Orchestra and Theatre Reports. Recap of Fall 2021 posts.
As we wrap up 2021, I found two reports that I thought you might find interesting on the impact of COVID-19 on performing arts organizations. The first focuses on orchestras in the U.S. between November 2020 to October 2021. The second is Theatre Communications Group’s most recent Theatre Facts survey of U.S. professional not-for-profit theatres. As you might expect, each report outlines the impact of the shutdown in 2020 and the reluctance of many to re-engage with regular attendance at arts events. Uncertainty created by the new Omicron variant is not going to help matters, and it will probably have an impact on audience engagement well into 2022. Links to the two reports are below.
2021 Fall Semester Recap
I thought it might be helpful to recap the topics covered this fall in these blog posts. That way, you can go back and review any articles that pique your interest.
August
This month included a graphic from the Visual Capitalist website on 12 ways to develop your learning skills and how to assess your mental models. The second article focused on how we can use our agency to adopt various mental models to navigate the world.
September
The American Association of Museums (AAM) article on equitable recruiting processes should help arts organizations identify talented applicants that may be missed using traditional hiring approaches. Another link to a graphic from the Visual Capitalist covered 188 cognitive biases to help us better balance our System 1 and 2 thinking patterns. Lastly, a link to an article about our tendency to be overly optimistic was featured. Being positive is of benefit, but so too is being a realist. A link to an error management theory (EMT) article was also provided to give us perspective on assessing the “costs” of our decisions.
October
The workplace environment was the focus for October. First, there was a link to an article on the Non-Profit Risk Management’s website about how to create safe and supported workplaces. The second story provided an example of a workplace known to be less than safe and supportive – the Royal Ballet School in the U.K.
November
Last month featured three resources for topics related to audience development and cultural democracy. A 2019 report published by the Wallace Foundation focused on how arts organizations can be more effective in building audiences and managing their financial resources. The second article highlighted how arts organizations in the U.K. are practicing cultural democracy. There was also a link to a U.S. organization that has developed a 10-point plan for implementing a cultural democracy program.
That’s it for this month. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. I’ll be back with topics and resources to help navigate what will likely be another challenging year for artists and arts managers.
Bill Byrnes
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U.S. Orchestras Insight Report: November 2021
“The aim of this report is to compare ticket sales and donations from individual patrons for two specific time periods. The first period tracks the last completed 12 months of the pandemic we’ve experienced, November 2020-October 2021. The second period is an equivalent 12-month stretch from pre-pandemic times, November 2018-October 2019. To provide additional context, this report also compares results from calendar years 2019, 2020, and 2021.”
Link to sign up for free download: https://trgarts.com/blog/lao-insight-report-nov-2021
TRG Arts: https://trgarts.com/what-we-do
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Theatre Facts 2020
“Welcome to Theatre Facts, Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) annual report on the U.S. professional not-for-profit theatre field’s finances, attendance, performance details, and operations. It investigates trends in these areas and describes activity using data from TCGs Fiscal Survey and SMU DataArts’ Cultural Data Profile (CDP) for the fiscal year that theatres completed anytime between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2020.”