Just wanted to make a quick shout-out today drawing attention to the Clyde Fitch Report’s (CFR) Kickstarter campaign.
I have been checking out CFR on a weekly basis for a number of years now, getting a lot of art news and opinion. Sometimes what I learn there has served as the basis for post of my own. Oklahoma City Ballet Executive Director Shane Jewell’s post encouraging arts organizations to use shirtless men in advertising being one of the more recent examples.
If you are wondering who Clyde Fitch is, you probably aren’t alone. He was an incredibly famous and successful playwright in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If you read the “Who Was Clyde Fitch” section of the website, you will wonder how the heck he ever faded into obscurity. The guy was making $250,000 a year in 1900s dollars.
The Clyde Fitch Report unfortunately can’t claim the same level of resources. Founded by Leonard Jacobs, it is definitely a labor of love. But like Clyde Fitch, when you watch the Kickstarter video, you will be surprised to learn how many people from across the country contribute to the site.
Essentially, Jacobs is trying to scale up the quality of what the site offers and do a little better by the contributors by paying them a pittance instead of nothing.
Everyone is probably well aware that arts journalism is suffering greatly these days. Just yesterday I spoke before the local Rotary Club and was asked why there wasn’t more post-performance coverage in the local paper.
Leonard Jacobs and the CFR crew isn’t going to solve that problem overnight, but they are looking to experiment with some alternative approaches.