Jan Karlin

Your life experience, in the music industry and far beyond, is extraordinary, and obviously a vital platform for this exploration of creativity in these challenging times. --- Deanne Urmy

By opening the questions of Art as it enters the 21st Century, you have done us an immense kindness of lighting our brains with the questions that - in order to begin to answer the eternal questions of our craft - we need to answer. Your wonderful book is both an eye-opener and a Guide to some of the deepest questions we still must finish. --- Martin Perlich

“What’s Next” is excellent and timely. It shows how pop culture (the “age of entertainment”) has supplanted artistic creativity worldwide and illustrates the resulting adverse effects in society. The absence of the arts in today’s educational curriculum, the emphasis on being superficially clever rather than genuinely innovative, the focus on raising funds and erecting massive centers for the arts (the “edifice complex”) without giving much thought to what the buildings are for, and the reliance on constant visual displays to “enhance” musical performances are all explained in convincing detail. Jan Karlin, with her extensive experience as a successful arts administrator and performing musician, is well qualified to describe the problems and to specify possible steps that can be taken to start the recovery process. --- Richard Derby