The Mission Paradox Blog

The Raised Hand

A few days ago I found out that my day job is going to receive an honor that recognizes their efforts to bring diversity to the stage and the audience.

This isn't the first time that such efforts have been recognized but it is still nice to see that others notice.  It has also been nice to play a small role in helping bring in a diverse audience.

Over the past few years I've moved away from a lot of the arts/diversity talk.  The issue is still very important to me.  In fact, I think the nonprofit arts sector general challenge to recognize and empower people of color, younger people and just those with different ideas is the elephant in the room.

Any successful field reflects the future and all too often the arts reflects the world that was.

But I also think that the blueprint for success is there.  There are plenty of organizations and industries that have tackled these challenges.  Those who want to learn from those lessons can do that. 

At the core, it's a very simple idea.  You open the door.  You share power and responsibility with those who don't necessary look or think like you.  You continue to do this until it becomes an institutional habit.

I've never seen an organization who honestly wanted a different, more robust, more diverse culture fail at the task.  It doesn't happen overnight but it always happens.

I've never seen a token, bullshit effort, win over the long term.  That's just how it is.

But I've got to admit, it breaks my heart when I see some well meaning person making a "case" for diversity in the arts.  It's almost 2012.  If people still need a case before they embrace where the world is clearly going then they are already in a lot of trouble.

I truly wish that those who care about diversity in the arts would stop making cases and instead look for the raised hand.

Look for those who raise their hand and say "we get it, come help us." 

Let's use our limited time and energy to assist those who want to embrace the future.  Let's assume that embrace is authentic until it is proven otherwise.

I think that's the obligation we have.

 

Help those who want it.  Ignore the rest. 

 

 

 

Looking for my 2012 clients

Here's the deal:

Every once in a while I work directly with a handful of individual artists and arts organizations.

For example, this year I worked with a visual artist, a theatre that focuses on highlighting artists with disabilities and a few other interesting folks.

We are headed toward a new year so I wanted to open the door to a few new clients. I'm going to do this the old fashioned way. I'm going to explain what your getting and offer you a discounted price for a limited time.

Technically what I'm offering is called marketing coaching. You are going to come to me with your marketing challenges. Challenges like these:

You need to sell more of your jewerly on Etsy.

You need to build awareness for your Kickstarter campaign.

You need to sell more tickets to your plays.

Then we are going to break your problem down into pieces and tackle the thing one week at a time. We do that through a series of phone calls.

The phone calls last about two hours. At the end of each call, you'll get some homework. DO THE HOMEWORK.

We do that for six weeks, maybe seven if we need it.

At the end of the process you should have some answers to your challenges. That's cool, but that's not the point. The point is the process. The goal is that when the next tricky marketing challenge comes up, you'll have a way of finding your own answers.

The price is normally $750.

If you sign up by Monday, Jan. 2nd, I'll knock it down to $500. I'm comfortable with taking payments in installments. If you need an installment plan, email me and let me know. Payments are done via Paypal.

Need some testimonals, click here

Got questions about the process? Email me at mission.paradox(at)yahoo.com

Ready to get to work? Email me.

Welcome to Paradox

This is the Mission Paradox Blog.  I'm your friendly host, Adam Thurman

Since 2007 this has been a place where artists and those who work within artistic organizations get insight on marketing, leadership, diversity and other topics.  

The main source of that insight are the blog posts that appear right below this one. Typically you'll get a new one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  You can get the blog post directly in your web based reader (like Yahoo or Google news) by clicking here

You want more?  I got more.

My e-book Authentic Arts Marketing is available as both a free download and as a cheap buy in the Kindle Store.  Get details on that here.

Want to work with me directly?  I do a limited amount of presentations, workshops and private coaching.  Details are here.  Testimonials are here.

I hope you find this place a helpful resource as you go about the hard work of connecting your art to an audience.  Feel free to drop me a line at mission.paradox(at)yahoo.com.

Remember, new blog posts appear below.

