Another thing that struck me about the Parabasis Blog post on "How Theatre Failed America" is the critcism that many regional theatres are struggling because they have become insitutitions and that this process of institution building forces the theatre to go outside of their mission . . . and ultimately produce subpar work.
These are all all valid criticisms but I think that building an artistic institution has some key advantages that are being ignored.
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Alright, time for some full disclosure. I do a lot of things to make a living. I work as a marketing coach for the arts. I teach. And, as of this week, I am the Marketing Director for Court Theatre in Chicago, which means I guide the marketing efforts of one of the top 10-12 theatres in Chicago (at least in terms of budget size)
So I have been on both sides of the fence. I played a part in building an emerging theatre looking to become an institution and I now I work for a large theatre.
Here is the hidden benefit of institution building. Doing so buys you time.
Yup, good ol' fashioned time.
If you have a quality artistic product and enough marketing skill to get the word out . . . then all you really need is enough time for people to catch on. Even if that "enough time" is 5, 10 or 15 years.
The process of building organizational infrastructure, getting long term donors, etc. helps to ensure that you will simply SURVIVE long enough to have a shot at success.
In fact, I think most arts organizations fall apart because they ignore the time factor.
They forget that as people get older their needs change, so the organization needs revenue and growth to cover that.
They ignore the fact that (for whatever reason) people quit artistic organizations . . . so it needs to be strong enough and stable enough to bring new people in without the whole thing falling apart.
Once the artistic company realizes this, they try scramble to build a half-assed infrastructure but by that time it is often too late.
Here's the thing about building an arts organization that can survive over the long haul (which is all being an institution really means) . . . it is an attitude that ideally should be in place when the organization first begins.
Or put in another way, emerging arts organizations should be thinking about the long term right at the start.
But many don't do that. They think about the short term, i.e. "What play should we do NOW?" "What dance piece should we do NOW?"
They don't think long term. They don't at least try to build an institution. The realities of Time and Life hits. And the organization dies. We have seen it happen over and over again.
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