{"id":1316,"date":"2009-06-19T08:49:19","date_gmt":"2009-06-19T15:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2009\/06\/of_boards_bungles_and_the_two\/"},"modified":"2009-06-19T08:49:19","modified_gmt":"2009-06-19T15:49:19","slug":"of_boards_bungles_and_the_two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/of_boards_bungles_and_the_two.php","title":{"rendered":"Of boards, bungles, and the two-headed beast"},"content":{"rendered":"

The theater world in Milwaukee is reeling from the sudden announcement this week<\/a> from Skylight Opera Theatre that they had dismissed their artistic director, and that the managing director would be taking over artistic leadership. Opinions are flying. Protests are planned (for this morning). Factions are forming. Petitions are posted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Playbill<\/i> story on the subject<\/a> claims this as the second such restructuring in an American Equity theater, the first being the BoarsHead Theatre in Lansing, MI<\/a>. Both companies claimed financial hardship as the reason for the change. Both boards determined that eliminating their primary artistic leadership was the best way to continue operations and save the theater. <\/p>\n

The implications of that choice, and the process by which it was selected, will be an on-going point of conflict in Milwaukee and in Lansing. On its face, it’s a troubling assumption that business leadership should trump artistic leadership in organizations committed to aesthetic mission. But clear already is how badly and opaquely the board of the Skylight managed the decision and its public conversation surrounding it (board president Suzanne Hefty has issued a statement here<\/a>). <\/p>\n

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal<\/i>‘s theater critic Damian Jaques has the most balanced and reflective response<\/a> I’ve seen so far on the subject, and his primary point captures the nut of the issue:<\/p>\n

The foolishness of alienating customers — audiences — should be
\nobvious, but the boards and management of arts groups also need to
\nrespect their artists. The people who make theater or music or dance
\nare not minimum wage employes who can be downsized in the dark of
\nnight. Assuming we want artists in our midst, we must engage them when
\ndifficult decisions have to be made, and give them a stake in our
\ncultural future. They may even have some fresh ideas on how to save a
\nbuck…. Money may be short, but mutual respect and good judgment costs nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For a great rundown of the responses and reports on the matter, see Leonard Jacobs’ great summary and insights<\/a> at The Clyde Fitch Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The theater world in Milwaukee is reeling from the sudden announcement this week from Skylight Opera Theatre that they had dismissed their artistic director, and that the managing director would be taking over artistic leadership. Opinions are flying. Protests are planned (for this morning). Factions are forming. Petitions are posted. The Playbill story on the […]<\/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-1316","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\/1316","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=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}