I am starting to ask myself some interesting questions as an artist at this conference. This conference is focused on how in this struggling economy can arts organizations take advantage of current marketing trends to engage their patrons in new ways that will allow their patrons to feel like they are more significant than just a source for money. Current arts organizations’ marketing trends are starting to suggest that they start to include the patron in more behind-the-scenes activities to bring more value to the patron’s experience. One of the ways to achieve this is to offer some kind of “meet the artist experience,” i.e. short videos of the artist in their studio, artist interviews, special events where people meet the artist, etc. The general arts public seem to want to have more of an experience than just being thought of as a monetary donor.
Does that mean that the artist themselves is becoming a marketing tool? In the future, how much choice and privacy will the artist be able and expected to keep and still fulfill the organization’s requests? If as an artist you decide that your work is really about the work and not you as a person, how do you keep the artist as a person separate from the artist as her art and process? If you don’t have some separation will the artist start to take on people comments like they are talking about the artist personally?
As arts organizations demand more from their artists are the artists long term needs being considered? So far I have learned that the artist is mostly paid for there contribution to the marketing vision but are they being underpaid? What other ways do artists need to be supported in this current climate? Should the artist think of themselves as a tool and come up with a pricing guide for these types of requests? How do artists begin to put a price on these types of products? How can artists and organizations help each other with long term sustainability? How can the artist use the organization as a tool? If the artist started to send videos of key people from the partnering organization talking about how easy and effective an artist was for boosting attendance or increased giving would that bring more patrons to their studios? Should artists negotiate a percent of the increase as their pay? Would it help the artist grow and sustain their vision or is it just a way to make money?
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great site.