{"id":1737,"date":"2026-04-30T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:19:10","slug":"stop-asking-the-wrong-questions-how-is-the-advisory-board-for-the-arts-is-killing-the-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2026\/04\/30\/stop-asking-the-wrong-questions-how-is-the-advisory-board-for-the-arts-is-killing-the-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Asking the Wrong Questions: How is the Advisory Board for the Arts Killing the Industry?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well, maybe \u201ckilling\u201d is too strong. But the survey they just asked nonprofit arts leaders to complete proves that they really, really, really don\u2019t get it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maybe \u201cre-toxifying\u201d the nonprofit arts sector is a more apt description of their metrics for success.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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When we\u2019ve had years of a rusted-out, wheels-coming-off eschewing of charity among our charitable arts institutions, this brand of irresponsible data gathering continues to ask the wrong questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is this idiocy still happening?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Advisory Board for the Arts<\/a> is a DC-based for-profit company with 25 \u201cexecutive\u201d staff members from cities around the world: Madrid, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Guadalajara, Mexico City, and a dozen folks from various cities in the DSA. In the \u201cAbout\u201d section of their website, they claim competence in key elements of consulting for nonprofit arts organizations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We believe the arts & culture sector is facing unprecedented challenges. That is why here at ABA we focus on your most urgent- and often perennial- priorities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Pretty words, huh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, if you had never read the survey they sent out, you might think they actually believe there is a connection between successful arts organizations and the communities they purport to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not, sadly, the way these guys measure success. Like too many, they doggedly ask the wrong questions throughout the survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live in an arts-mosphere where it is clear that only the wealthy are supporting the arts. They donate so that they may attend, the textbook description of elitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, look at the Dallas Opera<\/a>.<\/strong> They just completed a $54.5 million campaign, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Winspear Opera House, home of the Dallas Opera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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But look at the not-all-that-fine print:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 100 donors contributed to the campaign, with recent significant gifts from the Perot family, the Hamon Foundation, the Vansickle Family Foundation, Cece and Ford Lacy, an anonymous donor, and the TDO board, trustees, and honorary directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An opera company in one of the DSA\u2019s largest cities raised $54.5 million in a single campaign. No problem there. \u201cMore than 100 donors\u201d should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up in fury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s right. The average gift was more than a half a million dollars<\/em>. Even if you were to discount the entirety of a single $25 million gift (from the O\u2019Donnell Foundation, whose mission is to \u201csupport engineering, science, and mathematics education at the graduate level. The foundation also supports Advanced Placement programs (math, science, English, art) and arts education\u201d), that would still mean that each gift averaged over a quarter of a million dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dallas Opera (EIN 75-6004746), a corporation that gains about 80% of its revenue from donated sources \u2014 in return for, I suppose, keeping the cost low(?) for the few that donate such high amounts) \u2014 is just an elitist playground, counting seats and donors, but never counting what really matters to the communities of Dallas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the results of their community programs, for example, from the community\u2019s point of view? Are they easing the tensions in the community, at the very (very) least?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is also Dallas. What would a $54.5 million donation do to help these people? Asking for a friend.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community service programs at Dallas Opera and other elitist behemoths, even though their grant applications are full of fundable folderol, get exiled by the elitist leaders among grotesque companies to a position of \u201cadorable charitable gulag.\u201d What they call \u201coutreach\u201d is what the community needs; big productions is what the billionaire donor class wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a word for cozying up to rich people (or people who run wealthy foundations) just to get their money in your pocket. Actually, there are four, according to my thesaurus: prostitution, harlotry, hustling, and whoring. And if you\u2019re insulted, just remember the story that ends, \u201cWe all know what you are; we\u2019re just haggling on the price.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which takes us back to that repulsive survey by the Arts Advisory Board<\/strong>. A six-minute survey, they promise. \u201cWe want to learn from arts and culture leaders about their organizations\u2019 2025 performance,\u201d they entreat. And yet, all they really want to know are the commercial, for-profit benchmarks, as though these organizations had no tax-exempt status at all. Here are some of the questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n