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The Creative ‘Class’: Did I Pass or Fail?

There has been something bugging me amidst all the ballyhoo about the arts driving the economy, the rise of the creative class and the cult of innovation. I live in a city swimming in creativity, stuffed with artists, overwhelmed with visual stimuli, intellectual...

Money and mindset and the arts…

money issues…. It seems to me that the people who were least interested in math and science, and perhaps who suffered failure in these because the methods used to teach them were not effective with us creative types, are the ones now wanting to offload responsibility...

Leading your own life

Leadership and entrepreneurial qualities are very similar. And career self-managers must develop these qualities in order to lead themselves in their own lives and livelihoods…. Leadership is generally assumed to be a set of skills and qualities that are applied in...

Careers in the Arts

It seems ironic to me – and reason for concern – that parents who have nurtured the creative and expressive nature of a child would still be frightened when the child says: I want to be a…. (dancer, an actor, a painter, a musician, etc fill in the blank with some...

The Long Hallway

It is important to make space where creativity can emerge, and where individuals can get help or share ideas not when and where the preset agenda dictates, but in the moment when the need or thought occurs. “The long hallway” refers to a comment made by a...

Getting Your Voice Heard

It seems to me that most everyone who has suffered the consequences of funding cutbacks and layoffs and challenges to their existence is now clamoring to be heard by government or other ‘power brokers’. Most of what I hear is a plea for acknowledgement of the...

Cairo to the DTES

I attended an event this afternoon at the Wosk Centre for Dialogue, hosted by SFU and the Aga Khan Foundation. Discussion about regeneration as opposed to gentrification in city neighbourhoods, after viewing a film about the various projects of the Aga Khan Trust for...

School-to-Work Transition for Artists

Summary of Notes for Presentation Montreal Dec 8 2001 Q: What kind of ‘transition from school to work’ initiatives would be the most efficient to implement in a context where 50 percent of the 809,000 cultural workers are fully or partially self-employed? How can we...