{"id":152,"date":"2011-05-02T09:56:05","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T07:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/?p=152"},"modified":"2011-05-02T09:56:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T07:56:05","slug":"the-mad-mad-chase-for-innovation-in-the-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/2011\/05\/the-mad-mad-chase-for-innovation-in-the-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"The mad, mad chase for innovation in the arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A\u00c2\u00a0few weeks back, I wrote in a post<\/a> that\u00c2\u00a0I’m beginning to wonder whether the process of adapting to a changing environment has become harder for arts organizations than it needs to be because many arts funders seem to\u00c2\u00a0be fixated on the idea that future success will come only through \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcradical innovation’. I suggested that perhaps we could see some pretty great results through good-old-fashioned, common-sense, it’s-about-time, just-do-the-right-thing, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcimprovements’. I’m not suggesting that ‘innovation’ in the arts and culture sector should not be enabled or supported\u00c2\u00a0(it should). But I am skeptical of the funder-driven\u00c2\u00a0‘innovation in the arts’ bandwagon. Here’s why:<\/p>\n

First,\u00c2\u00a0once new ideas are funded within funder-led ‘innovation’ initiatives, they tend to get\u00c2\u00a0heralded (by the press, funders, and field experts) as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcinnovative’ before they have demonstrated that they are. As an example, the Dance Theater Workshop and Bill T. Jones\/Arnie Zane Dance Company<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0merger has been called \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcinnovative’; but the idea to merge a dance company and a presenting organization is not, in and of itself,\u00c2\u00a0an \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcinnovation’.<\/p>\n

In the long run if this new hybrid organization proves to have a stronger and more sustainable business model, and if it is able to create new or greater value (for artists and audiences)\u00c2\u00a0than either organization could on its own–and if other organizaitons can learn from and replicate this success–then one might very well call such a development an\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcinnovation’ for the arts and culture sector.\u00c2\u00a0The other possibility is that it represents\u00c2\u00a0the (pragmatic?) acquisition by one organization (that desperately wanted a permanent space) of another organization (that had a space\u00c2\u00a0and was desperate to have its debts eliminated).<\/p>\n

Second, related to point one,\u00c2\u00a0the path to innovation is often paved with many (sometimes boring) small experiments, small successes,\u00c2\u00a0and small failures–in other words nothing that sounds very sexy on a grant application. Funding ideas that sound innovative is quite different from sustaining an organization’s ongoing capacity to learn,\u00c2\u00a0adapt,\u00c2\u00a0and innovate.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The ‘innovation grant’ seems to encourage organizations\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a0dress up, scale up, or amplify\u00c2\u00a0otherwise well-conceived and\u00c2\u00a0feasible strategies for modest\u00c2\u00a0improvements, in order to make them seem more ‘radically innovative.’\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Receiving the grant can not only destabilize an organization as it attempts to take on more than it can handle, but\u00c2\u00a0 can put extraordinary pressure on its new souped-up ‘innovation’ to succeed. More to the point, it can make it\u00c2\u00a0difficult to let go of the idea if it is not panning out as expected, particularly if it was heralded out of the gate as\u00c2\u00a0a potential\u00c2\u00a0‘model’ for the field.<\/p>\n

Third, it seems that\u00c2\u00a0funders have made innovation a priority\u00c2\u00a0under the misguided belief that ‘funding’ is what makes organizations able or inclined to innovate. Organizations (entrepreneurs) innovate because they are discontent with the status quo and feel compelled to find a new way forward. They innovate because they see something is missing in the world and feel compelled to create that thing. Innovative organizations do not need a two-week retreat at a spa, or a high-paid consultant, or a big carrot or stick from a\u00c2\u00a0 national funder, to encourage or enable\u00c2\u00a0them to innovate. Providing innovation-inducing ‘seed money’ to risk-averse\u00c2\u00a0institutions seems like a waste of precious grant dollars that might be better directed (in the form of multiyear general program support) to ‘naturally innovative’ organizations (if innovation is the end goal).<\/p>\n

Finally, it’s perplexing and annoying to others in the arts sector when funders give ‘innovation grants’ to projects and organziations that are not<\/em>, actually, innovative–particularly when one knows the projects that did NOT get funding. I’m not sure how this happens but I suspect it is\u00c2\u00a0in large part because\u00c2\u00a0ideas that are truly surprising, that may even defy written rules and conventions,\u00c2\u00a0are unlikely to make it all the way through the grantmaking process at most risk-averse foundations (in no small part\u00c2\u00a0because they make lawyers nervous).<\/p>\n

All of this prompts\u00c2\u00a0me to ask:\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Does innovation happen because one feels incentivized or mandated to innovate? Can one pursue innovation? Or is it\u00c2\u00a0a side-effect of … any number of things: having one’s organziational eyes wide open to a changing environment; having strong values but flexible practices; having vision and creativity; having the courage to see the truth and act; continually seeking to create greater value for your constituencies and develop new sustainable\u00c2\u00a0resource streams … for instance?<\/p>\n

\n

Eating Ideas image<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0by Scott Maxwell \/ LuMaxArt, licensed from shutterstock.com.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00c2\u00a0few weeks back, I wrote in a post that\u00c2\u00a0I’m beginning to wonder whether the process of adapting to a changing environment has become harder for arts organizations than it needs to be because many arts funders seem to\u00c2\u00a0be fixated on the idea that future success will come only through \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcradical innovation’. I suggested that perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":154,"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":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-innovation","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/shutterstock_8129566-chasing-innovation.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p15Pqw-2s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","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=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jumper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}