Bahia Ramos has been selected as The Wallace Foundation’s new Director of Arts and will oversee one of the foundation’s key grantmaking areas. She will lead both the arts program unit and the interdisciplinary team responsible for the strategic design and implementation of Wallace’s initiatives in the arts.

“We are delighted to have Bahia Ramos joining our team at The Wallace Foundation,“ said Will Miller, President of The Wallace Foundation. “She brings a wealth of experience in philanthropy, the arts, and community engagement that, in combination with the experience and expertise of the other members of the arts interdisciplinary team, will help us work effectively with our grantees and shape our future initiatives in the arts and arts education.”

In its Building Audiences for Sustainability initiative, Wallace is working with 25 performing arts organizations to develop practical insights into how arts organizations can successfully expand their audiences in ways that also contribute to their long-term financial health. As field efforts in the initiative enter their final phase over the next year or so, Ramos will lead the development of the strategy for the next round of Wallace’s work in the arts.

Ramos will also lead Wallace’s work in arts education, which seeks to increase the equitable access to high-quality arts education for young people, especially those in high-poverty urban areas. Currently, that effort supports the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Youth Arts Initiative, which is testing innovative afterschool and summer arts programming for young people in their middle-school years.

Learn more and read the full story here.

A recent New Yorker story discussed prevailing trends in music composition and how they reflect a growing understanding of what constitutes “serious” music. Pointing to hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar’s winning of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, a prize historically awarded to white, classical composers, the author argues that contemporary composition is becoming fractured in the best possible way.

According to the article, “Composers in the classical tradition have effectively monopolized the [Pulitzer] prize since its inception, in 1943. Not until 1997 did a nominal outsider—the jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis—receive a nod. Lamar’s victory, for his moodily propulsive album “damn.,” elicited some reactionary fuming—one irate commenter said that his tracks were ‘neurologically divergent from music’—as well as enthusiastic assent from younger generations. The thirty-one-year-old composer Michael Gilbertson, who was a finalist this year, told Slate, ‘I never thought my string quartet and an album by Kendrick Lamar would be in the same category. This is no longer a narrow honor.’

Learn more and read the full story here.

Nell Painter, prominent historian and professor emeritus at Princeton, reveals in her new memoir, Old in Art School, her experience being an old black woman in art school.

The author recently spoke to The Root about her decision to change direction after a life filled with accomplishments and acclaim. She also highlights key themes her book identifies:

On the importance of a journey to self-acceptance: “In art school if you’re over 30, you’re old,” she says, adding that in academia, certain privileges are afforded with age. But in art school, the combination of her age and gender not only made her an anomaly—it rendered her invisible. But the book is less about the wounds inflicted over the journey than about the process of becoming an artist—of forging a new identity in the autumn of your life. Painter chooses to embrace the word “old” in her memoir.

On the importance of a journey to self-renewal: Throughout the memoir, she includes work from various periods of her time in art school. Among the most striking images she includes are a series of self-portraits. “One reason to make a lot of self-portraits is because I’m always with me,” Painter says, adding that she doesn’t have to worry about “insulting” herself when doing a self-portrait. “I see myself in many many different ways.” She leans into the specificity of her experiences—the reader learns, for example, about how she came to be a “process artist,” that is, where the creation of the art itself is as much a focus, if not more so, than the end product itself. She describes her methods and her particular struggles with different media. And Painter fully acknowledges the privilege of her position—apart from her sterling academic career, she also had a husband and a father who supported her financially during her time in art school. Having the time and the means to pursue an endeavor is a luxury that doesn’t escape her.

Learn more and read the full interview here.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, the presidential historian, is releasing a new book entitled Leadership: In Turbulent Times. Looking at the leadership strategies of Lincoln, Teddy and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Johnson, Goodwin identifies key strategies for leaders through difficult periods of transition.

The author recently spoke to Fast Company about some of the key themes the book identifies:

On the importance of telling a good story: "[Take] Abraham Lincoln: While we celebrate his beautiful language, his speeches really worked because they were filled with stories and illustration. He believed people remembered anecdotes better than facts and figures. When he was young, he would listen as his father and the people who would come by his little log cabin told stories. He’d go to bed at night and try to translate those stories into [his] words, so he could then go out on the field the next day, stand on a tree stump—he’s like eight, nine years old—and entertain his friends."

On the importance of self-renewal: "These [presidents] had incredible challenges in front of them, and they all were able to find time to replenish their energy and creativity. When you look at the statistics on people today, it’s astonishing: Half of Americans aren’t using their vacation time; people fail to disconnect even when they are on vacation. And here you have Abraham Lincoln, in the middle of the Civil War, going to the theater 100 times. He said when he was in the theater, his mind could go back to Shakespeare and the War of the Roses, and he could forget for a few precious hours about the [Civil] War. FDR had a cocktail party every night where the rule was, you can’t talk about the war."

Learn more and read the full interview here.

Recent coverage from WBUR on arts funding in Massachusetts argues that public support for arts and culture is a key driver of economic activity, especially in less populous areas of the country. The article points to rural areas of Massachusetts as an example: " cultural organizations in and around Shelburne, [a largely rural area that was deemed a cultural district], support approximately 325 jobs and generate $7.6 million in economic activity, which includes spending household incomes and local and state government revenue."

Small cities across the country benefit from a vibrant arts scene not only for the aesthetic value, but for the catalytic boost to local civic life. "Holland, Michigan, has developed its downtown with walking and biking paths, public parks and a waterfront venue for outdoor public concerts. Residents of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, extol the city’s arts scene as one reason why 'high school kids say they would like to stay or return one day.' Eastport, Maine, with less than 1,500 residents, is leaning hard on its shipping port, the power of its offshore tides to generate renewable energy, and the arts to revive its economy."

Learn more and read the full article here.