Topic: arts-management
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Michael Kaiser: Every arts organization has a deficit
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 · Topics: arts-management, boards, deficit, kennedy-center, non-profits
From Huffington Post: I am always amused (disturbed?) when someone attached to a not-for-profit arts organization (usually a board or staff member) rationalizes an annual deficit with: “Every opera company/symphony/ballet company has a deficit.”
Tell that to the Oregon Symphony, which has been in the black two years in a row. As reported in an illuminating article by Anne Adams in the Portland Monthly, the Symphony earned a surplus of over $190,000 on an annual budget of $13.9 million during the 2010/11 season. · Go to Michael Kaiser: Every arts organization has a deficit →
Board members need training, too
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 · Topics: arts-management, boards, kennedy-center, non-profits
From Michael Kaiser at Huffington Post: I have witnessed financial meltdowns of so many arts organization and can only imagine the scene in the board room: Typically different factions emerge. There are the ‘arts lovers’ who worry for the health and happiness of the musicians and the quality of the orchestra. This group is passionate about the mission of the orchestra; they argue that more money must be found for the symphony and that any diminution in number of musicians or their salaries will result in an unacceptable reduction in quality. Unfortunately, this group typically has the fewest resources to contribute which reduces their power in board room discussions. · Go to Board members need training, too →
Engaging matters
Monday, September 19, 2011 · Topics: arts-management, customer-experience, non-profits
From Doug Borwick, Director of Arts Management at Salem College: The arts began as collective activity around the campfire, expressions of community. In a very real sense, the community owned that expression. Over time, with increasing specialization of labor, the arts– especially Western “high arts”– became distanced from the community. Today the survival of established arts organizations hinges on their ability to shorten that distance. Engagement is important; engaging matters. · Go to Engaging matters →
What if… we cast off our non-profit status?
Monday, June 20, 2011 · Topics: arts-management, marketing, non-profits
In honor of Theater Communications Group’s 50th Anniversary, the performing arts service organization solicited “what if” manifestos for their upcoming annual conference. This “What if” is pointed in the direction of the the non-profit business model by asking what would happen if resident theaters abandoned up their non-profit status. · Go to What if… we cast off our non-profit status? →
There are no crises, only tough decisions
Friday, January 7, 2011 · Topics: arts-management, crisis-communication, down-economy, non-profits
There are no crises in the arts – there are crises in arts organizations as they are currently constructed. Audiences are not shrinking, they are growing, but they are not necessarily interested in consuming all the art our member organizations produce. Between 1970 and 2010, the number of arts organizations grew from 2,700 to 27,000 but the number of people funding them, and attending their events, did not grow at all. In this keynote address delivered at the joint annual conferences of Chorus America and The League of American Orchestras, Russell Willis Taylor, President and CEO of National Arts Strategies, explores the extraordinary opportunities that arts organizations have today. · Go to There are no crises, only tough decisions →
What’s an organization for?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 · Topics: arts-management, brand-strategy, non-profits, org-culture, what-business
From Andrew Taylor: Too many of our current discussions about new business models and funding structures for arts and culture take it as a given that the organization is the appropriate frame of reference. How can we make arts organizations more vital, more responsive, more sustainable? As if the organization is some universal unit of measure, and always the best unit for understanding and advancing positive change.
In fact, the idea of an organization is a fiction — a useful fiction to be sure, but a fiction nonetheless. It’s a group of resources and people, bound by contract or other agreement, and credentialed by a web of city, state, Federal, and common law. Organizations evolved to solve a particular set of problems. And even though the problem set has changed, our organizational bias remains. · Go to What’s an organization for? →
Artistic Authority in Orchestras: A Tricky Balance
Saturday, October 17, 2009 · Topics: arts-management, boards, command-and-control, orchestras
From Henry Fogel: I appear to have caused some confusion in the past with my comments about orchestra board members who try to wield too much authority in programming decisions, and conversely about conductors who adopt an autocratic, almost dictatorial stance, saying, “I am in charge of all artistic matters — just leave me alone.” In a private email I was recently asked, “Which is it, Mr. Fogel? Is the music director in charge? Or the board? Or, for that matter, the management?” · Go to Artistic Authority in Orchestras: A Tricky Balance →
Arts in Crisis
Thursday, February 5, 2009 · Topics: arts-management, down-economy
a Kennedy Center program designed to provide planning assistance and consulting to struggling arts organizations throughout the United States · Go to Arts in Crisis →
