{"id":627,"date":"2023-11-28T13:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=627"},"modified":"2023-11-28T14:57:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T14:57:59","slug":"nonprofit-arts-organizations-in-2024-theres-going-to-be-a-lot-of-noise-take-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2023\/11\/28\/nonprofit-arts-organizations-in-2024-theres-going-to-be-a-lot-of-noise-take-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Arts Organizations: In 2024, There\u2019s Going to Be a Lot of Noise. Take Advantage."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Take the time to understand that your art is not your company\u2019s product. Impact is, whether you want it to be or not. And if your company doesn\u2019t aim for impact, it\u2019ll never be essential.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everything that happens in 2024 in the nonprofit arts world will go relatively unnoticed. At least in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The news will cover the poorly-written trash soap\/reality show that is the trials and tribulations of one former president and the new trash soap\/reality show that is the trials and tribulations of the current president. There will be multiple elections and primaries, national conventions and local terrorists, lots of yelling and lots of self-righteousness, and all the rest. Many people will fall under the various spells of national cable networks, which, given the intransigence of the studios during the recent writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes, may become the only games in town. CNN-itis, Fox-itis, MSNBC-itis, PBS-itis, and NPR-itis will likely affect the airwaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s hard to capture the interest of a crowd with another rendition of Mame <\/em>or a jaunty mixed-program from your local ballet company when there\u2019s a circus of chaos and manipulation on television, radio, and the web 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who knows? There might even be another impeachment and acquittal, just like the last 2 impeachments and acquittals, which, if you don\u2019t live or study the United States, means that lots of time and money will be wasted based on the following justification, culled from historical and non-historical verisimilitudes and verse directly drawn the greatest thinkers, poets, and orators in the 247 dynamic years of this experiment in representative democracy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And art will go on, stronger than ever, even if many well-known and not-so-well-known nonprofit arts organizations will not. And no one outside the increasingly insular nonprofit arts organizations\u2019 circle of support will notice the disappearance, or if they do, they\u2019ll merely mutter, \u201cOh, that\u2019s too bad,\u201d and return to the election extravaganza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, my book Scene Change: Why Today\u2019s Nonprofit Arts Organizations Have to Stop Producing Art and Start Producing Impact<\/em> will be released by Changemakers Books. Here\u2019s a short clip, directed and produced by Becky Bruhn, who, despite an old fart subject, did quite a nice job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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