click here to purchase tickets to this event!

A big shout out to the fabulous, one and only, Lisa Stamos who made my appearance possible on the cover of her absolutely DROP DEAD GORGEOUS  Quintessential magazine. And another to Angel Oakley for making it happen! And one more to Toni Antonetti who introduced me to Lisa Stamos in the first place last year.

Here is a link to the 3 amazing pages about The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship and our friends at  The Aspen Institute and Americans for The Arts.

In honor of my mother, I launched The IAE‘s 1st Sustainable Creativity Competition.

A small number of artists entered and created some beautiful artistic things from some of the $100,000 worth of clothes, purses, scarves, belts and hats, I offered as art materials.

We have officially opened The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship Scholarship Fund Ebay Store with these entries. http://stores.shop.ebay.com/IAE-Scholarship-Fund-Store

The auction is from May 2nd through May 9th. I hope you will go and bid on an item and support both The IAE and the artists. All proceeds are split between us.

For the love of creativity. Thank you Mom.

Lisa Canning

P.S. A funny thing happened when we ran the competition. In one of my mom’s purses, that I had give away to someone, there was $60.00 tucked into a small pocket.  The money was regifted to me as the first donation to The IAE Scholarship Fund. One of the most amazing parts about this whole competition, to me,  is that MY MOM herself made the very first contribution to it.

When you are doing in life what you are suppose to do, and have the skills to do it, the right things happen to you.

In memory of  my mother, Lea Argiris, last fall, I launched the 1st Sustainable Artist Competition.

Lea’s talents as an artist-Lea’s talents as an artist- a model ( yes, that’s my mom in the logo!) a chef and a gardener- were enormous and yet she was never able to sustain her creativity in a way that gave her the rudder she needed to live a happy, successful, meaningful, creative life. In her honor, I asked the artists  who entered our competition to incorporate the beautiful designer clothes she left behind in the art they will created  for this competition.

Over $100,000 worth of designer clothes were offered as materials to utilize in the development of participants artwork. Items include jackets, pants, skirts, belts and scarves from designers that include: Gucci, DKNY, Channel, Christian Dior, Valentino, Yves Saint Lauren and more.

Beginning Monday  May 2nd through Monday May 9th all of the art work created will be auctioned off on Ebay at our

NEW IAE Scholarship Fund Store

1/2 of the proceeds will go directly back to the artists who participated and the other 1/2 will be donated to our IAE scholarship fund. Please share this email with others. We need your support!

The Art of Science Learning, a project of The Learning Worlds Institute, explores ways in which the arts can help improve how people of all ages learn the sciences. Hands-on, imaginative approaches to science education, using many of the methods used in the creative arts, have been shown to attract and retain young people in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (sometimes known as the STEM disciplines).

Responding to concerns that the U.S. risks lagging behind other nations (See “Bridging the Innovation Gap”) in both the scientific literacy and the innovative capacity of its workforce, the Art of Science Learning is convening scientists, artists, educators, business leaders, researchers and policymakers in three conferences in Spring 2011 to explore how the arts can be engaged to strengthen STEM skills and spark creativity in the 21st-Century American workforce.

The Conferences are hands-on, workshop-oriented events that will showcase interdisciplinary methods and techniques used by educators and artists, share the results of current research into the impact of arts-based approaches to science education, and explore the connection between the arts and American economic competitiveness.

May 16-17 Chicago: The Illinois Institute of Technology

Early Bird Registration $199 Now Extended Through Fri April 22

June 14-15 San Diego: CALIT2
California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2) at the University of California San Diego, in collaboration with the San Diego Science Alliance

Early Bird Registration $199 Through May 2

April 6-7 Washington DC:  The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

Stay tuned for presentations, reports, resources and forums to be posted shortly on the very successful Washington DC Conference.

The conferences are open to all. Three working groups formed at the conferences will develop the key deliverables of the initiative: an online knowledge base for science educators working in all forums and media, a research agenda for future quantitative studies, and a workforce development report connecting the arts education and corporate perspectives in making actionable policy recommendations on the use of arts-based learning for a competitive 21st-Century STEM workforce.

