Power Law - Why Arts Organizations Need To Reinvent

gatekeepers/curators who determined what their audiences would be exposed to. If you're the symphony orchestra in town, your programming is what people heard, and what they heard shaped their aesthetic.

Now there are more options. If you're just one producer in an increasingly crowded marketplace you have the news organization problem. If your brand is strong like the Metropolitan Opera, you still have an advantage. But if you're just another theatre company, you're just another theatre company competing with YouTube and streaming and music and video and e-readers and games.

Now you not only have to make the case that what you do is excellent, you probably have to make the case that an audience should choose live theatre over music or video or... Saying you're the best chamber orchestra doesn't mean much if you can't make the case for chamber orchestras. Advertising a star singer doesn't mean much if you can't make the case for the live opera experience.

The weakest place in the chain to be these days is to be the producer. Content may be king, but if you're just another choice among many, it's difficult to compete, especially if you're carrying high overhead. Instead, you have to define your niche and be the expert in that niche. It's not enough to a chamber orchestra that plays well, you have to define the niche in a way that makes you central to it.

For example: The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has billed itself as "America's chamber orchestra." Well, it may be that the SPCO plays better than any other chamber orchestra in America. But what makes it "America's chamber orchestra"? For anyone outside of Minnesota or Chicago, it's a meaningless boast.

What if instead the orchestra attempted to define what a chamber orchestra is in America? If it pointed to the best performances and programs elsewhere, if it made itself into a resource for anyone interested in chamber orchestras? If it touted the accomplishments of those it worked with? If it created a community around the idea of and interest in chamber orchestras? Then the claim has something to back it up.

This season the orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary, not just with a concert but with invitations to the world's best chamber orchestras to come to St. Paul so audiences could make comparisons. That's owning the space, a brilliant, gutsy thing to do. But outside the city the swagger is invisible.

So what?

Because success isn't just about selling tickets in the short term. It's about creating a community of relationships, about being more than a producer lost in a sea of choices. It's about setting yourself up as the aggregator of an aesthetic and positioning yourself at the center of it.