The bar keeps lowering, but in this case it’s the whammy bar! It seems the lack of marketing creativity is so prevalent that it in itself is becoming creative! It’s time to be in awe of the latest believe it or not marketing connection being made between Pop and Classical, so strap on a plastic Guitar with 5 buttons to get those $70 Symphony seats sold!……..
Arts Funding
Challenge = Opportunity: Becoming Well Endowed!
Charleston, Virginia, Winston Salem, St Louis, Orlando Ballet, San Francisco Opera, plus many more organizations we don’t know about have financial issues! Millions of dollars have been wiped off endowment balance sheets. These are not rainy day funds, we all tap our endowment interest every year to help defray operating costs and shortfalls. So now what? I want to throw something out there…..
Field Dressing the Arts
By this time I would expect anyone who doesn’t live in what is the Last Bastion of Civilized Man in America – AKA the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul – to be utterly tired of my relentless promotion of this area. Those who are indeed tired might want to skip over this post.
The Coming Storm
More fabulous news on the Arts front – from the daily updates from organizations around the U.S. that suddenly they’re looking at multi-million dollar deficits due to the worsening economy (muchas gracias, Señor Bush!) to the wonderful news that even the government of that bastion of Liberalism – Australia – has lost it’s collective mind. One wonders if you should start building the bomb shelter.
Cultural Trust – Redistributing Wealth Missouri Style!
So when we at the Springfield Symphony (Missouri’s 3rd largest Orchestra) read the news last week regarding the ruling against the Kansas City Symphony’s lawsuit to restore funds into the cultural trust that were not put in during a certain period as the legislature felt the money at that time was needed elsewhere, our reaction was : Oh that’s right they filed a lawsuit! We had forgotten about it. Arts funding in Missouri has risen the last two years….under a Republican governor! I have a little insight into what happened and some personal experience with the whole thing including some interaction with the governor….
Columbus sails again…watch out for the headwinds!
It’s hard to be anything but pleased to hear of the Columbus Symphony returning after a prolonged and bitter battle. Sticking to their principals the orchestra was not downsized in personnel but there were many concessions that the musicians had to make, and one decision I hope is reversed, and what about Junichi?…..
Arts Funding – Why?…..
In Audience Connection on Wednesday the big question of the week was:
How can you argue for Arts funding in front of someone that might be more interested in Health, Poverty or Education issues?
Big questions need big answers, but when you have 5 minutes in front of a donor to make the case, they can’t be long answers. I liked what Amanda said, the clip is below……
Challenge = Opportunity: The egg before the chicken! – part 1
We need more donors, a plan to sustain ourselves, get more people involved, brand ourselves, win people over and yadayadayada….When arts groups get together to discuss their ills, lack of support, the community paying no attention to them etc… the argument comes around to forming a plan to turn things around and focusing on what we are not receiving, rather than what we are not giving. A plan for sustainability should start with creating something that is worth sustaining……