Ruth Hartt made an insightful post on LinkedIn a few weeks ago which caught my attention. She also mirrored it on her own website. She talked about how boards and staffs of arts organizations will recognize that the digital age has lead to a change in business models across dozens of industries–except for arts and culture.
We have watched film developing kiosks in shopping center parking lots have disappeared and how Blockbuster stores were replaced by Netflix DVD mailing service and then streaming. But when it comes to arts and culture organizations, the solutions to challenges are to cut expenses, do more marketing and discount tickets.
This week she went more in depth about how staffs can start to shift the framing of the business model in partnership with their boards.
Ruth provides a step by analysis of the business model most arts and cultural organizations follow and how the different elements can derail efforts to change. I really appreciate how she broke the issues down in this manner because it provided structure and clarity to things I had already been thinking about.
She sums up part of the overarching viewpoint in need of change:
Your value proposition to the public is simple: “You should buy tickets because we make excellent art.”
But excellent art isn’t what most people need right now. What they actually need are the outcomes that art provides. That doesn’t mean excellence doesn’t matter. It means excellence alone is no longer a viable value proposition.
When the digital revolution shifted consumer priorities—when people started seeking wellness, connection, stress relief, community—this value proposition (and thus the entire model) became a liability.
[…]
The model collapses under its own weight because it’s built to protect something—artistic excellence—instead of serving the people you’re trying to reach.
Back in August I came across a video by the Frick Collection in partnership with Steve Martin which serves as a good example of an audience focus. In my blog post, I called out the following language from the beginning of the video:
Consider what you or I might be drawn to…maybe it is a gilded beard, or a velvet sleeve, a trend setter, a love triangle, a mysterious exchange…Maybe what you see reminds you of a friend or a place you’ve been, or a book you’ve read, or a show you’ve binged.
Maybe it jogs a memory or fills you with a sense of delight, desire, power, wonder, bemusement, or calm.
Maybe you need a moment to sit and think and escape. Somewhere peaceful. Somewhere with a view….this is what the Frick collection is for. For slowing down, following your eye, and getting closer to objects of beauty and awe…”
Yeah I figured they were either box seats or organ pipes. The design suggested there were actual box seats there…