Words of Thanks
By · CommentsTo this morning’s news regarding MPAC – www.allianceforaudience.org/News-Release-MPAC-Flinn-Piper.pdf - let’s add one very important comment:
Thank you…
- to Myra Millinger,
- to the MPAC staff team,
- to the MPAC Board of Directors,
- to the Foundations that supported this endeavor,
- and to the many arts & cultural community leaders who devoted time & effort to this cause.
ShowUp.com launching in Prescott Area on March 18
By · CommentsIn partnership with the Prescott Area Arts & Humanities Council, Alliance for Audience is extending its ShowUp.com services to the Prescott Area beginning March 18.
If you’re in the area (or are looking for a good excuse to BE in the area), please consider yourself invited to the launch ceremony. Find your invitation here.
Here’s an interesting calculation: the populations of Greater Phoenix, Metro Tucson, Flagstaff and the Prescott Area (communities served by ShowUp.com) total 82 percent of the total population of the State of Arizona.
When will Form follow Function?
By · CommentsA respected colleague observed recently that art is progressive – and arts administration is conservative.
His point was that it is the very purpose of art to explore and experiment, to challenge old thinking, to provide new insights, and to offer engaging experiences. Creativity is the essence of art.
Arts administration, by contrast, is focused on gathering extremely hard-to-find resources (think contributions and stakeholders), and managing those hard-won assets as judiciously as possible. Preservation is the core of arts management.
The distinction is not absolute. There have always been arts administrators whose creative leadership has blazed new trails. Conversely, some artists care more about preserving a tradition than for pioneering new territory.
But I’m interested in a more basic question: Does the concept “Form Follows Function” hold true in the arts & cultural community? Do practices grounded in “preservation” sufficiently advance the cause of “creativity?”
To ask the question in this era, “The Great Recession”, is almost oxymoronic. An arts manager would be criticized for anything less than a proactive, all-out effort to batten down the hatches. The instinct for self-preservation is a basic of human behavior and is clearly the foremost duty of arts administrator for organizations right now.
But can the arts & cultural community “preserve” its way back to health? Does anybody really believe that continued budget stresses really make us stronger or serve audiences?
Author Jim Collins calls this “the new normal.” He advises to expect that the world will be like this for a while. So here we are, each of us guarding our precious limited resources in whatever safe place our organizations have been able to carve out. Understandably, there’s a lot of “protecting” going on. Can we sit here quietly a little longer? Sure. It’s a tough and scary world out there. There’s no shame (or blame) in being cautious.
Yet, there are arts administrators who are talking. And they’re saying that there IS a world out there. And it’s a world that, more than ever, needs the energy, insights and inspiration that the arts & cultural community so uniquely supplies.
- They are arguing that “hunkering down” is a tactic to survive the short term – but it’s not a strategy for recovery.
- They are re-inventing how they use technology (especially free web applications) to engage audiences.
- They are in new discussions about how to collaborate with others.
- They are connecting with organizations around the Valley, the State, the Country and the World.
- They are empowering their staffs to explore and experiment.
- They are not just “open” to new ideas – they are inviting them from many different sources.
It hit me this week – like the one morning you wake up to discover that all the Spring flowers have blossomed. Form really DOES follow function! Despite a long ”winter” of extreme hardship - a period of creative, exciting, productive and transformative arts management lies directly ahead.
It’s time to be creative again.
The Truth about Arts & Culture
By · CommentsYesterday, I addressed the meeting of the Phoenix East Rotary - a small, but great-spirited group of people.
The meeting began with a recitation:
Rotary’s ”4-Way Test of the things we think, say or do”
- Is it the truth?
- Is it fair to all concerned?
- Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
- Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
The group shared with me that they attend Broadway tours that visit ASU Gammage – and take part in community productions at Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre. Many loved last year’s Chihuly installation at the Desert Botanical Garden – and one had enjoyed a recent Nearly Naked Theatre production. Like I said – GREAT group of people!
After about 10 minutes of discussing all the fun things they’d recently attended, I asked: “Why does arts & culture matter in our community.” The common answers to this question (here & everywhere) mention ”economic vitality”, “cultural tourism”, “enjoyment” and, less frequently, “community pride.”
Then a man, an architect, raised his hand and said, (I’m paraphrasing here) that the arts are the cure to the deplorable way homes & communities have been designed here in the Valley of the Sun for decades – with walls between yards and drive-in garages that preclude even the most basic of neighborly relations. Cultural participation, he stated clearly & simply, gets us out of our homes and behaving like a real community.
Not just well said, a solid testament to the #1 question of Rotary’s 4-Way Test.
To Connect People, Arts & Culture
By · Comments
Some jobs are too big to do entirely on your own.
You don’t grow your own food. You don’t build your own house. And you don’t treat your own major illness.
What’s true for individuals is also true for arts & cultural organizations. Some jobs, like raising the public visibility of our sector’s offerings and increasing rates of audience participation, are beyond the capability of any of single organization to affect alone.
That’s the whole reason for organizing an alliance for audience development – an independent collaboration of Arizona’s arts and cultural organizations established in 2003 to enable an incredibly diverse community of organizations – large & small, performing arts & visual arts, professional & community, cultural destinations and arts organizations, traditional and contemporary - to work together to pursue mutually significant objectives.
The need to make the most of scarce resources has never been greater. Interestingly, the opportunity for collaborative creativity and innovation has never been greater.
Please stay tuned to this new communications tool for dialogue & action whose goal is nothing less than to explore, shape, debate & learn new ways for Arizona’s arts & cultural organizations to join forces to pursue shared goals.
And, as always, please let me know whenever we may be of service.