{"id":439,"date":"2004-02-10T12:28:11","date_gmt":"2004-02-10T20:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2004\/02\/arts_manager_as_evangelist\/"},"modified":"2004-02-10T12:28:11","modified_gmt":"2004-02-10T20:28:11","slug":"arts_manager_as_evangelist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/arts_manager_as_evangelist.php","title":{"rendered":"Arts manager as evangelist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few readers took issue (in consent and dissent) with my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/68855.php\">recent discussion of evangelism on the world wide web<\/a>. I was suggesting that engaging a broad public in traditional forms of cultural expression (theater, symphony, visual arts, opera, etc.) had many similarities to engaging that same public in religious exploration. Both are a &#8216;hard sell&#8217; in that they provide abstract and philosophical benefits that aren&#8217;t always immediately recognized. Both also carry a stigma that lead many in the public to disengage before the message is even complete (those not inclined to visit a religious web site would quickly click past it if they recognized it as such).<\/p>\n<p>\nI often have this struggle with the graduate business degree I direct in Wisconsin: should the training of arts administrators look more like an MBA or a Master of Divinity? The only answer I come up with is: &#8216;yes&#8217;. Our industry is conflicted by its very nature: half earned, half contributed. The training and practice of managers need to live on both sides of that fence.<\/p>\n<p>\nOne note from friend and weblog reader Mark Nerenhausen brings it all home:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nArts administrators can&#8217;t seem to decide if we want love or money.  Do we<br \/>\nwant people to love the arts or do we want bodies in the seats?  While these<br \/>\nmay be related issues, they are two very different problems.  Further<br \/>\ncompounding the issue is the fact that arts administrators treat the<br \/>\nperformance as the only tool to solve both problems.  In fact, putting money<br \/>\nin the till may be a problem that is solved in a very different manner than<br \/>\ngetting people to love the arts.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\nWhat do you all think? <a href=\"mailto:ataylor@artsjournal.com\">Let me know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few readers took issue (in consent and dissent) with my recent discussion of evangelism on the world wide web. I was suggesting that engaging a broad public in traditional forms of cultural expression (theater, symphony, visual arts, opera, etc.) had many similarities to engaging that same public in religious exploration. Both are a &#8216;hard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-439","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\/439","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=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}