Peter Everwine, in the American Life in Poetry, an internationally distrubted newsletter featuring the great poets of our country.

To have the pleasure to hear Peter Everwine read his poetry is to appreciate that this gentle and thoughtful man is an extraordinary writer.

His awards include winning the Lamont Poetry Prize for Collecting the Animals in 1972; the Stegner Fellow from Stanford, the Fresno Arts Council's Horizon Award, the 2008 Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize XVII, and a fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim.

Ted Kooser, the U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-06, writes in his column for American Life in Poetry, that "Peter Everwine is a California poet whose work I have admired for almost as long as I have been writing.
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Great poems are great stories.  Here he reflects a specific and...

Barry Hessenius recent blog post, The Six Most Important Conversations for the Arts in the Next Five Years, is an astute perspective on the state of the cultural arts sector crafted from a long and impressive career.  Hessenius was appointed Director of the California Arts Council by Governor Gray Davis in March 2000 and was a member of his

Cabinet, he was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the California Assembly of Local Arts Agencies, an advisor to the National Policy Committee of Americans for the Arts and the President’s Committee for the Arts & Humanities, along with many more appointments and leadership positions in the sector.  His blog is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the issues affeting...

Alan Brown, of WolfBrown - a consulting firm specializing in the cultural sector, sent out information on their newest studies on donor giving.  While it is focused on Bay area donors, the information is applicable to donors everywhere.

What Motivates Donors?

Over the past year, Rebecca and I have been hard at work on a major study of Bay Area donors.  The results were released last week, and we've created a special page on our website where you can download the results.  There are three reports:

1. A high level summary report, It's Not About You...It's About Them: A Research Report on What Motivates Bay Area Donors to Give to the Arts and Artists, which should be of interest to funders, arts agencies, and others who seek to help artists and small arts groups raise funds for programs.
2. A series of case studies, Field Reports from...
   
   
   

The Key To Developing A Social Media Strategy

Social Media Explorer - Jason Falls

Social media is starting to take hold with brands, companies and organizations everywhere. While there are still stragglers, and it is probably incorrect to say most companies are getting with the program, a good number of them are.

What we’re seeing in these organizations is a maturation process. Brands are done testing the waters, playing with the tools and saying, “We Gotta Facebook Page!” like it’s the corporate equivalent of an iPhone or Kindle. Companies are now approaching social media with communications strategies in mind — How can we effectively use these social tools to reach our audiences?

But therein lies the next challenge for those responsible for the social media planning for organizations. Regardless of the pedigree – public relations, corporate communications,...

At Eastman, when we were building the Institute for Music Leadership's capacity in music entrepreneurship, we created a prize to encourage idea formation, the New Venture Challenge (http://www.esm.rochester.edu/iml/entrepreneurship/newventurechallenge.php).  In the first round we received only one idea that could be described as innovative and addressing a need or potential market.  Although since then the New Venture Challenge has engendered many good ideas and plans, after that first round we questioned why this had happened.  Our answers centered around the fact that music students, especially those studying classical forms, in their experience had rarely been asked to produce anything creative,...

Mas Masumoto and the family farm peaches are featured in the upcoming July issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine.  Ten pages of photos and images from the farm and a delightful story about  Mas, Marcy, Nikiko and Korio Masumoto and, of course, PEACHES. Then two more pages of peach recipes from Marcy and Nikiko and the magazine food editors.

The Masumoto Family invites you to a “Mas and Martha” party – were there will copies of the magazine available and you can preorder their artisan organic PEACHES.  Friday, June 18th from 3:00pm to 9:00pm at the Sierra Nut House located in Villaggio Center in Fresno, Calif. Jo Ann Sorrenti from Sierra Nut House is planning on cooking recipes from the Martha Stewart Living magazine and they will be available for sampling and purchase. In addition, copies of Mas’ books, the magazine...