Sometimes you just need a little perspective. Sometimes you need a way to look at things, a prism through which you shine an idea so that on the other side it reveals a new aspect, previously hidden but clearly latent within.
Today I experienced both: a prism and then a little perspective.
This morning Kennedy Center’s acclaimed President, Michael Kaiser, spoke to a roomful of arts leaders in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I drove two hours to get there and, upon arrival, found that the room was full and the mood was surprisingly upbeat.
In the state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate the arts are reeling. Budget cuts have reduced state support for the arts to zero. Corporate support has plummeted alongside a staggering statewide economic crisis of truly epic proportions. And yet there was some laughter in the room, and a sense of hope – or at least a sturdy sense of grit. By the time we got to the Q&A session at the end it was clear that people attending wanted answers to their questions about how to survive these dark days so that they might thrive again in the not-too-distant future. I didn’t feel fear. I felt resolve.
In that light I was taken by Mr. Kaiser’s comment about his experience turning around the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. “There was a recession then too, and that company could have been lost in the thinning out process, but it took just two years to come out of the crisis – and what a loss to the country it would have been if we hadn’t survived! How much poorer would we all be without Alvin Ailey Dance Theater? Today’s recession doesn’t meant we just get scared and close down. We can’t accept the premise that losing so many artists and institutions is inevitable.”
Kaiser, known for his book, The Art of the Turnaround, offered three primary ideas to stave off disaster: Don’t cut funding for the artistic product, don’t cut marketing, and plan really INTERESTING projects which might take several years to accomplish. Donors will support bigger, interesting ideas more than little, boring ones, but big ideas need time to get funding in place and to capture the public imagination. His four-word mantra: great art, well marketed.
So much for the prism; now for a bit of perspective.
We’re all feeling shell-shocked in the wake of a financial meltdown the likes of which none of us has seen, but there are no roadside bombs on the way to rehearsal and no threats of violence for making our art.
Today, I read a blog in the New York Times about the National Symphony Orchestra in Baghdad. We should take a lesson from Maestro Karim Wasfi who continues to make music in the midst of extraordinary circumstances. He is reaching out to new potential concert sponsors and looking past the present difficulties while contemplating some future day when there will be a new Opera House in which he’ll hold his concerts. His is the triumph of vision over reality.
I am surely putting words in their mouths, but I take away the following:
From Mr. Kaiser: Have the courage to be creative, daring and interesting because tepid art isn’t worth the price of admission, and in a down market no one will spend money to come to something that isn’t compelling. For all your budget woes, continue to market aggressively and innovatively because potential audiences won’t come if they don’t know about your art and potential donors won’t give if they don’t care about your institution. Even in times like these it’s ok to think big, but give yourself time to succeed.
And from the National Symphony Orchestra of Iraq: Things could be a lot worse. Don’t give up. We have to keep making art. Things will surely get easier later, but this just might be our finest hour.
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