ARTSblog

To have a successful career in the arts you have to understand risk aversion.

Here’s the best definition of risk aversion I have ever heard and it is particular to the performing arts: Most people, when given the option to attend a performing arts event are more scared that the performance is going to be disappointing then they are excited that the performance is going to be good.

When we approach the public with our work, they immediately ask themselves, “is this worth my time and money?” And the default answer to that question is “no” until we prove otherwise.

That means the burden of proof is on us. Many of us don’t understand this. Read the rest of this entry »

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I found this article this week while compiling my Arts Education Weekly News email. Each Monday I slog through hundreds of Google News alerts, electronic newsletters, new research and other data. I’m lucky to have a job where knowing who is doing what when and how is part of the responsibility.

Art Education: It may take years to realize its value (by Louis Hoglund from Perham Enterprise Bulletin)

Our art room teacher wasn’t far from retirement. Lord knows, she deserved a permanent break from us–7th and 8th graders, especially us boys.

Despite our every effort to make her life miserable, Miss Rollefson continued to teach with an almost defiant passion.

For the first half of our eighth grade year, Miss Rollefson taught what was sort of an “art literature lite” class. We were taught a very general art history timeline, that progressed roughly from DiVinci’s “Mona Lisa” to Rembrandt to the French impressionists to Picasso.

She taught with all her heart, even as the inane, smart alec boys were snickering at the masterpieces portraying partially nude women.

Read the rest of the editorial here.

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Dear Keep the Arts In Public Schools members,

I’m asking those of you who can to assist me in the following way:

1. Share a memory of an Arts Teacher who helped shape or influence the person you are today.
2. Share a program or school that is successfully maintaining an Arts program despite all circumstances or conditions.
3. Share a regional vote or initiative with at least six weeks of preparation time that we can coordinate and mobilize around.

Thank you for leaving your comments below. Your passion is appreciated.

MacEwen

www.twitter.com/KAIPS

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Performing arts organizations all across the country are seeing difficult times. From Broadway to Kansas City to Santa Cruz, times are tough and getting tougher. Many organizations will close and many more will cut programming and outreach. Staffs will get smaller and everyone will learn to do more with less. Will your organization make it? What impact would the closing of your organization have on your community? Read the rest of this entry »

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Here’s the thing I’ve noticed about Alan Brown and his presentations, he gives you the carrot and the stick. He’s been commissioned by numerous organizations to help get at the intrinsic value of the arts and drill down into segmenting ticket buyers and donors based on values – not transactions.

He’s helping us begin to understand the why.

His findings are the carrot, leading us on new paths toward deeper engagement with our patrons and the stick/s are his questions posed, dropped into the talks ever so casually. Nudging us further along this new path than we thought we were comfortable traveling – at least not without a flashlight or bread crumbs.

Following Alan is a little like embarking on a carb-free fairy tale, skip the bread and get right to the moral of the story which may seem scary and obvious all at once. Inevitable, even.

Why aren’t we talking to our patrons more? How might we better understand them? What do they experience when they decide to come to your house? HIs work with the MUPS is a place to start for newbies.

He closed the afternoon session about Ticket buyer segmentation  with this little tidbit. I’m paraphrasing: I urge you to get on an education diet. Design a learning pathway for your organization. Essentially he was following up on the suggestion that we, as arts marketers, need to survey smarter, be strategic in our thinking and that we might not always need to involve a huge consulting contract to find out why it is your patrons are walking through your door. It can be as simple as asking them. “For the cost of a cookie” How you treat them once you know is where it gets trickier!

What will you ask your customers?

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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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