Today's "economy's impact on the arts" story comes to us from the New York Times.
It talks about the impact it is having on both the commerical and nonprofit theatre industries, but I think it could equally apply to a lot of other artistic sectors.
In the article, Roche Schulfer of the Goodman Theatre is quoted:
“These are very challenging times, as difficult as we’ve faced in 40 or 50 years. I’m concerned about institutional funding from corporations and foundations."
Wonder why I keep yammering about the important of any nonprofit arts org having a base of individual givers?
Roche just told you.
Notice that when he mentioned areas that concerned him he specifically mentioned corporations and foundations, i.e. the type of giving that swings the most based on the economy.
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I've gotten a lot of email from folks about how they should handle the challenging environment. Here is the best advice I can give:
Make no assumptions.
I don't care if every year your organization did five artistic events. Maybe now is the time to do three.
Or hell, maybe it's the time to do seven.
My point is that you can't let what you have always done be the measure of what you are about to do now.
At my day job, I'm challenging my own assumptions by doing some "zero sum" budgeting for next season.
Here's what that means.
Around here we tend to do our financial budgets a lot like you probably do yours. You look at what you spent last year and then you use that number as a starting point.
Then for the next year you adjust that number up or down a bit based on various factors.
For this next season, I'm taking every line item in my budget and starting it at zero.
Then I'm throwing away last year's budget. It doesn't matter right now.
So right now my advertising budget for next year's plays is zero.
It won't stay that way of course.
But maybe after I think about what I really need, the ad budget will be half as much as last year.
Or maybe it will be double.
The point is, I'm not going to assume. I'm going to think about it.
Now isn't the time for contracting your artistic vision because of fear.
Nor is it the time to go nuts spending money because of a misguided sense of boldness.
Now is the time for critical thinking.
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