I am always surprised, and frankly disappointed, when I hear about a student who receives a job offer from an on-campus recruiter, accepts it and then decides to take a better offer, turning down the first offer/acceptance. It may seem to be to your advantage to...
There are at least three types of job openings: those that are listed in the "want-ads" of today - the list serves, job banks, idealist.com and the myriad other places; the jobs that have gone unfilled and are no longer listed or those where the...
I know no other entity, for profit, nonprofit, governmental, or religious, that better personifies the combination of great business, great art, sustainability, strong values and good spirit than the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. I was privileged to be part of the team of great dancers,...
The Institute for Ethical Leadership announces today a new certificate program designed to engage, encourage and enable arts professionals from underserved populations to become the leaders of major performing arts, visual arts, collections-based and ethnic arts organizations. According to James Abruzzo, co-director of the Institute and...
The Museum of the City of New York named a new Director and according to Judith Dobrinski, the announcement, (and other recent director announcements), ‘was curious and left people wondering’, because the new Director had no directorial experience. As an executive recruiter of some 30...
I wrote last time that the key to securing a position is the interview - not the resume. So, you spend time securing an informational interview and, once you do, spend a great deal of time preparing! Let's say you get 30 minutes with the person....
In my role as a headhunter I am often asked advice about how to get a new job. My last post suggested that it is not so much “what you know” as “who you know” when seeking a new job. And I recommended that you...
A young person graduating with an MPA approached me with a question about getting a job once she graduates. As we discussed her situation it became clear that it's not only young job seekers, but everyone at every stage in their career, who might want...
According to a number of studies I have conducted over the years, nonprofit CEO contracts have longer durations than other industries. The majority began their current position over seven years ago and many things have changed since that first day: for one, new recruits are...
A recent ArtNet news article about the “whopping” compensation of Glenn Lowry, MOMA’s Director, quoted me as saying “It's a nonprofit but it's also a business. The board is paying him because they think he's worth it." Nonprofit executive compensation is a newsworthy issue. There are...
“Opera is an accountant's nightmare". No house ever breaks even, indeed, every time the curtain goes up, a lot of money is lost.” This isn’t from the March 23, 2015 James Stewart profile of Peter Gelb, rather it is a quote from The New Yorker...
What is better than attending a performance when actors or dancers or musicians are connecting with the audience? We sit, shoulder to shoulder, transformed by the magic; quiet – cell phones off (mostly), polite to our neighbors and respectful of the performers; transported by the...
David Geffen, a Brooklyn-born, self-made billionaire pledged $100 million to Lincoln Center Inc. for the renovation of Avery Fisher Hall. In exchange, the home of the New York Philharmonic, which is also the venue for Mostly Mozart and Great Performances, will be named Geffen Hall....
The WSJ commentary raises an important issue about art, politics and the nature of censorship in the arts. But whether it is Mr. Gergiev conducting at the Met or the prohibition of performing Wagner’s music in Israel or cancelling a Mozart opera in Berlin because...
The culturally impoverished US NEA spends 1/40th of what Germany doles out for arts per capita. 10 countries that leave the US in the dust on funding the arts. http://www.alternet.org/culture/culturally-impoverished-us-nea-spends-140th-what-germany-doles-out-arts-capita This piece of “research” engendered a great deal of commentary, mostly negative, about the philistinism and closed...
Financial companies rely on the their trustworthiness and transparency – if their ratings can't be trusted, whose can? In fact, McGraw Hill Financial is very proud of its values- here is their statement of core values: “...
There are similarities between the financial institutions that are too big to fail and the Red Cross. After almost two decades of scandals, weak or unethical leadership, bad press and activities harmful to human life (its infamous blood bank scandals) the Red Cross remains one...
UK blogger and arts critic claims that arts organizations must do their part to prevent global warming by not accepting oil company sponsorships. I heartily disagree: see below for my commentary that appears following the article in the electronic version of the Guardian. Here is the...
The controversy over the newly opened Jean Nouvel Philharmonie de Paris is reminiscent of another controversial cultural building project meant to significantly affect a historic district of that great city. The Philharmonie de Paris It was the 1960s, a time of cultural unrest, when the Paris government...
In the November 12, 2014 edition of the International New York Times, the columnist David Brooks reviewed the economic progress made by Soviet bloc countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago. The progress is uneven. There are reasons why some countries...
Over the last month I attended both the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) and the ASTC (Association of Science and Technology Centers) conferences. While the content and the attendees were different, there were noticeably similar themes and consistent trends. AZA was held at Disney World...
Most failing arts organizations hang on long after they should because one small constituency supports it: whether the arts council panel who continues to support a noncreative poorly run organization because it is “the only one” serving the community, or the wealthy patron who continues...
The most important task of the board of any museum is to select its director, as Willard L. Boyd pointed out in Curator: The Museum Journal 38/3. Unfortunately in recent times, there have been some serious mistakes made by boards in the selection of the...
It is important for the board to develop as many quantitative measurements as possible for evaluating a potential director so that it can make an informed choice, based on a "quantitative screen" as well as chemistry and personality. But how does one develop such a...
