{"id":958,"date":"2006-10-03T07:36:59","date_gmt":"2006-10-03T14:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2006\/10\/dinosaur_or_phoenix\/"},"modified":"2006-10-03T07:36:59","modified_gmt":"2006-10-03T14:36:59","slug":"dinosaur_or_phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/dinosaur_or_phoenix.php","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur or phoenix?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Irvine Foundation has just released a short report that seeks to capture the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.irvine.org\/publications\/by_topic\/arts.shtml\">critical issues facing the arts<\/a> in California. While the report is specific to the state, the tensions and dynamics it defines might as well be about any state in the Union. Irvine is also interested in gathering comments, and has created <a href=\"http:\/\/californiaculture.blogspot.com\/\">a feedback site<\/a> to encourage it.<\/p>\n<p>While outlining dramatic demographic and economic shifts, the report is particularly bleak about the ability of traditional nonprofit cultural organizations to react and respond. Saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\nMany nonprofit arts organizations, insulated for years from the immediate effects of market shifts, have continued to operate under an outdated understanding of what the general public values. Individual organizations and the sector as a whole have increased fixed costs consistently over the past 40 years by building new facilities and adding programs, even while attendance and earned and contributed revenues remain stagnant or fall. There is now a serious imbalance: the current level of public participation and financial support is not sufficient for what the nonprofit arts sector needs to survive.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The report goes so far as to suggest that the cultural nonprofit as we know it is a species that has had its day:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><br \/>\n&#8230;it appears that the era of the nonprofit arts organization&#8217;s preeminence in the American cultural landscape is coming to a close.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While I&#8217;m not quite ready to begin a eulogy for the 501c3, I do agree that the particular corporate structure <i>as we have interpreted and enacted it<\/i> doesn&#8217;t have a great future.  As George Thorn and Nello McDaniel suggested over a decade ago, it&#8217;s the <i>myths<\/i> of the nonprofit structure, rather than the realities, that get us into trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Still and all, the Irvine report offers a thoughtful map of the choppy waters ahead. It&#8217;s well worth a read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Irvine Foundation has just released a short report that seeks to capture the critical issues facing the arts in California. While the report is specific to the state, the tensions and dynamics it defines might as well be about any state in the Union. Irvine is also interested in gathering comments, and has created [&hellip;]<\/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-958","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\/958","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=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}