 

Flipside

Every audience has a flipside.

You want an audience that is smart and understands art?  Then you also want an audience that is critical and has high standards.

You want an audience base that is young and energetic?  Then you also want one that is used to spending their disposal income on things other then traditional art events (i.e. plays, art exhibitions).

You want an audience base that is loyal?  Then you also want one that is going to resist change.  Doesn't mean that they will not change.  It just means it will not be easy.

We work in a people business.  People are messy.  They are complicated.  They want contradictory things.  Success comes from embracing and respecting that complexity.

There is no such thing as a perfect audience.  Make the choice of the audience you want and get ready for the flipside.

 

Differences that matter

At it's most basic level what we are trying to do is use everything at our disposal, from artistic choice to the way we generate revenue, to create meaningful differences.

The hope is that these meaningful differences will cause people to purchase our paintings, downloads our songs and buy tables at our gala events.

The key is, of course is the word meaningful, so let's consider it.

-----------------------------

Are you ambidextrous?

Probably not.  Most estimates say that less then 3% of the population are equally skillful with each hand.

But still, imagine if you were.

That's a difference.   By it's very definition, people who are ambidextrous are not like everybody else.

Now imagine you are applying for a job as a website designer.  They ask you to highlight what makes you an unique fit for the job.  You say:  "I'm ambidextrous."  Eyebrows would raise and rightfully so.  You presented a difference that may have great meaning for you but very little meaning to the people you are trying to engage with.

-------------------------

I'm at an event.  Hundreds of artists and reps are arts orgs are present.  I'm talking to a lot of them.  I'm probing.  I'm trying to discern areas of meaningful difference.  In a somewhat frenzied attempt to distinguish themselves from the masses they keep trying to slice the proverbial apple very thin:

This particular acting ensemble is full of attractive, competent performers but they went to School X, not School Y and that makes all the difference.

Sure, there are a lot of dance companies, but this one is filled with passionate dancers . . . not like those other places that are filled with hacks going through the motions.

Thin slices.

Very thin slices.

Entire careers are being staked on these very thin slices.

-----------------------

I've joked with my friends that having a career as an individual artist, or running an arts organization, is like running for President.  On one level it requires an almost unthinkable level of optimism and self confidence.  On another level it requires the sort of blunt, reality based thinking that you need to grind your way through the primaries and to those 270 electoral votes.

Being an artist requires both a solid belief in your own abilities and the wisdom to regard everything (including yourself, especially yourself) with a critical eye.  A key part of that wisdom comes from asking yourself and those around you this question:

What is meaningfully different about this artistic project/organization?

Is it our artistic process? 

Is it the way we engage with the community?

Is it the way we generate revenue?

Is it the way we train our artists?

You've got to come up with answers to those questions and be brutal in your assessment of them.  Your BS radar has to be turned way up.

What if your honest answer to the "what's meaningful different" question is that there really isn't much difference?

Well that's the moment that you need to stop and think about what differences you are willing to create.

If I could make any of my fellow artists and artists orgs who are struggling do just one thing, it would be asking the meaningful difference question.  It's a question that can change everything.

------------------------------

Reminder:  Chicago marketing workshop coming soon.  It shall be awesome.  Details here

 

Available

So the facts are that over about a six year period my day job was able to increase their African-American audience from about 5% to a shade under 30%.  They even got a pretty sweet award recognizing the efforts.

It many ways it was Audience Building 101.  The programming appealed to the audience.  Money and time was invested.  Relationships were built.

But here's a factor that is mentioned a little less often:

The audience was available.

---------------------

In a business book that I have mentioned before, Blue Ocean Strategy the authors divide the world into two places, the ultra competitive Red Ocean and the Blue Ocean, which is filled with more opportunity.

What we sometimes see in the performing arts is a large number of organizations getting into bloody combat for the relative few that they have defined as their "core audience", a group that fits the typical  profile in terms of age, income level, education level and  race.

