It’s important to recognize the economic turmoil as change for the good rather than a fall of the arts in America. This is a time of rebirth and huge change for entire industries. Many organizations will have to take higher risks and push their limits to expand new groundbreaking ideas.
Organizations are going to need to develop greater central missions and community outcomes. Here is a list of questions that all companies should ask themselves (provided by Ben Cameron of Illinois Arts Alliance):
What is the value of the arts for my community?
What is the value the arts alone bring or bring better than anyone else? In this economy especially?
How would my community be damaged if my organization were to close it’s doors tomorrow?
How can my organization be optimally structured and positioned to be my communtiy’s best?
By taking arts organizations and transforming them into strong social opinions, causes, and outreach to the community will ultimately transform every sector of the arts. I especially liked the last bullet point he mentioned in his list of questions, “And how can my organization be optimally structured and positioned to be my community’s best conduit to the arts—a question that invites us not to jettison all we do, but to keep what is most central and viable, to expand to embrace the new possibilities we may not have seen before, and to discard past behaviors that do not and will not serve us in the future, regardless of how they may have served us in the past”.
Economic turmoil can be found in every single sector of the arts. A huge industry that has been affected is the concert & festival production industry. With that said, the turmoil is directly linked to arts sponsors budget cuts, and vendor budget cuts which ultimately affects the entire process of finding the best acts to perform. Not only are corporate budgets being cut but even AEG admits that “they are seeing a lower attendance at every show across the board”. It is apparent that a lot of the corporate concert promotion companies are being the most affected by the economic downfall.
With the record industry collapsing, it forces musicians to find another stream of revenue, live performance. Even though the record industry has collapsed it gives live concert production companies more business. Finding new ways to organize live music is the new trend. Many smaller independent concert & festival companies are on the rise finding different ways to integrate live music with live art, social activism, and other forms of entertainment in the arts.
The economic turmoil could bring about a lot more creative and strategic thinking. Arts organizations have to be smart and use every resource they have to do things cheaply and together. No matter what, people will always want to see live performances. The experience of surround sound live sound, the energy and enthusiasm of others enjoying the same show, the lighting and visual effects, I could go on and on, will always be a demand. Adding more than the feature performance could draw not only a wider audience but the value of the ticket would increase.
Ultimately I believe, every problem has a solution and every problem is temporary. The key is not fighting the changes and enhancements of technology, or the uncontrollable fact that right now people just plain aren’t spending money. Really recognizing future trends, and working with the resources that are available can help the arts overcome their personal economic battle.
My first passion in life is to create awareness and activism about a large number of different social, political and environmental issues that I’m quite knowledgeable about. This passion of mine intertwined with my love for music and the arts have made me realize that I must promote these issues through music and art. Coming up with the perfect strategy to intertwine the two and interest young people is something I am constantly trying to develop.
In my industry there have been many attempts to promote environmental issues through music festival’s but I think it could be gone about in a better way. Also many smaller concerts have been combining eye-opening, mind expanding live art presentations. One company called Pivotal in Chicago actually “greens” events. They will take an average event and make it completely carbon free. Businesses like this are ever-growing and I believe these types of companies are the future of the concert and festival industry.
Personally I couldn’t begin to fathom a community without arts organizations. Art gives a community a portal for individual expression. It ultimate expression of creativity and without creativity new ideas wouldn’t be developed. The arts not only helps to expand ideas but it also inspires and calms people. A community can be shaped and transformed by different forms of artistic expression. The balance of logic and abstract is essential to the human existence.
By: Shayna Gladstone
