Leader Transitions
The article recently published in The Washington Post about a future leadership change at the Shakespeare Theatre Company would be a good discussion topic related to Chapter 8, “Leadership and the Arts.” Michael Kahn’s 30 years at the theatre company has fostered a level of quality and a degree of stability any arts organization would enjoy having. However, as with many founder-driven theatres, a transition to new leadership can produce a level of anxiety among artists, staff, board members, and the community. This announcement starts the transition process. This leadership transition could be a launching point for a class discussion about the process itself or other recent leader changes in arts organizations.
Beyond The Nutcracker
The Wallace Foundation recent example of Ballet Austin’s efforts to expand its audiences intersects with several chapters in Management and the Arts. Chapter 5, “Planning and the Arts” and Chapter 11, “Marketing and the Arts” can be connected to this recent case study of an arts organization’s attempt to bring its audience along on a more artistically challenging journey. Helping audiences move beyond a more familiar repertory is a challenge faced by many dance companies. Ballet Austin’s coordinated and strategic effort with developing audiences for new dance works should make a good case study to explore. Links to the PDF of the report are below.
The Budget Ahead, or Not
A recent New York Times article “Arts Groups Draft Battle Plans” did a fairly good job summarizing activities on several fronts about possible cuts to arts funding in America. I am assuming this topic of anticipated arts funding reductions and cuts is still a part of your class discussions. Given all the voices speaking on the value of the arts, it also seems like a good time to revisit the concept of normative and positive statements. Some of the arguments that are being made about the value of the arts in America could form the basis for a lively discussion about using facts and expressing feelings.
——————————————————————————————————————————-
How will the Shakespeare show go on without Kahn?
Peter Marks, February 17, 2017, The Washington Post
On any given night, in the houses that Michael Kahn built, you could find yourself transported to Illyria or Bohemia, to Dunsinane or Athens. Next to you might be seated a justice of the Supreme Court or an accountant from Gaithersburg or an English teacher from Manassas — all slaking their classical thirsts.
Kahn revealed last week that he will be relinquishing his artistic directorship of the company at the end of the 2018-2019 season, an announcement that reduces by one major figure the number of Founding Fathers (and Mothers) running the region’s stages. Among the major companies, only Howard Shalwitz and Eric Schaeffer, both a generation or so younger than Kahn, remain. And yet, given the distance Washington theater has traveled since Kahn arrived in 1986, his departure won’t be quite the seismic event it might have been, even a few short years ago. Yes, for sentimental and, certainly, artistic reasons, the change at the top of the company will have a sizable impact. But because Washington has matured into a theater town with such a variegated constellation of companies, creating and presenting drama in every category, there’s little worry that on a personnel level, the inspirational vacuum can’t be filled.
Ballet Austin: Expanding Audiences for Unfamiliar Works
How one arts organization is using research to find new, effective ways to engage audiences with all forms of ballet.
Wallace Foundation, February 2017
Written by Andrew Decker. Video produced by Stephanie Carter of WNET New York Public Media. Video directed by Bob Hercules.
Every December, Ballet Austin puts on “The Nutcracker,” choreographed by the company’s artistic director, Stephen Mills. Virtually all of the 14 performances at the 2,442-seat Long Center for the Performing Arts are filled to capacity. “We could sell out more shows,” says Cookie Ruiz, executive director of the Texas company, “but it would wear our dancers out.”
Packed houses are the case for other classics, too. But a different picture emerges for more abstract works, which don’t attract the crowds that flock to “Swan Lake,” “Sleeping Beauty” and the like. That reality is frustrating for the dance company – and not just because unsold tickets mean unrealized revenue. It also runs counter to Ballet Austin’s mission: to create new work and develop talent, thereby extending the ballet repertoire and advancing the art form. Ruiz sums up the problem with a simple question:
“How do we go about developing larger audiences for entirely new work?”
“This article and video [links below] are part of series describing the early work of arts organizations participating in the Building Audiences for Sustainability initiative. The endeavor seeks to help the organizations strengthen their audience-building efforts, see if this contributes to their financial stability, and develop insights from their work for the field.” Wallace Foundation
https://youtu.be/lTnCco8Ee4E n
Arts Groups Draft Battle Plans as Trump Funding Cuts Loom
By Michael L. Cooper, Michael Paulson, Graham Bowley, Robin Pogrebin and Randy Kennedy, February 19, 2017
A prominent Broadway producer pledged to make the case for the value of the arts directly to the Trump administration. The St. Louis Symphony drafted an email urging its board members to call their elected representatives. Midway through the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcast on Saturday afternoon, the company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, warned listeners across the country that many of the radio stations they were tuned in to were facing serious cuts.
As the news spread that the White House budget office had included the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities on a list of programs it was considering trying to eliminate, arts leaders at large and small organizations around the nation reacted with alarm — and began making plans to fight for their survival.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/arts/nea-cuts-trump-arts-reaction.html?_r=0