2007 Research Project
Professional Presenters & the Amateur Arts
Research Team: Leigh Henderson, Joanne Jacobson, Jara Kern, Maggie Marquardt
With new technologies and renewed passion, Americans are making art and expressive works in a thousand different ways — knitting circles, community ensembles, web-based songwriter networks, ''weekend warrior'' musicians, webloggers, photographers, ethnic dance and handicraft groups, filmmakers, podcasters, poetry slammers, hip-hop and scratch artists, and on and on. Some aspire to and surpass professional standards. Others engage for the rush and joy of creating something new. Join a team of graduate students and special guests as we explore the role and relevance of professional arts presenters in this emerging world of participatory practice. Are these amateur art-makers competitors to the arts presenter or powerful new partners in advancing a community's expressive life? This second-annual effort of the Bill Dawson Research Internship Fund will honor Bill's life and work by connecting emerging trends to professional practice and by stretching what you think you know about your work.
Presented Sunday, January 21, 2007 at the Arts Presenters Conference with session respondents: Bill Ivey, Director, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University; James O'Connell, Jr., Executive Director, Performing Arts Foundation, Wausau, WI.
2006 Research Project
How We Make Meaning
Research team: Bridget Marquis, Jennifer Post, Derek Kwan, Erin McLennon
Download How We Make Meaning report.
The inaugural effort of the Bill Dawson Research Internship Fund honored Bill's life and work by connecting emerging theory to professional practice and by stretching what you think you know about your work. It's widely known that audiences, patrons, boards, volunteers and staff of presenting organizations are all driven and engaged by the powerful meaning and value they find in the lively arts. But how is this meaning formed in the first place, and what forces build or dissipate its power. Over the course of one-year, the research team, advised by Andrew Taylor, Director of Bolz Center for Arts Administration, sought answers to these questions and others like them. In conjunction with session respondents Susie Farr, Executive Director of Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and Neill Archer Roan, Principal of The Roan Group, the research team reviewed their findings on the subject of value and meaning in the live arts experience on January 22, 2006 at the Arts Presenters Annual Members Conference.
For more information on the William Dawson Research Internship, visit The Bolz Center.
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