The Learning Worlds Institute acknowledges major funding for The Art of Science Learning from The National Science Foundation

In addition, the Learning Worlds Institute thanks the sponsors and national partners of The Art of Science Learning for their contributions.

Sponsors of The Art of Science Learning include:
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
The Seed Media Group.
National Partners include:
American Association of Museums
Americans for the Arts
The Association of Science-Technology Centers

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0943769. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Written by Jeffrey Nytch,
Director of The Entrepreneurship Center for Music, Univ of CO- Boulder

I’m a golf nut. I’m terrible at it, but since I was a kid I’ve loved the game and been fascinated with its colorful history, its sometimes arcane rules, its etiquette, everything about it. Someday when I win the PowerBall and retire to a life of indecorous wealth I’m going to live on a golf course, get some lessons so I can stop embarrassing myself, and play golf every day.

Until then, I enjoy watching the pros. The Masters Tournament is the highlight of the year for me, and this past Sunday was the Final. Tiger Woods was in the hunt for the title, so I saw quite a bit of him during the course of the coverage. It was interesting observing him: even when he was playing well, he seemed completely deflated to me. It was like the game didn’t bring him any joy anymore. He was desperately trying to do better because that’s all he’s ever known: get better at golf. WIN. But ever since his personal life went so publicly  down in flames a year ago – and with it, his winning golf game – he’s just not been able to find himself. At one very telling moment, a camera shot revealed the grandstand behind him: this golfer who once attracted crowds so enormous that golf courses had to close their gates was playing to empty seats.

As I was pondering this I got to thinking about the power of joy. By which I mean the power that is apparent when you’re doing something you genuinely love, something you’re driven to do for the shear joy of doing it. Take someone like Yo Yo Ma: what is it that makes him such a popular performer? Is it because he’s the best player in the world? I’ll wager that’s not it; there are lots of great cellists out there. What makes him so compelling is the unbridled joy that positively pours out of him every time he’s on stage. You can tell that making music for him is the coolest, funnest, most joy-filled thing imaginable. Half the time it looks like he’s about to burst out into tears of ecstasy. And that makes us want to watch him, makes what he does connect with us. And it’s also what makes his music-making special, so it’s a two-way street: his joy not only makes us enjoy him more, it makes him a better artist. Contrast Yo Yo with Tiger, who’s lost his joy – and with it, lost both his game and a lot of his fans.

So what about you, dear reader? Where is your joy? Sometimes we can get so busy practicing and studying and striving for perfection that we can lose sight of what it is we love about music to begin with. We lose track of our joy. This is a lot more common than perhaps we’d like to admit, yet we all know players who might be technically clean but who, by all appearances, look like they’re getting about as much joy out of playing as a root canal…do we care about watching them at all? I mean, let’s be real: if nobody is getting any joy out of the proposition, then what’s the point?

If you’re not sure where your joy is, I’m willing to bet it’s in there somewhere. Most likely you wouldn’t be a musician in the first place if music didn’t bring you some joy. So if you’ve lost track of it, take some time to go find it. It’s not only the key to connecting with your audience, it’s the key to keeping your musical game vibrant, alive, and meaningful.

About Jeffrey Nytch
Jeffrey Nytch comes to the Entrepreneurship Center for Music having built a diverse career as a composer, teacher, performer, and arts administrator. For 15 years he has continually created fresh ways to support and nurture that career, whether it be through developing commissioning opportunities, establishing residencies with community organizations, or building relationships with patrons. He has also run a small business, helped found a non-profit service organization in Houston, performed a wide range of repertoire as a vocalist, and served five years as Managing Director of The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (“PNME”), one of the nation’s premiere new music ensembles.

jeff.nytch@colorado.edu
http://music.colorado.edu/departments/ecm/
www.jeffreynytch.com

04.06.2011– Chicago, IL–First impressions count. Too often in the arts, artists don’t understand what is at risk if they try to self-produce their work and publicly fail. Unfortunately, first impressions can make lasting impressions on both artist and consumer, which is why on April April 16th The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship (IAE) will host Produce IT at The Greenhouse Theater Center 2257 N Lincoln Avenue Chicago.

