{"id":1471,"date":"2011-02-01T08:10:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T16:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2011\/02\/the_fewer_the_thinner\/"},"modified":"2011-02-01T08:10:33","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T16:10:33","slug":"the_fewer_the_thinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/the_fewer_the_thinner.php","title":{"rendered":"The fewer, the thinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might not expect the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts to suggest that there could be too many nonprofit arts organizations, and that those organizations might be overstaffed. But Rocco Landesman is rather fond of saying unexpected things.<\/p>\n

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In his latest blog post<\/a>, Landesman points to the five percent decline in arts participation measured by the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). Then he notes the 23% increase in not-for-profit arts organizations, and a rate of growth for not-for-profit performing arts organizations that’s 60% greater than the total U.S. population. Says he:<\/div>\n
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…anyone who hears these two numbers has to ask about balancing the equation, which means either increasing demand or, yes, maybe decreasing supply.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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While it’s a frightening question for arts leaders already in an economic pit, it’s a useful question for a policy leader to ask, since the NEA has a few levers to pull in response — fewer grants, larger grants, focused research, national convenings, bully pulpit, and so on. But if we’re working to balance an equation, it’s probably a good idea to be sure we’ve got the right one. To get there, we need a few more variables.<\/div>\n
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First, demand in the arts is a complex thing. An individual participating in an event is certainly a part of demand (and it’s the part the SPPA seeks to measure). But a donor contributing to an organization is also evidence of demand. So is a volunteer board member giving time and attention to make that organization work. So is the collection of artists, technicians, and creative professionals that make the work. In fact, because of the expressive and collaborative nature of artistic enterprise, supply and demand have a way of merging together. Artists, board members, volunteers, and staff are consumers of the expressive opportunity, just as much as ticket buyers are.<\/div>\n
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Further, ”demand” for nonprofit arts endeavors also has to reach beyond the population currently ready and able to experience the work. If a large part of an arts organization’s mission is stewardship and preservation of heritage, that population also has to include those not yet ready or able to experience the work, those not yet born, perhaps those who are generations from being born. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring<\/i>, for example, was a notorious market failure if the only ”demand” variable was its contemporary audience. Generations of audiences were required to find the true balance of that equation.<\/div>\n
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Landesman offers a few responses to the possible imbalance of supply and demand. And of course, the one that I noticed the most was the one in my wheelhouse — the management infrastructure of arts and culture. Says he:<\/div>\n
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Do we need three administrators for every artist? Resident theaters in this country began as collectives of artists. They have become collectives of arts administrators. Do we need to consider becoming more lightly institutionalized in order to get more creativity to more audiences more often? It might also allow us to pay artists more.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Here, again, a really useful debate about balance and allocation of resources. And here, again, we’d want to be sure we’re all balancing the same cluster of variables. To a large extent, the ability of artists to be paid has grown alongside the individuals and institutions that create the opportunity for income. Whether these individuals are artists themselves is secondary to the question of what motivates and directs their energy. Are the individuals\/institutions focused on creating opportunity for compelling work, productive space, eager audiences, and fair compensation to the creative team? Or are they focused on self preservation and protection of turf? There could never be too many of the former. But there may well be too many of the latter.<\/div>\n
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There’s certainly valuable and essential conversation around the supply and demand of cultural offering in the United States. And it’s refreshing and exciting to have that conversation nudged from the very top of the NEA. Here’s hoping the provocation leads to a more public conversation about which variables, exactly, we’re working to balance.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might not expect the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts to suggest that there could be too many nonprofit arts organizations, and that those organizations might be overstaffed. But Rocco Landesman is rather fond of saying unexpected things. In his latest blog post, Landesman points to the five percent decline in arts […]<\/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-1471","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\/1471","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=1471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}