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Want To Pursue A Creative Career?..Uhm, The Brits Will Help You Decide

February 13, 2013

by:

Joe Patti

Finder of interesting things, Thomas Cott, tweeted a link to an article about creative apprenticeships in the UK. While unpaid non profit internships are not against the law in the U.S., they have been something of a hot topic in England.

According to the article Cott linked to, the creation of the National Skills Academy is not a reaction to the internship scandal, but given that many businesses in creative industries heavily depend on unpaid labor, it does provide a response to that problem. Essentially, it allows young people to gain the skills they lack in professional settings and provide organizations with some labor without running afoul the law.

I am not quite sure how this is arranged. Apprentices are entitled to a special apprenticeship minimum wage. Whether the company using their labor pays it directly or indirectly, or the training program does isn’t clear to me.

What interested me was some of the things the National Skills Academy was doing to provide training. Whereas getting a degree in the arts is increasingly seen as not marketable in the U.S. given rising tuition, the National Skills Academy has done their research and are working with creative industries to answer the demand. They have even built a training and rehearsal facility.

We’ve encouraged a shift in education away from courses of over-supply towards training that fulfils a clear demand from the industry. In the theatre and live music sectors, our members told us they needed new backstage staff more than anything else (and they weren’t at all worried about performers). But lots of colleges were offering over-subscribed performing arts courses first and foremost. We had a look at this, and our education members now deliver quality backstage courses approved by industry and popular with students.

Our members also felt the live events, music and theatre industries needed somewhere to train and rehearse. Together we made the case for a £13m investment to build an industry-spec new building for industry and students, The Backstage Centre.

The situation in the UK isn’t that much different than in the U.S. in terms of what is needed to do the job. One section of the site observes that even though 58% of those working in creativity industries have degrees, they ironically valued experience over education because there are gaps in the education people are receiving.

They also observe, as in the U.S., unpaid internships are not a viable option for people who don’t have the money to support themselves while they work. They strive to shift that dynamic.

But that’s not what we’re being told – a quarter of employers we asked said they were experiencing skills gaps and shortages in key areas. As a result, we’ve seen a rapid growth in unpaid internships – now much longer than the traditional three-month placement.

We’re concerned that there’s a disconnect here between employers and the education sector supplying them with staff. We’ve also seen that unpaid work is unsustainable for anyone without private support.

The overall picture shows under-employment, unemployment and unfair access.

Changing recruitment culture

Our membership network led the campaign to encourage a change in recruitment culture. In 2009, we created the first specialist apprenticeship frameworks, to supply employers with staff who have the specialist skills they want.

There are whole sections on associated websites devoted to helping young people make decisions about what creative careers they might want to pursue and what opportunities are out there. There are two sites devoted specifically to theatre work and another to music.

It is not just online resources, they have a series of in person sessions around the UK young people can attend. Some are targeted at students as young as 13. Many of them are fully booked.

So if you are like me, your first reaction is probably something along the lines of “Why don’t we have something like this in the U.S.?” I think even with all the talk about how the arts councils are continuing to be defunded in the U.K. and how cultural organizations may have to look to the U.S. model of garnering private support for their work, there exists an immense fundamental gap between how arts and culture are valued in the respective countries.

This program was only created five years ago and it already has 1,800 apprentices and the Backstage Centre built. Now admittedly, it remains to be seen whether there are jobs for all these people. My suspicion is that they expect/hope some of these people to end up creating their own companies and to help drive a shift to a creative economy.

Art(ist) Education, Government Relations, State of the Arts, Working In The Arts

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Can You Pursue The Intrinsic Value of Arts Alone?

February 13, 2013

by:

Joe Patti

There was a post by KCET columnist Corbett Barklie last fall that has had me thinking and wondering if there hasn’t been enough conversation about this topic.

