Unholy Envy

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WAAAAYYY Back in the beginning of this blog I posted about co-opting some tools used by religions to promote the arts. I am even more convinced now because many churches certainly are borrowing from the performing arts.

On Sundays we rent the theatre to a church that is far more like entertainment than what I attended in my youth. They typically have three services unless we have matinee. They have a sound system they bring in that is three times the size of the house system and tend to make us concerned for the children in the audience when they crank it up.

Once a month, they hold a special service that is so technically involved, two of my people have to act as stage manager and light board operator. Occasionally dancers join the usual group of musicians on stage.

Yesterday I had to cover front of house for the services because none of the other employees at the theatre could. The first two services of the day are mostly families, but the third service in the evening is exclusively teens and twenty-somethings. One thing I noticed that jibes with observations at performing arts events is that the younger people like to socialize a lot more than their elders.

After the first two services, everyone was gone in a half hour and that includes breaking down the coffee set up, the nursery rooms and tables allocated to literature that wouldn’t be used during the evening service. After the evening service there were about 150-200 people spread throughout the theatre, lobby and courtyard an hour and a half after the service finished.

Because the stage and sound equipment has to be broken down, there was no reason for me to chase anyone out. None of these people were the ones breaking things down though. There were about 30-40 other people doing that. And when the breakdown crew finished, they corralled everyone who was hanging around about of the building of their own accord.

I have spent the day trying to figure out how to tap into that energy. All these young people hanging out chatting for that long without any source of refreshment but a water fountain. Hardly any of them were talking about religious topics. And they had 30-40 people of the same age voluntarily and efficiently stowing equipment.

While the motivating factors that got the young people there in the first place differ from those that will attract them to arts events, the desired result is one that has eluded the arts world. These young people gathered because of reason they were enthusiastic about and they stayed to chat about myriad other things with people who shared their interest.

It can be pointed out, truly enough, that these people are only continuing to express enthusiasm engendered in them as children by their parents. Parents, schools, society no longer places value on the arts as they once did.

Also, while there is a certain immortality available in the arts, how can it compete with the promise of everlasting life, eh?

At the same time, many who were brought up without steady religious encouragement become converts or born again if they have strayed.

Makes me wonder if the arts folks aren’t evangelizing enough. Sure, we can’t offer divine forgiveness and eternal life to those down on their luck folks who look to such things to renew their spirits. But renewal of spirit can be found in sublime beauty, too. Instruction in the interpretation and comprehension of art is no harder to master than are the same skills in relation to holy texts.

Perhaps it is lack of will or understanding of that the tools we ply so easily in our craft are well suited for evangelism of art. Is it more difficult to invite people to a First Friday artwalk than it is to a Bible study? Does the rituals of preparing to perform require so much less discipline than readying oneself for a Sabbath meal? Do Chick tracts make a more convincing argument than a pamphlet most artists could put together?

I have mentioned in the past, as have other writers and bloggers, that the atmosphere and language at an arts event is not welcoming to the novice attendee. If there is anything to be borrowed from some of these churches it is the welcoming attitude and the language of compassion and acceptance.

Obviously, I am not trying to supplant religion in any way. After all, some of the best art is religious in nature. The type of connection people feel for their religion can’t be directly translated to the arts. It can’t be denied though that there is a visceral appeal to both, however different it may be.

Ads and press releases can only do so much to draw people in. After that it is often the direct connection you make to with another person simply and effectively sharing your enthusiasm that causes people to be favorable inclined toward a cause.

Speak well of the arts to someone everyday and share your tips on what is effective with another arts person.

Artsmanager.org

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I was a little nervous that there might be some competition for my status as the only (to my knowledge) theatre manager who actively blogs. I was over looking at Artsmanager.org, a service of the Kennedy Center which offers itself as a resource for arts managers.

What made me nervous was the “Lessons from the Field” section where Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser talks about the organizations he worked for or that his consultant business helped out. The case studies he presents are interesting reads.

Unfortunately, (because I would actually be happier if more managers blogged) it doesn’t appear like much on the website has been updated since March. It looks like they started out strongly enough in January adding some good content but then had their attention diverted to other things.

I have found more complete information and resource links elsewhere, but I will say I like their Q&A section where people can submit questions to be answered. The questions posed are unlike those answered pretty much anywhere else I have come across. For example-“What payroll taxes apply to board members who are paid for their services?” “Is it wise to write a letter to the editor in response to bad press?” and “What kind of listserv should I use?”

I think if they made the Q&A section the core purpose of the site it would be a great resource for arts organizations on its own. Not only would they be addressing questions whose answers aren’t easily found in one place, in the course of researching answers, they can identify more resources for that section of the site.

So, operating under the assumption that the Q&A section hasn’t been updated due to lack of questions, (and hoping that it isn’t lack of personnel), I encourage people to pose some questions. (bottom of page)

Share What You Know

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In the course of allowing people to rent our facility, my staff and I come across groups who have varying concepts of what successfully producing their event will entail. We have meetings with all our renters a month or so out from their event to assess their needs and often make suggestions even before the meeting about having a stage manager and production designer.

We very specifically qualify what we mean by these terms. More often than not, even people who claim to have produced events for nigh on two decades don’t seem to understand how important organization is to the success of their event. Today at a staff meeting we were discussing a recent event where a guy was introduced to us as the production stage manager at the advance meeting, asked the questions a person in that position would ask, showed up on the load-in day and provided some direction as to how items should be assembled.

