There’s a magical truth about many arts and culture projects that makes seemingly impossible decisions a whole lot easier. That truth is this: If you’ve spent time, money, and energy on something, and can’t get any of those things back, it’s a ‘sunk cost‘. And sunk costs are best ignored in determining what comes next.
It’s a simple truth that’s often extraordinarily difficult to accept. And it’s a sand trap that has left many a cultural manager flailing in the wrong direction. They’ve invested time and money in a new production. They’ve built a massive cultural facility. They’ve taken months to develop a new strategic plan or corporate logo or development campaign. And when the moment comes to decide their NEXT steps, they can’t escape thinking about the resources already spent.
In an environment of sunk costs, that next step is best considered without the weight of what’s already spent that can’t be recovered.
Consider the public debate currently swirling in Madison about the next stage in the life of the Overture Center for the Arts, where much of the arguing is over the size and expense of the building, and whether it’s ”too big” for its market. There are certainly issues of future cost, future revenue, and future operations that most decidedly should be part of the public conversation. But disagreements on what was done, how it was done, or whether the results were the best of all alternatives add no value to the essential decision.
Initiatives in arts and culture are more susceptible to sunk costs than initiatives in other industries (unlike a new factory, an arts facility is hard to sell or lease for some alternate use). And because of that, arts and cultural managers must bring remarkable discipline to their strategic decisions and their public discussions. If they don’t, then sunk costs will keep sinking them, over and over again.
Investing in art business is lucrative to me as long as the artists are paid for their work.
Art captures the thoughts and feelings for the community. In fact art prints act as therapeutic to many house holds. So promoting art work and culture is a good thing.
The onus is upon good management and strategies.
I agree that haggling over what has happened, been spent, and second guessing decisions made is extraordinarily useless in deciding what to do next. In fact, it’s often a red herring that keeps the artists and the arts community on the defensive rather than moving to offensive, proactive, future-focused thinking.
However, mistakes are made over and over again that could be avoided by clear-eyed looking, time for thinking and honest conversation before those costs are sunk irrevocably.