In short, Barklie feels that arts organizations are sacrificing a focus on the intrinsic value of art in the pursuit of “social service” related activities. (my emphasis)

Arts groups exist to interpret the past, elucidate the present, and imagine the future. To borrow from Dewitt H. Parker’s The Principles of Aesthetics, “The intrinsic value of art must be unique, for it is the value of a unique activity — the free expression of experience in a form delightful and permanent, mediating communication.”

Nonprofit arts groups and the artists that run them are not reactionary entities. They are visionary entities.

You may be thinking, “But what about art groups who work in schools? Artists who work in hospitals?” In my opinion, those are arts service organizations — a rarely made but critical distinction. Arts service organizations exist to create and provide ancillary programs that help fulfill the missions of social service nonprofits such as schools, community centers, hospitals, etc…

[…]

Because no distinction has been made between arts groups and arts service organizations, the general arts and arts policy conversation (set by funders and designated leaders) is getting more and more muddled. And artists who exist in organizations that are only concerned with artistic excellence are beginning to feel marginalized.

[…]

Unless and until arts groups find their voice of disagreement and set aside fear of funding or political ramifications long enough to speak up for themselves, the conversation will continue to focus less and less on challenges facing arts groups that are committed solely to artistic excellence. Eventually these arts groups will fade from view completely.

My first thought was, but isn’t an educational component the way it is supposed to be? Most non-profit organizations are organized under the aegis of the education part of 501 (c) 3. In a time when there is less arts education in schools, isn’t it in our best long term interest to be providing educational services? But then again, by Barklie’s definition, I have been working for arts service organizations for the last 20 odd years so this is the normal for me.

So my question to my larger audience; is it as Barklie suggests (and most recently echoed by Diane Ragsdale), have funders and others lead the arts in this direction?

After all, at one time, art was presented for arts sake and there wasn’t any efforts to supplement the efforts of education and health care.

Is this an improvement or a dilution of our effort? It can be argued that pursuing education programs helps put arts organizations in touch with their and constituencies, helping to remove ivory tower mentality and acculturate the community.

But there is also the issue of diverting resources from the core competency and mission of the company. For profit businesses aren’t expected to do this. Many get immense tax breaks with no expectation that they serve the public good.

Is it the new normal that arts organizations must split their focus in order to maintain their existence? Is there an egotism inherent to believing you should be able to pursue the intrinsic value of art alone?

Shaping oneself as an arts service organization seems about the only option for garnering foundation funding and mollifying governmental entities who want something more than pursuit of artistic excellence as a justification for being.

Thoughts?

Art(ist) Education, Audience Relations, Business Models, Info You Can Use

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Info You Can Use: Development Directors Need Love Too

February 11, 2013

by:

Joe Patti

You may be aware of the recent report commissioned by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and conducted by CompassPoint about the careers of development directors. I already had a pretty good idea that development was a thankless task and there was a lot of turnover, but Under Developed: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising, brings the reality to the fore.

I was astonished to learn that a quarter of development directors were novices or had no experience in the field at all. My guess would have been closer to 5%.

One in four executive directors (24%) say their development directors have no experience or are novice at “current and prospective donor research.” Among the smallest nonprofits, the number rises to 32%. When it comes to securing gifts, executives report that 26% of development directors overall—and 38% among the smallest nonprofits— have no experience or are novice.

Half of all development directors vs. 34% of executive directors contemplate leaving development in two years. 22% of development directors had either given notice or were actively looking at the time they were surveyed. 40% of those surveyed said they weren’t sure they would stay in development as a career.

A quarter of executive directors reported firing their previous development director for performance or incompatibility with organizational culture.

As might be expected, organizations with bigger budgets reported greater retention rates. Being able to offer better salaries enabled them to attract talented people from other organizations. Some of these organizations reported something of an arms race with the best development professionals being able to name their own price in the face of an ever shrinking talent pool driving costs up across the board.

I have given some attention to the difficulties with attracting and retaining executive directors over the years so I thought it important to turn some attention to the development arm.