The day of the event he came in to prepare things—then left to do his regular Saturday night gig somewhere else and another gentleman we had never met before was suddenly running things. Though honestly, I think he just thought he was advising people of what would happen next. People were making what he said should occur take place when they thought it looked dramatic.

I tell this story not to belittle the folks who rent from me but to illustrate how valuable it can be to teach people the skillsets related to live events. I had suggested to my technical director that we look into occasionally offering seminars in live event planning. He opined that those we would most like to throttle would probably not avail themselves of the opportunity because they thought they knew it all already. I pointed out that if some likely candidates took our classes, we would at least be in the position of suggesting qualified people for our renters to hire.

The larger picture I wanted to touch upon was that there is a group of folks out there who would appreciate the opportunity to learn how to produce events well. It might behoove an arts organization with the resources to show additional value to the community by periodically conducting classes and seminars.

I have talked about theatres providing inservice opportunities to high school teachers who have been appointed drama advisor but don’t know the first thing about putting on a production. Since so many schools have eliminated drama programs, it is almost a moral imperiative for arts organizations to ensure the programs that remain get all the support they can handle.

In addition to teachers, other folks who might be interested are those organizing street fairs, festivals, beauty pageants, churches and dance schools with annual recitals. Even smaller performing arts organizations that subsist on volunteer help might be interested. Their lighting designer might a commerical electrician by day and got the job because he is least likely to trip the breakers but has little idea how to avoid making everyone look sallow.

Sure there are plenty of books out there they can pick up that cover the theory well. It can’t replace the expertise of those who design lights, organize and order the execution of cues, construct inexpensive illusions and know how to get everyone and everything (from audiences, to sets to performers) moving to where they need to be quickly and accurately.

In some cases, as the instructor can learn something new yourself. We just taught some fundementals to a guy who knew nothing about lighting design. Essentially, we gave him a series of looks that could be achieved with the house plot we set up. He then spent two night writing up nearly 600 cues which we programmed into our lighting board. Since he was doing all the music playback from his computer, he set up flags in the audio design software he was using to alert him to call warnings and executes for those light cues. Prior to this, the group would employ the less accurate method of calling cues based on the progress of the digital counter on the CD player.

We had never even thought of using sound design software in this manner. Now we are suggesting that other groups do the same with their audio design software. In some ways, technology is making it easier for novices to organize their own events but it has yet to substitute for experience.

So next time you hear someone say they are putting together a real simple show with 20 people, perhaps take them aside, ask them to tell you more and intone some good advice in the voice of experience.

Mercy Killing of Your Museum

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I don’t know that there are many people who read this blog that don’t read Artful Manager, but just in case there are, I want to point you at his entry today. The Hennenius Group post he quotes is worth reading and seriously considering. (I don’t know how the heck I missed it.)

What Anthony Radich has to say is sure to be controversial. It seems counterintutive that a guy running an organization “dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts” would be suggesting the dissolution of arts organizations. In fact, if he were an elected politican, I’m sure there would already be television and print ads out there blaring that Anthony Radich wants to close your arts centers and we oughta chuck him out in November.

I don’t know what it says about arts folks (other than that they don’t read Barry’s blog) that two weeks after it was posted that there hasn’t been any real grumbling about Radich’s proposal to “euthanize nonprofit arts organizations”.

But that is the subject of another entry.

I’ve never made a secret of my belief that not all arts organizations have a right to exist and expect funding. I am against the “Field of Dreams” mentality. I have frequently felt more organizations should merge their resources and efforts. But I certainly recognize the dearth of organizations as well as evinced by my recent perplexion (is that a word?) at the lack of local professional arts organizations.

Contradictory, sure. But by some definitions, the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in your head at the same time is a sign of enlightenment.

But that too is subject for another entry 😉

One section of what Radich said put me in mind of an entry I did two years ago. Quoth Radich:

Let’s pull some of the nonprofit arts programming off the arts-production line and free up funding and talent for reallocation to stronger efforts–especially to new efforts tilted toward engaging the public. Let’s return to the concept of offering seed money for organizations that, over a period of years, need to attract enough of an audience and develop enough of a stable financial base to survive and not structure them to live eternally on the dole. Let’s find a way to extinguish those very large groups that are out of audience-building momentum and running on inertia. Instead of locking arts funders into a cycle of limited choices, let’s free up some venture capital for new arts efforts that share the arts in new ways with the public

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As I said, this whole argument reminded me of an entry I did on an Independent Sector proposal to change non-profit funding to a more focussed model. The proposal they make runs a little counter to Radich’s since he talks about getting organizations off the dole and the IS proposal essentially encourages foundations to deepen their commitment to support specific organizations. Radich also talks about funders having too few choices, but the IS document as well as the additional sources I cite in that entry seem to indicate funders have too shallow an investment in too many places.

Overall though the two are similar in suggesting offering comprehensive seed money to organizations to help them get off the ground. Both also use language that places funders in the position of venture captialists investing in the promotion of their agenda in return for rock solid accountability.

I wonder if some of the problems Radich sees with organizations being weak and played out might have its origin in the funding method encouraging people to stretch their resources in too many different directions until they aren’t viable any more.

Since Andrew Taylor posted Radich’s proposal, (and the Independent Sector one two years ago), I think I shall go over to his blog and ask him.