Curtains? Quotes

“The fact that costs rise faster for arts organizations than for other industries is often misread as “artists don’t handle money well” or “artists are wasteful.” Many board members believe that if an arts organization were managed carefully, it would turn a profit. They cannot understand why an organization that makes something people like should run at a perpetual deficit. This corporate prejudice can affect the way they govern their arts organization, encouraging them to try to cut budgets or to avoid addressing annual fund-raising requirements. Such board members start from the belief that arts managers are doing something wrong. They think that if corporate managers could run the arts organization, then it would become profitable, that if arts managers were smarter, fund-raising targets could be lower. They are simply wrong.”
― Michael M. Kaiser, Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America

“(This reminds me of a group I once studied. The organization was an arts presenter in a major city; its mission was to break even. While not aspirational, it was indeed the board’s honest goal. I suggested that they could achieve this mission by closing shop and going home. This suggestion was not appreciated.)”
― Michael M. Kaiser, Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America

“Strong institutional marketing also helps sell tickets. La Scala, the Bolshoi, and the Paris Opera Ballet all can spend less on programmatic marketing—the selling of tickets—because they benefit from their high institutional visibility, earned generations ago. No arts organization, however—no matter how famous—can afford to rest on its laurels. The Rome Opera, for example, is facing bankruptcy—and this was the house that offered the world premieres of both Cavelleria Rusticana and Tosca! We all compete for the same new audience members and the same new donors. If we are not working actively now, we will lose out to an organization that is.”
― Michael M. Kaiser, Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America

“Most arts organizations have a development committee or a finance committee composed of interested and knowledgeable board members, but very few have a technology committee that can advise on new uses of technology and provide access to expertise or equipment. Technology is not a cure-all for the arts, or even for arts marketing. Without the right data and strategy—along with great arts programming—new technology can simply become an under-utilized (and expensive) toy. While the potential of new technology excites many people, including board members looking for answers to the income gap, all expenses must be viewed in context. If we are spending money on x, then we have to take it from y. Such trade-offs are never simple, especially when the choice is between technology and art. It bears repeating that no marketing technology can take the place of good art. Too many boards focus on a new Web site as the answer for a struggling organization, even as the art is being pruned back and made less interesting. New electronic technologies do not create new audiences, they only provide access to information.”
― Michael M. Kaiser, Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America

“But many arts organizations have been so frightened by fiscal issues that they have stopped taking risks. They are too deeply concerned that tickets won’t sell, donors won’t be happy, and cash will not be available; as a result, they have become too conservative in their art-making. They create works that are like other works that sold well in the past. And they start each project with the words, “How much can we spend?” But when one plans an artistic project simply to meet a budget, when the first concern is about resources and not about having something important to express, it is highly unlikely that the project will be transformational. When one replicates something else, even if that project was groundbreaking, one is still a copycat. Although television can get away with this approach, the performing arts cannot. Rather than conceiving great projects—with enough lead time to find the resources needed to pay for them—too many organizations are planning art that is inexpensive, undemanding and, frankly, boring. Whenever the budget is developed before the art is conceived, one is likely to produce staid, less interesting work.”
― Michael M. Kaiser, Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America