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Volunteering Up, Donations Spread Around

August 29, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Been busy, busy, busy these last couple weeks but I wanted to do a quick entry on something I came across in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

According to a recent study by the federal agency, Corporation for National and Community Service, the post 9/11 world has seen an increase in volunteerism. If your organization needs volunteers and hasn’t made a wide appeal lately, it might be a good environment in which to do so.

The bad news in the study is that people are less trusting of donation appeals than they were before September 2001. It’s not clear from the story if this perception colors how people see arts organizations. Since the article specifically mentions a Red Cross scandal and points to friction of the use of money for human service causes, the negative view may fall predominantly upon that sector.

The situation that can be more clearly identified as a problem for arts fundraising is that so many more chartiable causes exist now than did before. Not only are there now appeals for the families of people killed on 9/11, but also for those dispossessed by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and the Southeast Asian tsunamis. Charities are trying to do much more to help specific groups these days and are even trying to start programs to proactively prevent disasters and attacks from occuring again.

As I have mentioned in other entries, it is always a little difficult for arts organizations to make a case for funding when the choice is between them and succour for the suffering. Cathartic experiences have been a cornerstone of the arts since the Greeks so should be funded alongside the aid and relief programs.

I had a woman come take a tour of our backstage in the last month or so who runs a theatre in the New Orleans area. She has taken a big hit funding wise but is running her season as best she can because people keep calling and saying they don’t care what the show is about as long as it is funny. Her place is just as important to the rebuilding of people’s spirits as any other funded restoration that is occuring in her region.

State of the Arts

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Freedom In Central Park Revisited

August 28, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Two years ago I did an entry on the fact not all tickets at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park where the Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival are free as was widely believed. There had always been preferential seating available for some amount, but the article I cited in that entry mentioned that the Public was going to more widely publicize the pay program in an effort to balance the books.

My initial assumption was that this would bump the first patron who wasn’t paying back quite a few rows. Last week Robert Morse made a comment on that entry (scroll to the bottom) correcting my assumption. It turns out that the theatre has their crowd control pretty well organized and alternate paid and unpaid patrons in the even and odd rows.

The biggest benefit for paying for your tickets is that you don’t have to wait in line. This can be quite a boon since according to the Public Theater’s website, people apparently get online at 10 am to pick up tickets starting at 1 pm for an 8 pm show. They have line monitors present who enforce the no cutting, no holding spaces, no scalping rules and generally keep things organized. Recognizing an opportunity, apparently there are some local restaurants that will deliver to the line since the theater staff will provide you with that information.

My thanks to Robert Morse for correcting the information I originally had. Upon revisiting my original search, I found clarifying information that hadn’t been available before.

Audience Relations

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Getting It Goes A Long Way

August 23, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Last week Andrew Taylor put out a call for a part-time administrator for the Association of Arts Administration Educators. The comments which followed the entry debated if it were better to require someone to have significant experience in the arts or to hire a skilled administrator from another discipline with a more passing familiarity with arts administration.

The arguments on both sides being compelling, I can’t really decide on a general rule of thumb about whose resumes should be ranked more favorably by a search committee. I am, however, more and more convinced that having a clear sense of what will be constructive in advancing the organizational interests.

A month or so back I mentioned that the Honolulu Symphony got a new board chair, Curtis Lee. When I was listening to an interview with Mr. Lee, he mentioned how in his business customer service was the most important element. Since up until a week or so before taking the board chair post Mr. Lee headed a company owning the most car dealerships in the state, I cynically thought that this sentiment probably only applied up until they sold the car. For some brands, they have the monopoly and the next nearest dealer is 2,500 miles away.

Last night I had the misfortune of parking my car in the path of a man who is apparently offended by drive side view mirrors because he walked along smashing them. (My friends and I were lucky. There is another guy out there with homocidal thoughts toward tires and has been walking along the street slashing them.)

So this morning I drove down to the dealership to see if I could get my mirror replaced. I have to say I was a little shocked by the level of service. There was a man out in the driveway 20 minutes before the repair shop opened processing arrivals and directing them to open lanes. In the lanes I was greeted by another person who further processed and advised me about my repair very quickly. I got out of my car and someone moved it to another queue as I entered the lounge.

The lounge was HUGE. Coffee, danish and copies of the newspaper were situated at three locations. Comfortable seats were set in front of a flat screen television. There were also 6-8 cubicles with phones at which a person could work on a laptop computer and free WiFi service.

Two gentlemen entered the room and announced that one courtesy shuttle was heading west and the other east and began taking destinations and phone information for pick ups in the afternoon. It turned out there were more people needing rides than the shuttles would fit so they grabbed additional people from the office and keys to other vans. Destination was about 1/4 past their service area but they drove me anyway. (It was interesting that they chose Sam’s Club rather than the college I work at as the furtherest point.)

Unfortunately, the part needed for my car was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, the part actually needed is about $300 cheaper than anticipated. When I disembarked from the return shuttle I was handed a form with an appointment for repair already arranged and my poor car and I were off.

Now granted, one of people in the shuttle followed a remark about how wonderful the whole experience had been with the observation that our bills would let us know just how grateful we had been for the good treatment. The implication of his tone was that the extra $50 would be more palatable having received efficient and attentive service.

Mr. Lee may not know too much about symphonies. Dealer cash back incentive programs aren’t viable for classical music.(Unless Toyota is going to pay people to attend concerts.) But it will bode well for the Honolulu Symphony if he brings lessons learned in the car business to their organization. (And, of course, if the symphony takes them to heart.) A good experience can make the $60 paid for seats more palatable.

I have already started to formulate plans for small steps we can take to make our events more welcoming based on the experience I had today. Good lessons are where you find them.

Management Philosophy

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Acting, No Brains Needed

August 21, 2006

by:

Joe Patti

Recently I have come across a situation which really underscores why it is so important to be sensitive about how the way you talk about your art is perceived by people who are not familiar with it.

For the first time in a long time, a couple sections of the Acting I courses are really under enrolled. One theory attributes it to the extremely low unemployment in the state. In an attempt to attract more students to the classes, the drama department put signs up all over the campus, some of them saying “Give Your Brain a Break, Take Acting.”

Now I understand the point of the posters. The class has you getting up and moving around. One of the key steps to acting well is not to over analyze or allow your ego to edit what you do. On the other hand, preparation involves a lot of hard work. There are so many intangibles involved, studying harder doesn’t necessarily improve you.

What the students see on the poster is–easy class. I know this is already the case thanks to an online professor rating site which had comments about the course being too hard for fine arts elective.

I am glad that the course does have rigor. I have stated my concern though that while the students who do enroll will be disabused of the notion that the class is easy, the students who don’t enroll but see the flyers will have a false impression about acting.

Of course, a lot of people have an incomplete idea about the arts anyway. Acting, you just get up and pretend something, right? Yell when you are saying something important. Dance you just do like you see on MTV, right? Doing old style painting is tough. Can’t do a Michaelangelo. Jackson Pollack’s style is simple though!

Part of the problem is, if you are good at your art, you make it look effortless. Other part of the problem is that familiarity breeds contempt, as it were. Used to be circuses could sell themselves on the thrill of high wire and trapeze acts alone. These days it takes no less skill and discipline than it did to swing around 70 feet off the ground, but people are blase and want something more.

Most times when I talk about learning to speak to the uninitiated about ones art, I refer to language that might alienate. I suppose being too simplistic and lowering expectations is just as bad in the course of arts advocacy.

General Musings

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