Produce IT is a conversation between emerging artists and experienced arts entrepreneurs designed to create a shared platform between artist and entrepreneur to address tough challenging questions about self producing artistic work. Artists often find themselves planning events or putting on programs with few resources. The IAE offers a safe space where emerging talent can learn from the successes of those who have come before them, both through their 2 year program, which launched this fall, and inside their workshops. “Learning from the experiences of others will position artists to no longer face the challenges of so many who have come before, but rather to learn from them and self-produce immediately at a higher level,” said Executive Director, Lisa Canning.

Through a series of professional development workshops, The IAE offers a platform, outside of the traditional institution, to have an open dialogue on best practices. “At our workshops frequently audience members as well as speakers refuse to leave even after two hours of discussion and Q&A. We find that there is no substitute for learning from artist entrepreneurs in a face to face environment,”said Jessica Kaswiner, IAE External Programs Manager.

The upcoming workshop on April 16th will specifically focus on how to build the right audience for your work.
Panelists will address the following questions:

● How do you generate a buzz?
● What is your most successful marketing strategy?
● How do you find your audience and keeps them coming back?

Artists are encouraged to bring their questions.

WHEN: Saturday, April 16, 10:30 am – 12:30p

WHERE: Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL

TICKETS: $5 in Advance, $10 at the door.
Tickets can be purchased online at http://produceitgreenhouse.eventbrite.com/

Featured panelists include:
Discopoet Khari B, celebrates his love of poetry through music. He left architectural engineering studies to focus on performing poetry while working a day job in the non-profit sector, and has since successfully carved out a career in the live music scene. Khari B has worked with the AACM Jazz organization; was featured in the Illinois Arts Council’s “Meet the Composer” program and Sons d’hiver Festival in Paris. He has also hosted open mic nights at the Spoken Word Café in Bronzeville and held writing workshops at the Boulevard Arts Center, Ravinia Festival Program and Purdue University. One part rocker, one part disco and one part an academic free spirit, Khari B is the founder and lead performer of the group ‘The Rockstar Poetry Project.

Janice Bond is President and primary Artist Representative for SAVANT|SAVANT a boutique branding and artist development enterprise specializing in creative support for leading-edge independent brand concepts and artists of various mediums. Bond, a media strategist/marketing professional, has led projects in a myriad of arts related industries for project management, online marketing, and interactive production in both mainstream and emerging markets. For nearly a decade she has developed, managed, or assisted in the implementation of numerous event/interactive/promotional concepts across the globe. Her proficiency regarding social entrepreneurship, along with her experience in various industries contributes to her knack for matching client, concept, and creator.

T. Daniels, owner of T. Daniels Creations, is part of a two-member team of Modern Mimes. After studying Theatre at Illinois State University, T. Daniel went on to study Mime with Marcel Marceau and with Etienne Decroux. Daniels and his partners Laura Willets have mastered an art few have acquired. They have honed a new alliance of mime with theatre, with Music and beyond. They are among a select few who perform Classical Mime with symphony orchestras, chamber groups and their musical visions. By interpreting music with a visual component, the audible elements of music are rendered for audiences to see the music, often for the first time. In this capacity, they have rendered Bach, Beethoven, Hindsmith, Ibert, Stravinsky, Larson, Dorff and others for the eyes to hear.

For more information on Produce IT, visit www.TheIAE.com or contact Jess Kaswiner at Jess@TheIAE.com

About The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship
The Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship™ is a two-year program to teach artists how to earn a living. With a curriculum that combines experiential learning, mentorship and a personalized classroom environment that provides one-on-one time with the faculty of successful artist-entrepreneurs, artists are taught how to build their own arts based business while still in school. Founded by 25-year business veteran and serial artistic entrepreneur Lisa Canning, The Institute is based on her enthusiasm for the new wave of whole-brain thinking and the firm belief that the arts –and artists—can and must be allowed to contribute to the world’s financial recovery. Enrollment is limited to 45 students. Applications are available online to apply for the institute. There is no age limit for enrollment and the requirements to apply simply include artistic excellence and a desire to be self- sufficient. For more information about the school, go to www.TheIAE.com.