Author: Guest Blogger

How do you prepare yourself to tell the world about your gift as an artist, as an entrepreneur?   As an Acting Coach and Public Speaking Coach I deal with artists and presenters of all sorts who want to effectively communicate their gift.  What is your gift?  Can you put it in a sentence?  Are you passionate about it?  Do you realize that it can change people’s lives?  Do you focus on this when you speak, because it’s not about you, it’s about the gift you are giving.  If you have nothing to give to an audience, don’t speak.    My…

I read in a book years ago, at the beginning of my creative journey, “The question is not, ‘Why do some people make art?’  The question is, ‘Why not?'”  To me this expressed the primitive need we all posess to create, to make our mark, to publicly declare, “We are here!”  For me, creativity all begins by getting in the correct frame of mind.  I call it the right brain and it’s voice is “The Artist Within”.  Your left brain voice is physiologically responsible for the past and the future.  In practical terms, it reminds you that if you stick your…

BLUE DAMEN
Work is the amount of force needed to move an object a given distance.

GWYDHAR
Sure in physics class.

BLUE DAMEN
It applies to jobs to: the amount of ambition you have multiplied by how far you want to go equals the amount of work you need to do to get there.

A couple of summers ago, I met the amazing Gary Beckman at the Brevard Conference on Music Entrepreneurship. I was truly inspired by the ways in which he encouraged students to begin the process of starting their own entrepreneurship ventures while in school, and was also intrigued by his extensive research on the state of arts entrepreneurship programs in this country. Gary manages the Arts Entrepreneurship Educator’s Network, a rich resource for higher education institutions and arts entrepreneurship programs which can be found at www.ae2n.net. Recently, Gary interviewed me about my work with Fifth House Ensemble. A copy of the…

The creative visionary Buckminster Fuller, now featured in an exhibit at the Chicago MCA, embodied innovation like few others.

Here’s the problem—we are facing unprecedented challenges that require new ways of thinking, and the cultivation of new capacities for innovation and problem solving. We have to revamp our entire education system from K through continuing education for adults, re-orienting it to educate people who have to think and act in a world that is more fluid and unpredictable than ever before. Beyond job retraining, we have to cultivate (to blend Daniel Pink and Howard Gardner) whole new minds for the future. Question is how we do this, especially in Universities, which benefit from and are hindered by having been…

Truth, Success, Etc. is what you get when a blog and a screenplay get together for an evening of philosophical discussion and end up having a baby.

I wrote my first blog post and sent it off to Lisa to read. A few minutes later my phone rang and Lisa said: “Barbara, you’re amazing, tell your story instead!” I realized what I had written was very little about myself. She wanted me to share my story with all of you.  How could I say no?  So here goes: From the age of 7, I had always wanted to be an actress.  I could be someone different,  I didn’t like where I was – in a household where Polish was spoken and I was looked upon in the world…

in this space time has texture my thoughts do not rush I notice my heart   in this space I am able to reason and to tease apart the strands of epiphany   in this space I feel the momentum of others in balance with the trees, the grass, the rain   on the first day coyote came to check me out he hung about for a long time he wasn’t afraid but curious   so I learned from coyote and remembered how wonderful it feels to allow curiosity   on the last day I am sad to leave but…

Despite occasional criticism of Tom Friedman’s 21st century foresight, his “Flat World” insights on innovation are provocative–particularly his case for building right-brain, creative skills of the middle class.