It occurs to me that the state of the economy seems to shift only incrementally either way, yet orchestras continue to hope that innovation and drastic action will let the good times roll. We may be stuck with the current economic conditions for years to come, and unless we have a multi billion dollar angel of mercy, we have to deal and invest with REALITY and not throw money away on hope….
Yet another article appeared last week about orchestras on the chopping block by Lewis Whittington titled Can the Orchestra Be Saved (excerpt):
The problems are easy to identify: The recession has pummeled charitable giving and endowments, while the audience has continued to age. Many large orchestras have been juggling high operating costs and diminishing revenues for years, so they were especially vulnerable to the downturn. Local governments and benefactors, under pressure of their own, are less able to save the day.
So what will? A crisis can sometimes be an incubator for innovation, but some observers worry that there’s a lack of bold new ideas — and that without them, many city and regional orchestras are simply doomed.
The article actually raises good points rather than proposes ridiculous solutions as others have i.e MORE NEW MUSIC!!! I like that this is posed:
However, Jeffrey Nytch, the director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music at the University of Colorado-Boulder, says he sees “precious little” evidence of new ideas and predicts more bankruptcies to come.
He argues that the adversarial relationship between orchestras and their musicians needs to change. Musicians, meanwhile, need to become arts ambassadors in their communities, while orchestras battle a graying audience and perceived elitism with more accessibility and newly designed venues.
I keep scratching my head, because it seems that we are in this bubble and believe that because things are bad for orchestras that all we need is bold change etc…The reality is that things are bad for EVERYONE. Innovation in itself is not a problem, but in a time of crisis it’s like shifting into neutral and hitting the gas, so you make a lot of noise but go nowhere fast and burn your remaining fuel. I have referred previously to the Knight Foundation Search for Shining Eyes (pdf not downloadable right now, this is a good summary) that concluded this, and it rings true now more than ever (excerpt, bold my emphasis):
- The amount of investment involved needs to match the scale of the desired change,
- The need to be clear with themselves and their grantees about desired outcomes – including the metrics by which the outcomes will be measured,
- Important innovations and changes cannot happen in an organization which is in the midst of a financial crisis, and
- Unintended results can be equally as significant as the desired outcomes, and funders need to be ready to support those unintended results.
We want to continue to build up but its more important to fortify out. The philosophy behind stimulus spending is sound i.e work on “infrastructure” such as in our case:
- board development i.e structure and purpose
- musician/management/board relationships
- Community alliances and outreach (which is organizational and a philosophy not just randomly sending musicians out to schools!)
- Audience involvement (they want to help)
- Building a cash reserve!
I know I am only skimming the surface here, but there is no point building a lighthouse when the ship is already wrecked, it’s time to build bridges that will actually get us somewhere, or we will just keep sinking!