When will Form follow Function?
ByA 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.
A few observations. I think Matt is right about Arts Administration being conservative. For example, the criticism leveled at Tom Krens at the Guggenheim by many in the museum and gallery field was that he stepped out of the normal ways of doing business for the museum and gallery worlds and created a global brand. This actually brought the benefits of the arts to a much wider global audience than would have been the case if Tom had stayed centered on the Guggenheim on 5th Avenue.
In the United States, the “historic preservation” field encompassing museums, artifacts, building fabric etc. has been pursued as an endeavor separate to the act of creating new forms – be they objects, buildings, cities and so on. This is not the case outside of the US where conservation – not preservation – tends to be much more of an integral aspect of creating new and adapting the old to accommodate new functions. These functions are full-blown activities that make up daily life in the arts, business, technology and science. ”preserved” buildings abroad are not museums locked like so many prehistoric flies trapped in amber. A short visit to Oxford, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Malmo or Madrid to name but a few will provide any visitor with vibrant examples of old forms having been successfully adapted to brand new 21st century functions.
The silver lining to the economic collapse that we are still struggling through is that we now know for sure that the pursuit of egregious profits at all costs leaves behind it a wake of long term and difficult consequences for those of us who now have to carry out their lives in and around the bloated real estate developments that have torn up our landscapes by the square mile. If our neighborhoods – new or “historic” are to perform as viable habitats for us as a multi-cultural species, then its clear that the form of these neighborhoods has to perform across a far more broad spectrum of functions than so many are capable of today. At the moment, these neighborhoods – in fact most – have been planned and built for the convenience of the automobile and the air conditioned isolation of the occupants of the buildings – whether homes, offices, factories or apartments. Our streets thus tend to be devoid of people – even in the cooler parts of the year. No-one walks – except for deliberate spandex-clad exercise. 0.2% of American over 70 bike. 7% of Germans over 70 bike and over 30% of Dutch men and women over 70 bike. Our children are snacking all day indoors texting from their private cybercaves far from parental observation (and heading toward serious and costly medical problems in their later teens and twenties) – and we as a culture are now further away from any contact with the natural world of which we are part than any generation before us. What we have are impoverished habitats for the most part – even the expensive gated mansions fail the test of habitat. Its takes more than granite countertops and 2 baths per person to create the kind of habitats that resonate with people and provide sustenance to our culture. These are not the places that attract new, younger people to come and live nor do they send signals to inhabitants that they are worth caring about except to keep them as unused as possible for future re-sale. Improving our neighborhoods may not have to involve huge capital investments in iconic buildings which tend to be isolated from what surrounds them. What we need to do is to create a far more comprehensive description of what constitutes viable habitats within which our society can thrive – especially given that we live in the Sonoran Desert – not new England, “Tuscany” or anywhere else.
We have the forms we have. Yet we have not evolved a vernacular forms for our city that celebrates the fact that we live in a desert region unique on earth. If form truly followed function, then the physical appearance of the urban and suburban areas we inhabit would look very different from the fake “styles” that have been slapped on to the facades of so much of our newly-developed planned and gated communities.
Form follows function? Let’s make it so; we have a great deal to build back into our streets and neighborhoods in order to reverse the deadly cultural and environmental entropy that has occurred in so many places. In these new economic times from which we stare into a very different future than the past 50 years we have a unique opportunity to adapt and improve the places we inhabit such that our children and theirs will look back on them fondly as magical, nurturing places in which they grew up.
My 2 cents
Phil
I have been thinking a lot about your recent email. It seems true everywhere that arts organizations have pulled the covers over their heads and are trying to figure out what to do. They have cut staff, cut advertising, cut programs and they don’t seem to be looking at any positive outcome. Some have closed, others are on the brink. This seems true all across the spectrum of arts, whether visual or performing. Many galleries have closed and even museums are closing or cutting to the bone. While this is one picture, let me share another. The Celebration of Fine Art is thriving. Our artists are beating out their 2008 sales numbers and that was a really good year. What is the difference? Why does our model work while others are failing? It’s all about mind-set.
The first difference and perhaps the most important, is attitude. We, and our artists, came to this year with the attitude and belief that it was going to be a great year. Strong goals for success were encouraged and set by both us and our artists. We stressed team work, we did workshops with the artists advance of and during the show to encourage and support positive attitudes. We encouraged them to create their best work ever.
The second difference is that we provide special acknowledgement for customers. We have developed over 20 years a very large and successful customer base and we contact them in many ways. We thank them for their past support. We encourage their continued attendance. We provide them with incentives to return. We provide great customer service and follow up.
The third difference is we didn’t pull back. We moved forward. We looked for and capitalized on opportunities. We did not cut our promotional budget. We took advantage of reduced advertising rates and sharp focused our advertising to those we felt most likely to attend. We worked closely with publications for advance articles and publicity. We made some serious investments in infrastructure and site improvements so we looked better. We went for it, all out, no hold barred.
These things may seem out of the normal business model for either a retailer or a non profit during these times. Yet they have been one of the keys to our success. Never look back, always move forward, always improve, always say thank you to those who helped you succeed. Pulling the covers over your head and waiting until the bad stuff passes only puts you in a dark place.
I encourage you to visit the web site (www.celebrateart.com) and read the opening blog now posted on the home page as one example of what I am talking about. If you want to have a happy and uplifting day, go for a visit. You won’t believe the energy and enthusiasm you will find. Don’t forget to say hello to Susan Potje and her husband Jake who now are in charge of this great journey we call the Celebration of Fine Art.