My recent post, Too Big to Succeed, generated some discussion about what constitutes success. I believe organizations would likely define success as implementation of their mission at the highest level permitted by their finances. Does this make sense? Yes, of course, but it obfuscates the delicate relationships within the production of the artistic product, its relationship to money and organizational size. <\/p>\n
We have become accustomed to a certain kind of thinking, that in order to perform or exhibit a challenging contemporary work, it must be balanced by something equally traditional or standard. As soon as a decision is made to premiere a play by a new, but promising playwright, the decision is made to program an Our Town<\/i>. Or in the musical world, why is every contemporary work paired with one by Beethoven. There’s something inherently wrong about this commonly-accepted equation.<\/p>\n
I would argue that artistic success is the true fulfillment of an organization’s mission and that in fulfilling it, its honesty and power can, and should attract needed financial support. However, a necessary condition to this equation is that the organization must appropriately size itself. Unfortunately, as I stated in my previous blog, it appears that there is a point in an organization’s growth when pragmatic thinking overwhelms this line of action and implementation. Growth in the NFP arts sector has meant, almost without exception, growth in size, not growth in depth. Internally-focused organizational forces drive growth in size, and are usually explained as mission-driven to reach a wider audience. Unfortunately the result of this development is a standardized way of planning and action that is inculcated into all facets of the arts world. Only the rarest arts administration textbook or resource does not reflect and support this line of thinking. It’s called sustainability<\/u>.<\/p>\n
My concern: because determination of artistic quality is so difficult, and so PC super-charged, funders and others who determine arts sector thinking gravitate to sustainability as a definition of success.<\/p>\n
Isn’t it time we start to ask the really tough questions. Isn’t it time we started to value the quality of the artistic expression, not the “art” of sustainability? <\/p>\n
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