The Mission Paradox Blog

The Paradox of Growth and The Arts - Part 1

I want to spend a little time this week talking about growth.  That growth comes in many forms, from an arts organization breaking ground on a building to an artist getting an agent and a manager.

The questions that come with growth:

When to grow?

Who do we add?

How big do we get?

Are some of the most complicated and important questions we face.  In fact I would argue that many of the things that we "don't like" about the arts industry (including the recent uproar around the Guthrie) have unchecked (or poorly considered) growth as a root cause.

So to open this conversation, read this post by Seth

On Wednesday we will talk about the perfectly logical reasons that lead many arts organizations to decide they have to grow . . . and the mess that decision can create.

Misplaced priorities

You know that the person answering your phone, or responding to emails is WAY more important then that fancy promotional piece you're working on, right?

Right?

You know that if one of those hippy, edgy members of your acting ensemble decides to treat one of those "old" patrons poorly that patron will suddenly embrace the power of social media and tell everyone, right?

Right?

You've got to remember that behind all our fancy ass websites, slick postcards and what-not, plain ol' customer relations can ruin (or enhance) your best marketing efforts.

How much time, energy and money are you investing into the people who interact with your audience?

Is the way your spending your time give the impression that the poster hanging on the wall is much more important then the person who is saying hello to the people once they show up?

Something to ponder for the weekend.  See you Monday.

 

Solving interesting problems

That's our only rule job now . . . to solve the interesting problems.  I didn't come up with that statement, but it is a very true one.

To me, one of the most interesting problems we have in the arts is the relationship between an artist (or arts organization) and it's audience.  This applies to both the current audience and the intended audience.

I mean isn't that what the whole (sad) blow up at the Guthrie Theatre is all about. One group thinks the responsibility is to offer what will fill the seats, getting the donors coming in and keep the institution alive.  Another group thinks the theatre has a responsibility that goes beyond institutional survival and should be serving a broader community with it's programming.

The truth is that most of the easy problems in the arts have been solved.  We know how to "market" our work (if by marketing . . . you mean selling).  We know the mechanics of fundraising.  We have the means to get revenue from individuals.

All that's left are the hard issues:

What's the appropriate relationship between an insitution and a community?

How do you keep an art form relevant?

Our job, as a field, is to keep asking and demanding viable answers to those questions.  Even when it's uncomfortable.  Even when many would like it if we just shut up and keep the wheels of commerce turning.

That's our job.

That's the only job worth doing.

Swing Time

The arts are a world with a high variance.  In the gambling world another term for variance is "swing".

Things swing widely in the arts.

Great critical reviews to horrible ones.

Major funders come on and leave.

Audience leaves and is (hopefully) replaced.

These swings are a feature of the business, not a bug.

The key to handling those swings is emotional maturity.  In a world where things change daily you can't afford to get too caught up in any particular moment.

Stay stable.  Stay strong.  Remember that you are in this thing for the long haul.

 

 

1000 Ways to The Top

You can self publish and produce your work.

You can partner with viable organizations.

You can start your own organization.

You can create and publish part time and ask for little money in return.

You can devote your whole life to artistic creation and try to demand appropriate compensation.

You can big, small or in between.

You can do stuff no one likes, or stuff designed to appeal to the masses.

All of these (and many others) are viable paths.  None of them are easy.  No one of these is really better then the other.

The beauty is that you get to make your choice.  You also get to change your choice. 

The only real mistake is never really deciding what your path (and goals) are going to be.

 

Quick Riffs

A few unrelated thoughts:

1. I find the whole "people should stop forming arts organizations" conversation to be interesting.  It's interesting because people make a very logical case for not starting.  The issue is that starting an organization is an emotional issue.  It isn't driven by logic.  By the way, this isn't a good or bad thing . . . it is just reality.  My own point of view is that if it is in your heart to start an organization then you HAVE to do it.  The world may need it.

But if your heart isn't in it.  If you aren't committed.  Don't even think about starting.

2.  It breaks my heart when people take the power of social media and try to squeeze it into the tiny "how do I sell more stuff" box.  Social media spreads ideas.  Good ideas ideas.  Bad ideas.  Silly ideas.  Whatever.  If the idea spreads then the stuff (may) sell.  But trying to sell stuff first is really difficult.

3.  Do less.  If you are using five different marketing tactics, cut it back to three and see what happens.  It hardly ever hurts and sometimes it can really help. 

Beyond what is expected

I'm typing this with a cup of coffee by my side. I paid 1.80 for it.

It's a good, strong, well brewed cup of coffee.

It is also totally unremarkable.

I'm a spoiled consumer. I expect to be able to get a "good" cup of coffee damn near anywhere I go. So do you.

That is, in a nutshell, the problem we all face when trying to connect art and audience. High expectations.

People expect art to be made with care and skill. It doesn't matter how much effort you went through to make that happen it doesn't count because it was expected.

I know. It's a bit of buzzkill.

But it's also your opportunity.

It's a simple equation. The way to get your art to spread is by having your audience rave about it. The best (only?) way to make that happen is by giving them more then what they expect.

So if they expect a plain website give them a funny one, or a serious one.

If they expect you to just open the doors and send them on their way after the show, give each one of them a fresh baked cookie as they exit.

If they expect tickets to be $50, make them $25 . . . or make them $100.

Give them more then what they expect and you'll be rewarded for it.

While you are gone

I spent the last week or so out of town.  While I was gone, I follow the same set of vacation rules I give my team. 

No responding to email.

No calling to check in.

People are only allowed to call you in case of an emergency . . . and because we work in the arts nothing is really ever an emergency.

I left during a pretty important time.  When I came back, everything was running smoothly.  Some things were going better then when I left.

A key element to solving our leadership problem in the arts is hiring and empowering people who can lead.  This is hard to do because we still work under the industrial hiearchy that has the order givers on top and the order takers on the bottom.

The goal has to be the hiring and empowering of people who DO NOT NEED YOU AROUND.

That way when you are gone (on vacation/sick/whatever) things can actually improve.

 

 

The leadership problem

It's not a marketing/fundraising/artistic problem.

It's a leadership problem.

I know, I know.  It would be much easier if it were just a marketing problem.  Solving those are pretty easy.  Just consult the Google.

But let's be honest.  Your issue (for example) isn't that you don't know how to use social media effectively.  Of course you do. 

The issue is that putting interesting, transparent, worthwhile stuff onto social media requires the ability to make the uncomfortable people on your team, comfortable.  It requires the willingness to say something that may get you in "trouble."

That's a leadership thing.

Our arts organizations were designed in the heart of the industrial revolution.  A hallmark of that revolution was an understanding that if you shut up and did your job things would be fine.  There is a structure.  Big boss leaders at the top, faithful followers at the bottom.  Stay in your lane.

Even if the factory produces art, it's still a factory.  There are limitations to such things and we are hitting them.  When the world rapidly changes then order takers are useless because they are always following yesterday's orders.

You don't marketers, administrators, executives or anything else.  You need leaders.  They are the ones that truly solve the problems.