Whenever I leave an event like the National Arts Marketing Conference, a scary thought pops into my head:
How many people are leaving here with great ideas they will never be able to implement?
Because they can't sell the artists on the idea . . .
Because they can't convince their Board . . .
How many great ideas are born in these places and then die on the way home?
Here's the reality:
Great arts marketing is an outcome of great courage.
It takes a lot of courage for an organization or an individual artist to challenge their assumptions . . . to think of the relationship between their audience and themselves differently.
And the hard, sad, fact is that for all our talk of artistic bravery and risk, many arts organizations and many artists are pretty damn cowardly.
Resisting change is a human emotion. So is fear.
But no one every becomes a success in their field without challenging and at least occasionally overcoming, those emotions.
In this new world we are a part of, a world where major corporations can die overnight, only the brave, strong, fast and smart will thrive.
It's as true in the arts world as it is anywhere else.
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