You kids should date

I was reading through the excellent posts at the Emerging Leader Salon (over at the Americans for the Arts blog) and was struck by this thought:

On one side you have numerous arts administrators who are passionate and looking for opportunities to lead.

On the other side (and in a different spot on the arts blogosphere) are plenty of artists looking to put interesting art in the world.

So why don't the two sides come together more often?

Why don't we see more dynamic pairings of artistic and administrative minds within these emerging organizations?

Is it money?  Artist figuring they can't afford to hire those people, or admins not wanting to work at a particular pay scale?

Is it ego?  Emerging artists who are just finding their way don't want an equally strong opinion on the other side?

I've got no answers, I'm just curious.

 

Comments

[Tony Adams]

I think a lot of it is (lack of) money.

[Adam]

Probably, but I think the money problem could be solved.

Let's imagine that dance company is doing good work but they need an administrative leader. They find someone, but to hire her they need say $40,000.

I'm fairly confident that if that company goes out into the funding community and says, "we've got this great person that will help us solidify our business end but we need money to hire her, will you help us out?" they can raise a significant portion of that money.

I think the issue isn't the money they need for that person.

The issue is that they want/need the money to go to other places.

So they want $40,000 to go toward the productions.

Or they want the $40,000 to be split among their current artistic staff.

So I wonder if it isn't money as much as it is priorities

[Tony Adams]

I don't know. In my experience, it it really hard for small companies to find gen op money, or contributions for administrative personnel.
It changes somewhat with mid-size and large institutions, and priorities are a big part as well. But a lot of the funding community will not fund staff--though funding consultants is different. (Of course if there are folks I don't know about yet, I'm all ears.)

[Steve]

Speaking as a former artist, I believe it's because artists don't think about agents and PR and marketing and...well, business. They think talent and expressing.