Where Is The Love?

Where Is That “Yes, We Can Spirit?”
Well, whatever optimism people may have felt about Obama becoming president-elect, it apparently wasn’t enough to offset pessimism over the economy. Not only did the Dow drop 480 some points but I got two separate calls about problems with some tours. Even though the difficulties occur after the performers leave my venue, the whole situation reverberates up the line in the form of inquiries about how flexible I am on a number of matters.

Where Is My Partner?
Then I get a call from one of my partners about a third tour. Given everything that has happened until now, I thought her organization might cancel on a tour too. My fears were compounded by the fact I can’t reach her all morning and suddenly her phone is ringing busy for hours on end. Has she left the phone of the hook so she doesn’t have to tell me the bad news? (Then why did she call me?) Imagine my relief when I realized there was a problem with entire organization’s phone system that was causing it to ring busy and when I learned she had misplaced her copy of the tour contract I am lead partner on and had a simple question.

Where Is This All Going?
When I wrote about the possible impacts of the economic downturn a few weeks ago, I half imagined I wouldn’t have any practical interaction with any of the consequences I was mentioning. If anything, I thought it would be me negatively affecting other people–though there is still plenty of time for that to come to pass.

Where Is the Money!
One semi-positive occurrence this week. The amount the state arts foundation grant panel elected to award us was more than we expected. The bad news is that I found out at 4 pm Monday that the revised proposal was due this Friday. So there was a little bit of a rush since there are two layers of bureaucracy which must review my proposal before it could be submitted and the didn’t work on election day. Of course, the whole process is embraced by the caveat that I may get no reward for my expeditious handling of the paperwork if the governor decides to defund the state foundation.

I also have the sneaking suspicion that the larger than expected grant award is based on the assumption that few will be able to meet the fast deadline and if there is any money to disburse, there will be fewer people to split it between.

About Joe Patti

I have been writing Butts in the Seats (BitS) on topics of arts and cultural administration since 2004 (yikes!). Given the ever evolving concerns facing the sector, I have yet to exhaust the available subject matter. In addition to BitS, I am a founding contributor to the ArtsHacker (artshacker.com) website where I focus on topics related to boards, law, governance, policy and practice.

I am also an evangelist for the effort to Build Public Will For Arts and Culture being helmed by Arts Midwest and the Metropolitan Group. (http://www.creatingconnection.org/about/)

My most recent role was as Executive Director of the Grand Opera House in Macon, GA.

Among the things I am most proud are having produced an opera in the Hawaiian language and a dance drama about Hawaii's snow goddess Poli'ahu while working as a Theater Manager in Hawaii. Though there are many more highlights than there is space here to list.

CONNECT WITH JOE


Leave a Comment