{"id":1247,"date":"2009-01-09T08:31:46","date_gmt":"2009-01-09T16:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2009\/01\/caution_or_conviction\/"},"modified":"2009-01-09T08:31:46","modified_gmt":"2009-01-09T16:31:46","slug":"caution_or_conviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/caution_or_conviction.php","title":{"rendered":"Caution or conviction?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big Arts Presenters conference in New York<\/a> hasn’t yet begun, but I’m already sensing a trend in the conversation — based on the folks I’ve already talked with before it all begins.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the economy is delivering a gut punch to so many cultural organizations, and the people and organizations that support them. Endowments are down 30 to 50 percent — meaning the earnings from endowments are down from what was budgeted. Foundation endowments are down, too, so some grants and gifts that were expected are being delayed or diminished, and future funds from those foundations are iffy at best. Governments from Federal to state to county to city are facing radical shortfalls, and considering significant cuts just to stay solvent. Wealthy individual donors are skittish, as well, wanting to hold whatever cash they have as a hedge against their floundering investments, and trimming their philanthropy as a result. Earned income from ticket sales and gate fees is all over the map — holding ground at some organizations, easing off at others.<\/p>\n

But the core of the conversations — after the mutual venting of grievances and hardships, and the mutual consolations and nods — revolves around how to react in response:<\/p>\n

Do we pull back from the punch? Or do we lean into it?<\/p>\n

For example, foundations could respond to the endowment hit by focusing their remaining resources on long-time recipients and long term project commitments — pulling away from new, small, emerging, or perhaps even risky organizations. Or, they could spread the pain equally among established grantees and emerging initiatives. Or, they could dip into their endowments even further to keep the money flowing.<\/p>\n

Performing arts presenters could cut their seasons, lean toward more commercially viable shows, trim their free or unfunded outreach efforts. Or they could rethink their allocations to ensure on-going support for riskier shows and broader public access.<\/p>\n

There is no right answer, only the pressing question. And from the sound of it, governing boards are pushing leadership and staff in both directions at once — be conservative, be aggressive, pull back, push harder.<\/p>\n

I’ll be interested to hear how the conversation plays out over the coming days.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The big Arts Presenters conference in New York hasn’t yet begun, but I’m already sensing a trend in the conversation — based on the folks I’ve already talked with before it all begins. Obviously, the economy is delivering a gut punch to so many cultural organizations, and the people and organizations that support them. Endowments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}