Americans for the Arts

The first question (suggested topic) posed for this panel blogging on the Private Sector relationship was: How to define the relevance of the arts to business in the face of urgent and basic social needs. Once again we make the mistake of always approaching the business relationship from the perspective of our needs and not theirs. It is, think, an arrogant conceit and a strategic misstep to always approach this issue from what we want and need.

For three decades, the nonprofit arts sector has been seeking – with very limited success – to capitalize on intersections between it and the corporate / business community. The vast majority of efforts in this arena have been small and localized (i.e., individual arts organizations attempting to build bridges and form partnerships / alliances on individual, isolated projects, often limited to seeking corporate sponsorships; or Arts & Business Council/Business Committee for the Arts initiatives, for which arts organizations have shown far more enthusiasm than businesses). Larger forays into the promotion of sector wide collaborations have principally been limited to periodic dialogue characterized by the most general of precepts; lacking specificity, strategic / practical next steps, and any timeline for the accomplishment of specific agenda items. 

In January, The San Francisco Foundation and Grants for the Arts, with support from The Wallace Foundation, hosted a daylong Dynamic Adaptability Conference.  Over 700 community members attended, learning from creative thinkers from the arts, neuroscience, business, media, and philanthropy. Neuroscientist Jonah Lehrer encouraged us to reclaim our value proposition and have faith in our stories.  His research on meta-cognition drew upon many examples of artists.  Lehrer also stressed the importance of building in periods of relaxation as part of the creative process, cautioning when people get too focused on solving a particular problem, this often results in being ‘locked in’. James Rucker from Color of Change and Hugo Morales from Radio Bilingüe called for rethinking relationships to audiences and donors and forming deeper and more authentic connections to communities.  Merely broadcasting invitations isn’t enough in the socially engaged, interactive, high-touch, and multi-platform online environment.

Last month I joined colleagues from around the world to attend the Salzburg Global Seminar: “The Performing Arts in Lean Times:  Opportunities for Reinvention.” Adrian Ellis and Russell Willis Taylor co-chaired the convening. Several ideas from this meeting may be relevant to our blogosphere discussions. First the context: we were lodged in Max Reinhart’s castle. This is the building that stood in for the Von Trapp villa featured in the movie version of “The Sound of Music.” And, of course, there’s Salzburg, itself: Mozart’s birthplace in the Austrian Alps -- totally fabulous! Now, here are some tidbits from our conversations, as well as my observations. First off, lean times in the West snapped into perspective when a Zambian playwright reminded us that people in her country live on two dollars a day. This starkly contrasted with the news from a Hong Kong government administrator who privately shared that his city is increasing its (already) multi-billion dollar investment in culture.

Technology and funding forecasters predict that 2010 is the breakthrough year for mobile fundraising. SMS mobile giving is one of the fastest growing fundraising outlets; this brings fundraising to your fingertips in a new and exciting way. This was first made popular by relief efforts for Katrina and has since been used by campaigns such as Share Our Strength, The Salvation Army, UNICIF, and the Obama Presidential Campaign.

This trendy topic amongst fundraisers and charitable organizations will attract a younger donor base that was, until now, virtually unreachable. Even a teenager who receives a modest allowance would have the opportunity to make a difference. Cultivating the younger generation of donors can fuel your fundraising efforts and promote a relationship that will hopefully develop into sustainable giving.

A story – sometime in the early 1970’s when I was the managing director of a non-profit theatre, a group of us were sitting around during a LORT or TCG meeting bemoaning the high cost of producing a Shakespeare – too many actor salaries, AEA restrictions on non-members, and so on. We even complained, probably following an adult beverage or two, that even the ghost of Hamlet’s father probably needed and equity contract.

One comment led to another and since science fiction and special effects were beginning to actually become real tools, the idea of the ghost as a hologram was put forth.  Yes holograms were static, fuzzy, and still mostly unknown but we did not let that sidetrack us.

Then the brainstorm!!  What if holographic technology were really practical. Let your imagine feast on this. 25 different theatres allover the country would collaborate on a major Shakespeare play. Each theatre would hire only one actor (cost saving there, eh!). The production would take place simultaneously in all cities and in each theatre every character save one would be a hologram!! And the audience would not be able to tell the real from the virtual. Now that’s disintermediation!