The Mission, Models, Money initiative in the UK seems to be tracking similar issues to those in this weblog, through conferences, case studies, provocation papers, and such. Particularly interesting are their identified principal issues facing arts and cultural organizations in the UK, many of which might sound familiar across the pond in North America, as well.
- How can we, as a sector, better engage with the changing demographic, technological and social environment?
- What can be done to improve the capabilities of Arts and Culture Organizations (A&COs) to develop both new and more collaborative approaches to sustaining their customer/visitor base, develop new markets and build engagement and participation in the arts?
- What strategic alliances could be developed between organisations to achieve back office cost efficiencies and how could these be extended ‘front of house’ to include more collaborative business models which, for example, enabled new kinds of artistic collaboration, better connections to culturally diverse communities and organisations or new income streams.
- What are the priority issues with regard to governance in the not for profit arts sector what changes need to occur to reflect the changing landscape arts organisations are operating in?
- What are the key competencies A&COs need in order to manage mission-led strategies which are successful both in terms of mission and financial sustainability?
- How can we expand the financial capacity of A&COs, for example by creating reserves and/or developing new financial instruments and once created and/or developed how do we manage and control them?
- What new methods of operation, business models and infrastructure will deliver sustainable, vibrant and cultural endeavour?
Also worth a read are the three provocation papers nudging their work, written by Adrian Ellis, John Knell, and Graham Devlin.
If Orwell were alive to update ‘Politics and the English Language,’ he might pick a few of those quotations as examples of language being subverted for nefarious ends. “Back office cost efficiencies”, “key competencies”, indeed.
What’s the goal? Art by focus-group and regression analysis?