In fact, the report makes many of the same recommendations you will find in respect to the executive director positions: recognizing and celebrating emerging leaders, having better training/mentoring and having transition plans.

One of the central things they suggest is nurturing a culture of philanthropy. If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know a common refrain I have is that marketing and development aren’t the sole province of those departments followed by an inevitable link here.

The report talks about the need not to silo responsibilities. They define culture of philanthropy as:

Most people in the organization (across positions) act as ambassadors and engage in relationship-building. Everyone promotes philanthropy and can articulate a case for giving. Fund development is viewed and valued as a mission-aligned program of the organization. Organizational systems are established to support donors. The executive director is committed and personally involved in fundraising.

While they specifically mention executive director in the definition, the board is mentioned frequently enough in their discussion of the concept they probably should appear as well. They acknowledge at length that asking for money is a difficult endeavor for all those involved. They felt the fund development process would be much easier if the goal permeated all areas of the organization because it would naturally bring more support and resources to bear and make the director feel more empowered.

“I think the fundraisers don’t always manage up because they think, ‘It’s all on my shoulders.’ They forget that you’ve got 20 some board members and another group of volunteers, an executive director, and other direct staff — that this is a partnership.
—Executive Director

This is the one area in which smaller organizations can be compete with larger ones. While they may not have the money to pay high salaries and support the newest development software, (and the software gap is getting increasingly smaller and affordable), the more close-knit working environment can have the staff more easily integrate with development than in larger organizations where the function is more departmentalized.

There are some depressing findings in the report, but I think it is worth reading because I suspect it will also reveal that the problems one faces in ones organization aren’t as uncommon as you might think. That realization will hopefully allow people to feel a little freer to discuss these issues rather than assuming they face them alone and everyone else is operating effectively.

Fundraising, Info You Can Use, Leadership

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Info You Can Use: Leveraging Transitions Well

February 6, 2013

by:

Joe Patti

So I really hadn’t intended to write too much more about my job change until I left my current job or took my next one. However, the assistant theatre manager who is chairing the search committee is using some activities which I think are really beneficial to my organization and the community.

Today she held a meeting with various stakeholders to discuss what they wanted from the person who would replace me. I wasn’t included, but I eavesdropped on the conversation rising to my office off and on for about 15 minutes.

The group was comprised of about 15 people, some of which who are members of the search committee. Among them were faculty from music, theatre, visual arts; chair of Arts and Humanities; Dean of our division; our theatre staff; community artists; representatives of three renting organizations; volunteers; and our development officer.

They started out writing down what things they valued about the theatre, focusing especially on what will be missing if the theatre didn’t continue operations. Then they took turns talking about what they had written and sticking the post-it notes up on the wall in themed groups so that they could see what values people gravitated toward.

Later they moved on to some group activities to generate suggestions.

I spoke to some people after the meeting and they seemed pleased with the process. They were especially happy that the assistant theatre manager kept things moving along.

What I thought was really great about this exercise was that it brought so many different constituencies together who never meet each other. Each one became aware of what the other did in the facility and why certain elements of the facility and the services offered were relevant to them.

More importantly, this was all done in front of college administrators and the development officer which helped them understand the wide range of activities that occurs in the facility and why its existence was important.

It sounds strange to say, but I think this process was successful because I am leaving.

If we had tried to gather a group of people to talk about why they loved the theatre, I am not sure as many people would have shown up or been as eager to participate.

I think the sense of immediacy and the opportunity to influence the type of person chosen as the new theatre manager garnered far more investment in the process.

While part of me craves melodramatic gnashing of teeth and wailing, “Oh what shall we do without you, Joe? You are our source of inspiration and have that musky, Victor Mature-like scent,” I am really happy to see the transition turning into such a constructive process.

Just offering it here as an example something other organizations might try.

Oh, and I forgot, they fed the group Valentine’s Day cupcakes. That probably helped, too.

Audience Relations, Boards, General Musings, Info You Can Use, Leadership

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