I've joked with my friends that I would hate to be a part of the core, even though I'm sure it has it perks.

Know why?

Because people would NEVER leave me alone. Every arts group would have in my on their radar and the relentless echo of "see this show . . . donate money to us" would wear me out.

And when you think about it . . . doesn't it seem a little unfair (to them) that we rely on such a homogenous audience to carry such a large industry?

I guess my point is that people who are scared to embrace diversity in some form often ask "what about my core audience?"

Well here's my answer . . .

What if a significant part of your core audience is tired of you?

Trying to bring in an audience with a different background or worldview isn't about leaving people behind, it's about going where the opportunity is.

It's about speaking with people who are available and willing to have the conversation.

I'm a witness to what can happen when you go to a group that was overlooked and welcome them to your world. 

It's an opportunity that more organizations should have the courage to embrace.

 

 

 

 

A Blueprint for a Healthy Arts Organization

In the comments section of the Theatre Loop blog, Marion McClinton asks a profound question . . . how come Chicago doesn't have any African American theatres that are part of the League of Regional Theatres (LORT). 

It's a question that merits a response and I want to do it in two ways. 

First, I want to share a plan I started writing in 2007.  It was updated about 14 months ago.  When I have some time this summer I'll probably tweak it again. 

It speaks directly on how I believe a strong, healthy theatre that focuses on African-American work could be built in Chicago.  I've shared this idea with a few people over the years but have never shared it with the general public. 

That changes now.  Here it is.  Download The Core_A Blueprint for Theatre  It's about 14 pages long and gives a case (and a timeline) for building a theatre in a new way.

I've tried to use the plan to build an African-American theatre in Chicago and, to be honest, I wasn't able to generate much momentum or useful interest.

Maybe it's just a function of bad timing. 

Maybe I just haven't been able to sell the idea to the right people. 

Maybe I haven't even met the right people yet.

But I have been thinking a lot about the specific question asked by Marion, so it couldn't hurt to share the plan with the world.  Thus you now have my proposed solution to the relative lack of healthy, stable, African American theatres in Chicago.

----------------------------------------

Now let's get a bit more general . . .

Some of the key elements of my proposal are applicable to anyone looking to build a strong arts organization from the ground up.  Here are three keys to getting there:

1.  Understanding the environment.  Just to use an example, there are 8-10 theatres in Chicago that have acquired either LORT status or have a budget around 3 million dollars.  Of that list the youngest of them was founded in 1988 . . . well over 20 years ago.

So you need a team that is prepared to figure out how to build an arts organization in the here and now.  The world that exists in 2010 is incredibly different from the one that spawned the nonprofit arts movement.  You need to understand the unique arts environment of your town and your industry. 

You need a team prepared to embrace the challenges and opportunities.  That takes me to my second point

2.  You need a team.  In the arts we still are in love with the "Great Man" theory of institution building.  We have kept alive the narrative of a visionary, passionate, Artistic leader that builds something through a sheer force of will.  Even if that was true then (and it probably wasn't) the world we live in is way too complex for all that. 

In the report I wrote I proposed starting an arts organization with many of the key personnel in place on Day 1.  This includes Executive Leadership, Artistic Leadership and vital Board Members.  Once this team is in place they would try to come up with viable answers to the question proposed in Key #1, namely how do you build a strong organization in the here and now.

We have plenty of artists and adminstrators, particularly people of color, that are trained and ready to build the next thing but they need to able to come together on Day 1 (or as soon as possible).

3.  Go outside the "usual suspects" for funding.  I firmly believe that one of the reasons the arts have such a difficult time fundraising and building a Board is that we have "burned out" the sources of funding we have relied on for years.  We need the patience and the strategy to cultivate the next generation of funding and Board Governance.  This will be a challenge, but again, you need a team willing to face it.

----------------------------------

I'm an optimist.  I believe that we can build great arts organization.  The money is there.  The people are there and I think the audience is waiting to be engaged. The key is a willingness to understand the challenges and attack them as a collective.

