{"id":100,"date":"2011-10-23T15:28:23","date_gmt":"2011-10-23T22:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/?p=100"},"modified":"2011-10-23T23:06:39","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T06:06:39","slug":"not-nearly-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2011\/10\/not-nearly-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Nearly Enough!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026The bottom is falling out of the way performing arts organizations do business.\u2026 People’s short-term buying habits have made revenue unpredictable and precarious. This has forced performing arts companies to rethink how they allocate marketing dollars, plan their seasons and approach customer service…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New York Times, October 16, 2002<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou see,\u201d<\/em> I excitedly exclaimed to my CEO at our regular weekly meeting on the morning of Monday, October 17, \u201cit\u2019s not just us!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 While the prior day\u2019s New York Times article wasn\u2019t going to directly solve any of the marketing challenges I faced as the marketing director of one of Arizona\u2019s largest performing arts presenters, it validated the idea that a profound massive change was underway in our world and which would demand a fundamental reorientation of our beliefs and expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I imagined that similar conversations were excitingly taking place that day between marketing directors and the CEO\u2019s of all the nation\u2019s arts & cultural organizations.<\/p>\n

It was supposed to be a moment of empowerment for those of us charged to \u201crethink\u201d the connection between audience and arts & cultural experience.\u00a0 After that revelation, everything was supposed to be different.<\/p>\n

It should have been the point of acclamation in which it became universally obvious that the purpose of every arts & cultural organization, without exception<\/span>, is AS MUCH about engaging audiences as it is about advancing its particular artistic or cultural mission.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fast forward 9 years.\u00a0 Have we learned our lessons?\u00a0 Have arts & cultural organizations dramatically transformed their behaviors?\u00a0 Are we working smarter?\u00a0 What has been accomplished?<\/p>\n

Albert Einstein famously observed that, \u201cWe can\u2019t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many arts & cultural organizations, that \u201csame\u201d thinking is bound up in an\u00a0internal structure that continues to position the function of \u201cmarketing\u201d as subservient to so-called\u00a0\u201cartistic\u201d leadership.<\/p>\n

The role of the artistic director and curator is vital \u2013 I mean them no disrespect.\u00a0 Their experience, education and aesthetic are undoubtedly core to advancing a non-profit organization\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n

But their thinking provides only HALF of the leadership that today’s arts & cultural organizations require.\u00a0 The \u201crethink\u201d called for in 2002 demands\u00a0a strong analytical capacity coupled with\u00a0a deep, nuanced and equally visionary understanding of the populations to be served.\u00a0 Those skills are not (usually) the province of an organization\u2019s artistic leadership.\u00a0 They should very much be the substance of the capabilities of a professional marketing team.<\/p>\n

If your organization still follows the pattern in which artistic leadership books the shows or exhibits \u2013 and only afterward turns that season over to the marketing department with the job to \u201cSell this\u201d \u2013 then I\u2019m here to argue that you are stuck in an old, outmoded and self-defeating structure.<\/p>\n

For such organizations, it\u2019s time someone (like you) stands up says, \u201cFor our audiences – and for the viability of our organization – we are not doing nearly enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026The bottom is falling out of the way performing arts organizations do business.\u2026 People’s short-term buying habits have made revenue unpredictable and precarious. This has forced performing arts companies to rethink how they allocate marketing dollars, plan their seasons and approach customer service…\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New York Times, October 16, 2002 \u201cYou see,\u201d I excitedly exclaimed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[8,34],"tags":[13,14,15,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-best-practices","7":"category-marketing","8":"tag-artistic-direction","9":"tag-leadership","10":"tag-lehrman","11":"tag-marketing","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}