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and Innovation

Engaging Art: Research, Practice and Innovation

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• The Topic
• What it was
• The Bloggers
• The Session
• FAQ's

Engaging Art is a blog discussion on participation and the arts, hosted on ArtsJournal where everyone in the room and online was invited to add comments and participate in the discussion.

The discussion culminated on Thursday, June 21 at 2:00pm Central Time, when 600 people gathered for a session, presented live and online, which looked at the changing relationships between audiences and the arts.

To get the conversation started, we asked a group of 12 people representing various parts of the arts industry to start an online conversation about some of the ideas found in the book. Bloggers included: Steven Tepper, Associate Director, Curb Center; Vanessa Bertozzi, Researcher, Producer; Ed Cambron, Philadelphia Orchestra; Lynne Conner, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Pittsburgh; Greg Sandow, Critic, Composer; Molly Sheridan, Journalist, NewMusicBox.com; Alan Brown, Principal, Wolf/Brown; Robert Levine, Violist, Milwaukee Symphony; Moy Eng, Program director, Hewlett Foundation; Russell Willis Taylor, President, National Arts Strategies; Laura Jackson, Conductor, Atlanta Symphony; and Andrew Berryhill, executive director, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. Find out more about our bloggers at www.artsjournal.com/league.

Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural Life is the soon-to-be released book co-edited by Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper. It forges a new framework for understanding the momentous changes in America's cultural life; challenging old ways of thinking, raising probing questions, and uncovering deep and important currents in how Americans engage with arts and culture.

Three subject areas from the book were explored in this highly interactive session. Hosted by Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper, contributing authors Vanessa Bertozzi (artistic expression in the age of participatory culture), Lynne Conner (audience behavior from Sophocles to the spoken word) and Tepper (music, mavens, and technology) presented their findings. Three practitioners, Brent Assink, executive director, San Francisco Symphony; Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director, Carnegie Hall; and Gerard McBurney, artistic programming advisor, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, responded, exploring the significance of these views for orchestras.

All this was transmitted globally via a live blogging experience over ArtsJournal.com/league, creating a richly interactive multimedia discussion.

Material from the online discussion and a series of wrap-up statements is available online at artsjournal.com/league.

Looking for more information? Check out the FAQ's for this session!

Special thanks to The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy and the Information Technology Services Department (ITS) at Vanderbilt University; and Nashville Symphony.

Sponsored by BMI, The Wallace Foundation, and Curb Records