Cross Posted to the Mission Paradox Blog: missionparadox.typepad.com
I’ll tell you a secret . . .
The declining subscription numbers and aging audiences that are the status quo in the theatre world (and dance, opera, etc.) scares the hell out of a lot of people in the field.
What scares them is not the problem. It’s a problem the more observant ones in the field predicted a decade ago.
What scares them is the solution. Read the rest of this entry »
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Cross Posted To The Mission Paradox Blog: missionparadox.typepad.com
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One of my favorite words is stewardship.
Broadly defined, a steward is someone who is there to represent a relationship. So when you are a good steward, that means you have represented something well. The arts need more good stewards.
All too often when I listen to artists and arts admins talk about their field . . . they make it sound like we have the worst jobs in the world.
We talk about the challenges like we are the only field that has them.
We complain about the lack of funds or audience like we are entitled to both of them.
But how often do we consider that the reason we don’t get enough funds, or enough butts in seats is because of US? I remember a conversation I had with a very, very bright woman who wanted to start an arts organization. I suggested she consider making her group a nonprofit. She flatly refused. I asked why. Read the rest of this entry »
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Eureka! I just found an application on the web that is so obvious – and so REVOLUTIONARY – I have to share it with you right away…
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My name is Adam Thurman and I’m honored to be joining the ranks of Americans for the Arts bloggers.
As my way of getting the party started, my first post will look at what is often missing in the relationship between artists and their audience.
Hopefully it will help you see your work in the arts in a slightly different light . . . or maybe it will cause you to send me an email about how I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
Either one of those reactions is fine with me.
So let’s see which one it will be . . . right after this brief intro Read the rest of this entry »
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“If they don’t want to come to the ballpark,” Yogi Berra observed, “nobody is gonna stop them.”
Arts marketing folk are optimists by nature. So while we may occasionally take solace in that observation, it doesn’t take us long to crawl out of that hole, brush the pity from our clothes and ask, “So what do we do now?”
It’s once again one of those times.
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There’s a story of a farmer who wants to teach his horse to give up eating. “Think of the money I’ll save,” he boasts to his neighbor. And every day, the farmer teaches his horse a little more, by withholding a little more food. A couple of weeks later, his neighbor sees the farmer walking to town. “Where’s your horse?” he asks. “Bad luck,” replies the farmer, “Just as soon as I taught that horse to eat nothing at all – he died!”
This isn’t a parable about your marketing budget. Of course it’s been cut. It SHOULD be cut. I don’t know an arts organization that doesn’t need to exercise extreme budgetary prudence.
This is a question about your audience. How well are you feeding your organization the new audiences it needs to survive? Read the rest of this entry »
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The economic crisis is starting to trickle down to arts organizations all over the nation. Recent casualties of the crisis include Opera Pacific, Milwaukee Shakespeare Festival, and several Broadway shows. To adjust for the weakening economy, planned productions have been abandoned at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Washington National Opera, the New York City Opera and even at the seemingly untouchable Metropolitan Opera. Not to mention the St. Louis Museum of Art postponing its $125 million expansion or the Shakespeare Theatre missing its gala goal by $300,000. Read the rest of this entry »
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I begin this, my first post, with some good news: my organization, the Heard Museum is in great standing to survive and thrive in this down economy. Some of you reading may think, “Really?” or “You’re living in a dream world.” But the better question is “how?” Here briefly is what specifically my department is doing to make it through these tough times.
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Yesterday was my first day at the National Arts Marketing Project Conference in Houston. I opted to come in a day early to participate in the pricing institute, which supplied me with a couple of good insights and an excellent reminder.
The insight: at the pricing institute, we discussed values based pricing. What value do you bring to your customer, and the importance of comprehending, creating and communicating your value. However, Tim Baker (one of the presenters) said something that really resonated with me about organizations that do a lot of new work. He said “if the customer doesn’t know the play they are going to see, it is extremely difficult for them to evaluate value, so the value equation must rest on the reputation of the institution.” I took that sentence to read that if you want to do a substantial amount of new work, you must increase your institutional marketing to brand the institution because the customer cannot make a values based decision on a product that is unknown to them. This coincides with a main argument that Michael Kaiser makes in his new book The Art of the Turnaround. Mr. Kaiser’s main mantra: good art, marketed well. And he says one of the major mistakes we make as arts marketers is concentrating too much on product marketing and not enough on institutional marketing. Read the rest of this entry »
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Alec Baldwin and Nigel Lythgoe talk about the state of the arts in America at Arts Advocacy Day 2012. The acclaimed actor and famed producer discuss arts education and what inspires them.
