Brian Dickie Joins Inside The Arts

Briandickie
Inside The Arts continues to grow and today marks the addition of the newest blog: Brian Dickie, Life as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater. Brian has been writing his blog for more than two-and-a-half years and during that time he has carved out a position of great esteem, consequently, the addition of his blog to the Inside The Arts adds another solid block to the site’s foundation. With the addition of Brian’s blog as well as a new column beginning January 7, Inside The Arts has found itself in need of a redesign to make room for all of this growth…

Itsv15
Consequently, stop by and visit Inside The Arts
v1.5 to see what’s new. One feature I’m particular proud of is a new
scroller app that allows visitors to flip through the most popular and
noteworthy articles. Other new features
include smoother page navigation and each blog/column aggregator now
includes article excerpts for each blog and column instead of just
headlines. As 2008 unfolds, a series of exclusive Podcasts from Inside The Arts bloggers and columnists as well as a progression of special projects will head your way.

But the really exciting news is the addition of Brian’s blog. Life as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater has always been one of my favorites as Brian doesn’t sugar-coat the inner working of Chicago Opera Theater
(and the opera world in general). There’s nothing tawdry, rather, those
already interested in opera will find themselves getting sucked in even
further and those on the periphery of the opera world will discover
there’s far more there than they anticipated.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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