Leading an arts organization right now can feel like sitting at a blackjack table on a bad night. The stakes are high, the cards aren\u2019t great, and the audience\u2014the one group you can\u2019t bluff\u2014can see every move you make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All we really have with our audiences is trust. That\u2019s why the Smithsonian needs to hold its independence like a winning hand. No bluffing needed \u2013 smile, look the other players directly in the eye and let them know you\u2019ve got a winning hand. The players with the weak hand will fold. Here’s what we all need to remember: President Trump does not have any direct authority over the Smithsonian<\/strong>. The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian<\/a> holds that power. He can issue all the executive orders he wants, but they don\u2019t carry the authority to rewrite history to his liking. In this area, his executive orders have as much impact as if I wrote an executive order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the formal power he\u2019s trying to grab, President Trump is trying to grab cultural power he doesn\u2019t have<\/strong>. The public isn\u2019t on board with Trump\u2019s Smithsonian rewrite. Most disagree with his framing of the Institution as \u201cout of control,\u201d firmly oppose government control over museum content, and overwhelmingly support museums that honestly represent both the nation’s pains and accomplishments. According to a YouGov poll<\/a> conducted in late August:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to historians, cultural leaders, and regular Americans<\/a> imploring the Smithsonian leadership to push back on the paper tiger, Democratic leaders entered the conversation last week with a letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III<\/a> encouraging him to continue asserting the institution\u2019s independence and affirming clearly that it\u2019s Congress that oversees the Smithsonian via the Board of Regents, not the Executive Branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Smithsonian is in a strong position to hold its ground.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (If you want to read my thoughts about another major cultural organization and holding on to integrity, read my recent post on my website about the Metropolitan Opera<\/a> and its deal to perform in Saudi Arabia.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other institutions, though, face a different calculation: when survival is at stake, the question becomes whether to fold\u2014or fold together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pittsburgh\u2019s producing theaters are talking merger<\/a>. Pittsburgh\u2019s three largest theaters that produce their own work \u2014 Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and City Theatre \u2014 are all facing steep deficits, rising costs, and shaky attendance. A consultant\u2019s report warned they\u2019re each on the brink of financial failure within 2\u20135 years unless structural changes are made. The report recommends exploring a merger under one umbrella organization, while still maintaining the three brands. That could mean fewer staff, fewer productions, and shared administration to cut costs. Philanthropic foundations have already committed funds to continue the process with a study that digs into the legal and financial implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stakes are high: if the merger goes forward and succeeds, it could be a national model for regional theaters in crisis. If it doesn\u2019t, the report bluntly warns, at least one and possibly all three theaters could close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I see the fragility of the nonprofit theater sector as part of the historical narrative of our field<\/strong>. Some still want to blame the malaise of nonprofit theater on COVID. But we’re beyond the crisis recovery window. These are the last gasps of the era that began with the Ford Foundation investments in the late 1950s, the founding of the National Endowment of the Arts, and the regional theater movement going into the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, niche rules. Engagement and relevancy rules. Agility rules. A sharp idea, executed well, can cut through without the bloat of a sprawling, obligatory season. Institutions clinging to the \u201cclassic model\u201d are like players who won\u2019t leave the table even as their chips disappear. Sometimes folding \u2013 or folding organizations together – is the smartest play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pittsburgh is my hometown. My love for theater \u2013 and therefore one of the biggest parts of my life – was formed at Pittsburgh Public Theater and City Theatre. But nostalgia is a lousy business plan<\/strong>. I\u2019m more comfortable with the idea of creative destruction and leaning into the opportunity of change than many other people, clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have the personal experience of having the responsibility of making sure an organization stays alive. That experience allows me to call out the futility in trying to hang on to what\u2019s clearly not working anymore: not working for artists, for staff, for audiences, for donors, for communities. I don\u2019t know if merging or closing is the right answer for these organizations, but I do know that leadership means tough decisions in the face of real circumstances. I wish them the best and hope they are getting wise, eyes-wide-open counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regional theaters may be struggling to keep shuffling the same tired deck, but other artists are proving you don\u2019t have to play by the house rules to win. In this time of massive change, the smartest play can be to get up, walk away, and sit at an entirely new table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Artists have always hacked the system, but the new tools make the hacks louder, faster, and more effective.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This past weekend in Chelsea, a new kind of art fair rolled up\u2014literally. The U-Haul Art Fair parked ten moving trucks just south of the Armory Show<\/a> and turned them into pop-up galleries, each outfitted with white-box interiors and filled with work from artists, galleries, and collectives. With its cheeky, low-overhead approach, U-Haul Gallery, a commercial venture, flips the script on the exclusivity and expense of traditional fairs, giving visibility to artists who might not otherwise get past the velvet rope. It\u2019s guerrilla satire and genuine exhibition all at once\u2014and it\u2019s already planning to take the show on the road to London and Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or look at Jorge Rivera-Herrans with Epic: the Musical<\/a>.<\/em> It\u2019s a nine-part, sung-through concept-album adaptation of Homer\u2019s Odyssey<\/em>, written, produced, and largely performed by Puerto Rican creator Jorge Rivera-Herrans (though it looks like there were other creators involved earlier on\u2026and some related legal issues). Released between 2022 and 2024 as a series of \u201csagas,\u201d it takes Odysseus\u2019s odyssey into a mash-up of modern musical theater, anime, and video-game culture. (Here\u2019s a video explainer<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rivera-Herrans documented his process on TikTok starting in 2021, staging auditions, sharing songs in real-time, and inviting fans into the creative journey. He has tens of millions of views, over a million Spotify listeners, rivaling mainstream cast albums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In late March, President Trump signed a sweeping executive order, Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History<\/a><\/em>, directing the Smithsonian to purge \u201cdivisive narratives,\u201d \u201cimproper ideology,\u201d and exhibits he deemed insufficiently patriotic\u2014specifically targeting hard truths about slavery, systemic racism, and gender identity. In August, he then pressed for a top-down review<\/a> of the Smithsonian\u2019s public content\u2014spanning museum exhibits to educational materials\u2014to realign everything with a rose-tinted version of American exceptionalism, and followed it up with a list of specific art works and exhibits they wanted reviewed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
When to Fold (or Fold Together)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
When to Play a Different Game<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n