{"id":2892,"date":"2015-10-08T10:56:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T14:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/?p=2892"},"modified":"2015-10-08T10:58:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T14:58:26","slug":"the-grand-bothand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/the-grand-bothand.php","title":{"rendered":"The Grand Both\/And"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a long while, my teaching in arts management has emphasized “balance”…the nuanced navigation of opposing forces, the careful and reflective response to instability.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Both\/And\"<\/a>

cc flickr Wendell<\/p><\/div>As an example, I’ve begun my Survey in Arts Management class for many years now with a video of artist Janine Antoni (which I discussed way back when<\/a>), because her revelation about learning to tightrope walk had such resonance for me: “…I started to notice that it wasn’t that I was getting more balanced, but that I was getting more comfortable being out of balance.” <\/p>\n

But now I’m noticing that talking about “balance” means accepting and building on a rather essential underlying premise: That there are opposites. That the tension we’re balancing is between two sides or two choices. That we’re finding a workable place between them.<\/p>\n

This assumption comes up a LOT in arts management and in the support of creative enterprise. We’re balancing commerce and creative expression; popular and purposeful; practical and passionate; mission and markets. Of course we’re living in the tension involving those things. But is it useful to consider them choices or opposites? <\/p>\n

I’m wondering now whether there’s a more thoughtful and productive way to consider these tensions. Not as opposites. Not as choices. But as parts of a complex whole. More yin and yang<\/em><\/a>, less Sturm und Drang<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n

I’m not invoking incense and mindfulness and meditation (although, sure, those things are cool). Rather I’m suggesting a simple nudge on our reflexes and challenge to our assumptions. <\/p>\n

The next time you feel like you’re balancing opposites in your work – between what your audience wants and what you or your artists want, between arguing “instrumental” or “intrinsic” value to your legislators, between making money and making meaning – pause for a moment, and suspend the premise. See what comes from a both\/and perspective, rather than the instinctual either\/or.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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