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Ferriso understood that the ability of the museum to involve more people in the conversation was based on the relevancy of the content.

The CDN content was particularly relevant to Portland and had the potential to attract a new audience--the young creative class.

Portland has had a long trade relationship with China due to its location in the Pacific Northwest, and city officials intend to forge even closer ties. Portland's entrepreneurs and business people are interested in understanding more about this global force that is transforming the sociopolitical dynamic of the world. In addition, the exhibition's focus on design, though not traditional for the museum, connected with Portland's thriving design community.

triggered local businesses that were not previously involved with the museum to get involved

Discussions are ongoing about bringing in more exhibitions that are relevant to local businesses.

They invited a small number of people from the creative community who they knew would help stimulate conversation, like a good host at a dinner party. These creators hosted their own events and were invited to blog on the exhibition's Web site.

The bigger challenge for the museum was releasing control of the conversation. Museums are historically cautious, and protective of the intellectual rigor of each exhibition.

Curation: Stay true to who you are."At the end of the day, you still need to present a point of view," said Jay. "Curation is still king." The museum was able to successfully move beyond the traditional museum experience and remain authentic because it understood its core promise--inspiring conversations through art and culture. The medium of social media did not become the museum's promise, but a means to connect with a new generation of potential patrons. It remained committed to curatorial rigor, the selection of collaborators was strategic, and the topic was timely and meaningful. By staying true to its purpose, the museum was able to be relevant to this new generation without alienating its traditional patrons. An 85-year-old board member said it best: "CDN allowed the museum to rethink how it connects with people."

New metrics are being discussed to measure the value of the conversations generated by the museum. Ideas include measuring repeat visits to the museum, quality of conversations, and influence (how do you measure the impact of inspiring the next Frank Gehry?).

he wealthiest people often have extremely complicated, long-standing financial arrangements, including philanthropic planning that could negate any benefits for donating more under a billionaire’s tax.

Owens also noted that current tax law caps charitable deductions at 60 percent of adjusted gross income. If that provision remains in effect, wealthy people who hit that cap even before a billionaire tax is imposed may see no tax benefit from additional giving,

Economists who study taxes on the ultra wealthy say they think people overestimate the impact of new taxes on charitable giving.

“Sometimes people get the false impression that philanthropy actually is a roundabout way to save money on taxes that exceeds the cost of the gift, and that just isn’t true,” says Duquette. “If you give your money away, then even if you do get some tax benefits, you still have less wealth than you did when you started, so that’s not really a reason why philanthropists do philanthropy.”

The workers get to choose which duties they’ll take on — that’s important, Monteny says, because people with dementia don’t have many opportunities to make decisions in their lives.

he continues to live independently in her own house, which Oranje believes is possible because her work at the farm keeps her active.