{"id":607,"date":"2023-11-07T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=607"},"modified":"2023-11-06T01:18:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T01:18:41","slug":"cmon-now-its-not-the-end-of-the-world-for-the-nonprofit-arts-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2023\/11\/07\/cmon-now-its-not-the-end-of-the-world-for-the-nonprofit-arts-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u2019mon, Now. It\u2019s Not the End of the World for the Nonprofit Arts Sector."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blame arrows are rampant in boardrooms, newsrooms, and rehearsal rooms. Blame is meaningless. The solution is obvious. You just have to want to change. (Oh, right. That.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Image by the author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First of all, I think it\u2019s appropriate to mention that this particular column was published on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Election day 2023. Precisely one leap year from now, the American public will be engaging in a presidential election. Who knows if the \u201cWhite House\u201d will refer to a fancy residence on Pennsylvania Avenue or a minimum-security prison in Jesup, Georgia? But after a week of counting votes\u2014say, by November 12, 2024\u2014we should have a pretty good idea whether or not the democratic portion of the world is ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Federal Corrections Institution in Jesup, Georgia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was that thought that reminded me to tell you this: the world isn\u2019t ending, even for nonprofit arts organizations. Yes, some are closing down\u2014more than normal\u2014and there is an intransigence to working as a charity, which is the surest way to prove to a community (and its funders) that the organization is \u201cessential,\u201d the key to sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it matter why the organizations are closing? I\u2019ve posited my own ideas, which have been carried in the press, along with this blog. But the press really hasn\u2019t the faintest idea of how to treat the issue. They tend to be pretty lazy on the subject of arts coverage, mostly because they can be. All they seem to do is ask Michael Kaiser, the former head of the Kennedy Center, who has great insights and intellect. He\u2019s a great person to call. He\u2019s just not the only <\/em>person to call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why can the press be lazy? Why do dogs lick their genitalia?*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*Answer: Because they can. (Image by Fran \u2022 @thisisfranpatel from Pixabay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the closing of arts organizations nationwide is a respectable\u2014but not astonishing\u2014story. It falls flat compared to other news. So they, as is their wont, just broadcast stuff that lays blame to the internal workings of the organizations, mostly the boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board members are blaming the public, which isn\u2019t really helpful at all. Board members are finally catching on that what they\u2019ve been supporting and advocating only really benefits them (and those who are socioeconomically like them) and not the public at large. Not their fault. That\u2019s been the case for a long time. It\u2019s just that those folks are older, fewer, whiter, and less in touch (and less inclined to be in touch) with the changes across America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings up new and symbolic changes to include DEI programs, most of which are performative and the first things to jettison when the money goes away. Audiences have decided not to show up for works by people they don\u2019t know on subjects about which they don\u2019t care. Shows about and by those <\/em>people. Not unlike the plucky, smart Black kid in any one of a million slasher movies, it\u2019s the first to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Which takes us to the audiences themselves. In case you don\u2019t get it, \u201caudiences\u201d means \u201ccurrent audiences,\u201d which means the aforementioned white, old, conservative, moneyed, one-income-earning crowd that has supported this version of the nonprofit arts arena for years. And why wouldn\u2019t they be upset? After all, they gave money, and in return, the nonprofit arts organizations gave them art they either already knew (The Music Man, The Nutcracker, that famous European impressionist retrospective)<\/em> or art that held the mirror up to, well, not nature, as Shakespeare advised, but to the audience itself. Every time these loyal folks don\u2019t see themselves on the stage or in the gallery, they feel unwelcome and take their ball and go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not their fault. Many artistic directors led them down that path. They intimated that nothing would ever change for these folks. \u201cSomething for everyone!\u201d they proclaimed. \u201cYou\u2019ll get to keep your seat location forever!\u201d they were told. \u201cGreat plays at popular prices,\u201d they were assured. \u201cSit back, relax, and be entertained,\u201d they were promised. And these same artistic directors who make pronouncements about \u201cart for art\u2019s sake\u201d and the like, still program happy, musical, dancing stuff with lots of white people. That\u2019s what fills the houses with the happy, rich, old, elitist white people. No one else will come, of course, but that audience is a sure bet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ah, the perfect artistic event for some folks. Including some artists I know.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, performing artists love playing in front of full houses. They don\u2019t care who sits in the seats, even though, for the most part, those who sit in the largest houses would never give them the time of day if they saw the artists on the street. Except, of course, to smile patronizingly, pat them on the head, and tell them just how wonderful they were. Is that asking so much?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then the white artists started losing opportunities for work. Not just because of cutbacks, but because of changes in programming. And, liberal as they are as a whole\u2014which is commendable and serves them well\u2014the white artists started feeling bad about it. Never mind that artists of color\u2014unless they wanted to go the Stepin Fetchit<\/a> route where Black actors caved in to stereotypes just to make a living (he was a millionaire, after all)\u2014could not get work for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth, of course, is that almost no artists make a living being an artist. Maybe 5% do in places like LA or NY. Everyone is always scrounging for work, even those who live in Beverly Hills or on Central Park South. But it\u2019s easier to blame one\u2019s loss of ability to work on those <\/em>people, I guess. And when COVID came around, everything got worse in a hurry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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COVID’s Cabaret Act, with a nod to Sondheim.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COVID, by itself, did not cause nonprofit arts organizations to act badly, desperately, argumentatively, bizarrely, or unethically. They were already doing that. I see good friends in the business, for example, doing the Oral Roberts School of Fundraising for their organizations \u2013 \u201cWe\u2019ll close if we don\u2019t raise $3 million by November.\u201d We\u2019ve written about that in the past, but to no avail. Me-First still reigns supreme, and it\u2019s a shame that all of the other nonprofit arts organizations in that region (large and small) will be adversely affected by that company\u2019s decision to make a money grab. And the next obvious issue, when donors don\u2019t give next year because all they might have done is give early, not more. Shameful, even if the people involved are honorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, \u201cI don\u2019t care if every other nonprofit arts organization closes down, as long as mine doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And besides which, as we all know in our hearts, all this financial ruin was coming anyway. The COVID crisis just sped things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\u2026 what to do with the Wheel of Blame? Toss it away. It\u2019s unimportant who\u2019s fault all this is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, instead of trying to reopen, reimagine, rebuild, or regurgitate your company, toss that away, too. Build a new one, one whose goals don\u2019t have the baggage of things past. There are some excellent examples out there \u2013 look at the Long Wharf Theatre<\/a> in New Haven or Out of Hand Theater<\/a> in Atlanta. What they\u2019re doing for their communities is more important than art. It\u2019s art with a purpose to help people, not just to continually put on a show because that\u2019s all you know how to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nonprofit arts sector in America is not dying. Put away the hearse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some nonprofit arts organizations are dying, mostly because they don\u2019t know how to be nonprofits that help others, only themselves. And, as we\u2019ve determined as a species, that kind of elitist activity ravages a society and its prospects for everyman achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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