 

 

 

Land of Confusion

If you work in the live performing arts, visuals arts or noncommerical media . . . and don't spend most of your time in a state of confusion . . . then you simply aren't considering the issues deeply enough.

Pick your issue, (marketing, organizational structure, artistic decisions, diversity, etc.) and you're walking into a minefield of conflicting agendas, destroyed assumptions and difficult decisions.

I believe the people that will be successful in this environment are those that are willing to be confused the longest.  The world we operate in is complex, but truly effective answers only come when we embrace that complexity . . and the confusion that comes along with it.

Instead of grasping the easy to say - but often meaningless - solution (More Facebook ads, More new work, More people of color) it's your job to find answers that work within the context of your unique situation.

Your ability to do that is what's going to make you invaluable to your fellow artists, employees and the field in general.

Avoid the easy answer.

Embrace the confusion.

That's the path.

 

 

 

 

The New Battleground

The next decade in the arts is going to be about three things:

1.  Creating Demand - We have to increase the audience "pie".  I believe embracing diversity (however you define it)  is a key part of that equation.  I believe effective marketing is an important piece of the puzzle as well.

2.  Innovation - Not just in how art is created, but in how it's distributed, funded, etc.  Maybe that innovation comes in taking the nonprofit model of the arts and leveraging it in every single way possible.  Maybe the innovation comes from careful consideration of the for profit side of the world and how we might find success despite it's limitations. 

Either way, the road ahead requires that we try things quickly, adjust from our failures quickly and then let the world know about what we are doing.

3.  Execution - Those who can take a good idea and execute it effectively will be rewarded.  The new world is about having the right people in place within an organization.  Not a lot of people.  The right people. 

Are you creating demand?

Do you have an emphasis on innovation?

Do you have the right people to execute on your ideas?

Those are the only three questions that matter.

Happy New Year.  See you Monday.

Creating Demand

Consider the following facts:

1.  The number of nonprofit arts organizations have increased significantly over the last few decades.

The NEA Survey on Arts Participation gives us the following:

2.  The majority of participants for the arts they surveyed are white, well educated and have incomes between 50K and 150K or over.

3.  Participation in the arts are in decline across the field.  There are a few exceptions, like musical theatre, but mostly decline.  

---------------------------------

Peter Drucker, a legendary management guru, said that a good business creates demand.

All the evidence points to a simple conclusion, the arts are not creating demand. 

There are some exceptions to this of course, some groups are actively creating demand, but as a collective field we still struggle with this.

We are building more and more organizations to serve the existing, shrinking, demand for what we do.

When I talk about diversity in the context of the arts, what I'm really talking about is creating new demand for art.

The bread and butter audience, the middle aged, relatively wealthy, audience is tapped out.  That's to be expected.  They have been filling our seats and dealing with our funding requests for more then three decades now. 

Many of them are just plain tired.

Tired of our continous need for funding.

Tired of being invited to 100 artistic events a year that they can't possibly make it too.

We have dipped into that particular demographic well over and over and over and over again.

Our future depends on our ability to find new "wells" and embracing diversity is a key part of that effort.

---------------------------

The good news is that when your audience is as homogenous as ours typically is there are plenty of places where you can go to create demand.

You can leverage your diversity efforts toward age, class, gender, race, socio-economic background, whatever.

But not doing anything simply isn't a good option.  All that does is leave you in a fight for a piece of a small pie.

And since you are going to be having that fight with organizations that are better known and more resourced then you, that's a tough fight to win.

Create your own definition of diversity and pursue it.  Look at other fields and see how they have had success in diversifying their workforce and other areas.  Call your colleagues in the field that are having some success and ask for advice.

Note:  At my day job the diversity efforts had led to increased audiences and recognition from Actor's equity .  Want to know how it happened?  Email me and I'll tell you everything I know.  I'm a little biased, but I really do think my day job does it right.

The future is in front of us.  Let's make this decade the time when we embrace it.