{"id":120,"date":"2011-02-28T02:00:12","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T01:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/?p=120"},"modified":"2011-02-28T10:19:24","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T09:19:24","slug":"which-nonprofit-arts-orgs-deserve-these-pennies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/2011\/02\/which-nonprofit-arts-orgs-deserve-these-pennies\/","title":{"rendered":"Which nonprofit arts orgs deserve these pennies?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In response to last week’s post<\/a>, Leonard Jacobs posted a thoughtful essay<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0at The Clyde Fitch Report in which he made many excellent points–many of them fair criticisms of my post. I cannot adequately address all of Jacobs’ points in this post, but I hope to address a few while expounding upon some of my previous comments.<\/p>\n

In my first post, I was endeavoring to both (1) discuss perceptions of the current\u00c2\u00a0threats to funding\u00c2\u00a0(which Jacobs rightly says are not ‘attacks’ in the sense of the culture wars) and (2) make the assertion that the current case for cutting support for the arts seems to rest on\u00c2\u00a0behaviors of organizations that are often held up as leaders but that, to my mind, do not exemplify the\u00c2\u00a0highest principles or the best (or even most common) practices of our field. Here’s are some further thoughts, specifically\u00c2\u00a0on responses to the proposed cuts:<\/p>\n

(1)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I believe the\u00c2\u00a0percentage of the population that is actually hostile<\/em> to the arts (philistines, if you will) is relatively small (at least I hope so; perhaps I am naive on this matter?). Furthermore, because I’m not persuaded that rhetoric will change their minds, I think advocacy efforts are better focused elsewhere. I’m not proposing to do away with advocacy as Jacob’s construed from my previous comments. There’s no danger in continuing to\u00c2\u00a0hone and strengthen the case for the merits of the arts. However, as I’ve said before, if the arts actually mattered more, to more people,\u00c2\u00a0then perhaps their value would be self evident and advocates wouldn’t need to work so hard to defend funding for them.<\/p>\n

(2) <\/em>Jacobs and others seem to take the\u00c2\u00a0view that the threats are largely political and symbolic. I tend to agree. Some that would cut arts funding believe big government is bad and it should be reduced or eliminated across many areas; others that\u00c2\u00a0government support and intervention in some areas is justifiable but the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcarts’ do not merit such subsidies because they largely benefit those that could pay anyway (the very wealthy and the upper middle class). In either case, since ‘the arts’ matter to a small percentage of their constituencies anyway, the recession offers a good opportunity\u00c2\u00a0for politicians to\u00c2\u00a0put forward cuts to the arts (which, conveniently, most people seem to equate with \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe fine arts’ and ‘snooty organiations with expensive tickets’).<\/p>\n

So what about that new report from the NEA (to be posted on Feb 28th) that Jacobs mentioned, which indicates much higher participation levels than previously reported? Importantly, these expanded participation rates are due to an expanded definition <\/em>of participation from one limited to\u00c2\u00a0‘attendance’\u00c2\u00a0to one\u00c2\u00a0including (as I recall from the Webinar last week) media related participation and amateur\/hands-on participation. In other words, it appears that\u00c2\u00a0a lot of\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcparticipation’ unearthed by this new report may be happening outside of the nonprofit arts ‘establishment’.<\/p>\n

(3)\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The final point I was endeavoring to make in my last post is that perhaps there would not be a general perception that the arts primarily serve those who could pay for them anyway if the sector itself did not\u00c2\u00a0hold up as ‘exemplars’ those organizations that are elitist, exclusive, wealthy, and extravagant.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I get that many such organizations exhibit qualities that are often associated with ‘leadership’: they are the largest firms; they have been around the longest and have staying power; they have high profiles and clear brands; they often do very high quality work; they are powerful and able to attract talent; they bring prestige to their cities and people often feel civic pride about their presence; and they are highly professionalized and institutionalized operations (no artsy flakiness in these shops). In other words, they exude qualities that one associates with being at the top of the corporate<\/em> heap.<\/p>\n

These may be qualities of leadership\u00c2\u00a0by corporate or commercial standards, but are these the right metrics for leadership in a nonprofit<\/em> context?\u00c2\u00a0 Where and how do we account for leadership in the sense of being the best at pursuing and achieving charitable and educational ends?<\/p>\n

I observe many organizations that are<\/em> doing work that lives up to (what I would consider to be) \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnonprofit’ ideals. Generally, they seem to be\u00c2\u00a0undervalued\u00c2\u00a0and underfunded. I am, thus,\u00c2\u00a0troubled that\u00c2\u00a0a significant portion of the contributed resources going into the nonprofit arts and culture sector is (and has been for years) directed to organizations that seem to want <\/em>(in principle) to behave like\u00c2\u00a0either country clubs or commericial entities.<\/p>\n

Which leads to my question: Does it (should it) mean something different to be a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcleading arts institution’ vs. a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcleading nonprofit<\/em> arts institution’?\u00c2\u00a0Is it time to question a \u00c2\u00a0hierarchy that puts (in perpetuity), for example,\u00c2\u00a0the Lyric Opera of Chicago above Chicago Opera Theater; or Roundabout Theatre Company above the Foundry Theater? As I said last week,\u00c2\u00a0perhaps we need to re-think what constitutes leadership in the nonprofit<\/em> arts sector. If we’re not sure anymore, perhaps it’s time to figure this out.<\/p>\n

Switching gears a bit: I understand from Scott Walters’ post on his recent visit to the NEA<\/a>, that we in blog- and tweet-land have ruffled feathers by daring to question the establishment.\u00c2\u00a0I want to express my respect and thanks to Scott for having the courage to speak candidly both at the meeting and in his follow-up post. I’m glad he was in the room. I also LOVE his most recent post on ‘excellence<\/a>‘.<\/p>\n

PS: Thanks for the essay, Mr. Jacobs. I appreciate your consideration of my post and the thoughtful feedback.\u00c2\u00a0I may \u00c2\u00a0pick up on the pricing thread next week … Yrs, DER<\/p>\n

\n

Image of Please Help Penny Jar<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0by Aron Hsiao, licensed from Shutterstock.com.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to last week’s post, Leonard Jacobs posted a thoughtful essay\u00c2\u00a0at The Clyde Fitch Report in which he made many excellent points–many of them fair criticisms of my post. I cannot adequately address all of Jacobs’ points in this post, but I hope to address a few while expounding upon some of my previous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":122,"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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership","8":"category-subsidization-of-the-arts","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/shutterstock_1347453-penny-jar-cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p15Pqw-1W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}