S4E3: Arthur Cohen

Arthur Cohen is CEO and co-founder of LaPlaca Cohen, a strategy, design, and marketing firm for the cultural world. After business school, he took a job in brand management, but left to work in the nonprofit cultural world. He talked about his first day as marketing director at the Institute of Contemporary Art, which had just opened a Robert Mapplethorpe show.

So, first phone call was from the major, the number one arts reporter at the New York Times who wanted an interview. Wow. Hang up. Phone rings again. And it is a bomb threat. Someone wanted to blow up our place because they thought that this Mapplethorpe show was so objectionable. And in that moment, I realized, wow, I’m in for quite a ride. But also, it reinforced the notion that culture is always a reflection of the world around you.

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