A call to bring back patronage

I’m currently dealing with an issue which is all too common to those starving in the arts world. I have managed to get a job which keeps me from actually starving but working also means that I’m less able to participate in/attend  the arts and cultural events that are the reason I’m in the arts to begin with. This is nothing new to me or probably anyone without a trust fund in the arts. Until you get that all coveted job doing what you love and getting paid for it (more elusive than you might think) this is a struggle that will continue. Which is why I’m wondering what happened to arts patrons (a nicer term than sugar daddy)? In ages past this was common. An artist would be supported by a wealthy person who benefited from showing off their respective artist in society. It was a win win in most ways. The artist got financial support while being able to focus on their art and the patron was rewarded by looking worldly and cultured. Obviously there are drawbacks that I’m choosing to overlook but right now if it meant I could go to all the shows, plays, and arts events I wanted to without worrying about showing up for work – I think it’s something to consider.

Get with the times – Participatory culture is here to stay

I’m a little behind I know. But I’ve finally had time to get to the list of articles I meant to read but didn’t have time to read and respond to at the moment. So forgive me as much of what I will be talking about for a bit may have been published a little while back but I’m just now getting to it.

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I recently read a really interesting article from Technology in the Arts (which is a great site by the way) titled The Art of Participatory Culture – Learning to Play WITH Our Audiences. The title pretty much lays out the theme of the article – it highlights technologies and organizations that encourage and engage the audience to be more than just passive viewers. Funny enough I read this article after having just visited the Brooklyn Museum (and thinking to myself that they are doing an amazing job of being interactive) and the museum is actually a case study in section 4 of this article; more on the Brooklyn Museum below. This topic goes beyond the need to connect via social media to just get people in the seats, it looks at the cultural changes that are happening that affect not just how organizations reach people but what they do with them (and offer them) once they are involved. Offering people the opportunity to interact with, directly affected or often co-create something is becoming essential. The culture we live in is becoming less content to just be a member of an audience, they want to participate. The article argues that people are more active and more likely to stay involved when they are more than mere viewers, allowing people to have a real role in the project makes they more deeply invested.

The article lays out five major elements that make up a successful participatory culture:

#1 – “A participatory culture has relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement.”

#2 – A participatory culture has strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others

#3 – A participatory culture has some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices

#4 – In a participatory culture, members believe that their contributions matter.

#5 – In a participatory culture, members feel some degree of social connection with one another

It seems that all these elements are essential and beneficial, perhaps in varying degree’s depending on the situation. But what is key is that organizations realize a need to start adapting some of these ideas – sooner rather than later. In a by no means original example I once worked for a very established (regionally well known) musical theatre company that has been around forever. Sadly, I don’t think their marketing strategy has changed much in all those years. Despite being located within a community that would, given the right circumstances, be likely to attend, very few locals go to this theatre. There are numerous reasons for this, the largest most likely being ticket price. For a prominently middle class area $75 per person is often just too much to spend. I’ll spare you all the ‘what I would do if I were in charge’ speech but let’s just say I think more community involvement would factor greatly into my plan. While perhaps this organization couldn’t reasonably go as far as some in the way of interaction and direct audience participation they could benefit from steps in that direction.

A more recent (and successful) example was my trip to the Brooklyn Museum. While maintaining all the elements we think of when we think of museums (marble, large halls, impressive quiet), the Brooklyn Museum has seamlessly incorporated interactive technology. I had a change to see the exhibit mentioned in the article – Split Second: Indian Paintings. I sat down at one of the computer stations and worked my way through the program. Afterwards I got to look over the results from the study displayed, with accompanying artwork, on the walls of the exhibit. Getting to see the results of others participatory involvement in this project was interesting enough but then contrasting it with the experience I just had going through the same examples gave a new depth to the exhibit. In addition the museum has installed interactive kiosks around the building that allow the viewer to interact there as well. They even incorporated a game for kids into their current Vishnu exhibit. Proof that becoming more participatory doesn’t have to be expensive.

These ideas transcend just the arts and have applications to all levels of community involvement as well. During my recent stay in my hometown I got to see just how social technologies are affecting small town politics. And it’s definitely having an impact. While the world of small town politics has always been populated by the very dedicated and enthusiastic (sometimes to the detriment of their cause) the population has generally been pretty small. But during my time there I saw people engaged in issues and working towards solution that I would never have considered the political type. And facebook was playing a role in pretty much all of those issues. People were learning about things that might have gone under the radar before facebook and twitter. They were sharing ideas and getting heated about issues. Technology served to aid the goals of this participatory environment by making involvement easy, giving people a place to connect and talk about issues, while reinforcing a sense of community.

Seeing many arts and non-profit organizations struggle to survive is difficult but I truly think a shift is necessary to bring new life into these organizations. And it doesn’t hurt that all the projects and examples in the article seem like a lot of fun.

Volunteer Week

Last week was National Volunteer Week (yes, I know I’m a little behind – seems to be a theme for me lately), I came across a few different articles about the topic but this write-up from Createquity really touched on a lot of great issues. Having done a good amount of volunteering in my day I can relate to a lot of the points they are bringing up. The article equates building a great volunteer infrastructure to creating a social network. A network that should provide certain benefits. Inclusion in a group, helping out an organization you support and classes, training and development, where the first two points. While the first part – inclusion in a group – generally comes with little effort to an organization, it’s the second part – volunteer development (or volunteer school as the article describes it) – that I think is really key. Of course many small organizations cannot always provide specific training and formal classes per se, but almost all organizations and projects can and should encourage development.

Whether someone seeks out volunteering to gain more knowledge and experience in an area or to just give time to a project they care about (I have done both at different points), people want to feel that they are growing. It seems simple but from a few of the volunteer experiences I have had in the past that element is lacking. Even if the most an organization can do is to discover what aspects the volunteer is interested in and foster development and opportunities to work in that area. Trust me it’s worlds better than just leaving to them the most rudimentary tasks with no hope of learning something new.

The third and fourth points in the article I think really go back to the theme of development and inclusion. Interactions with staff and employees make the volunteer feel they are apart of the organization and not just a nameless volunteer handing out pamphlets. While specific recognition has never been an essential to me, at least not in the form of points (maybe I’m just not competitive enough), it is wonderful to know the work you do is valued and benefiting the place you are donating your time to.

As someone looking to expand into the field of Arts Administration I think points like these are really important. Volunteers are such a powerful force and my experiences have shown that when used poorly this is a wasted resources but for an organization willing to invest a little time and energy into their volunteer program it can have amazing benefits and create truly passionate volunteers.

Awesome [and a little depressing]

This site brings together a ton of data on art students after college, where they’re working, what they’re making and how much debt they have (the depressing part – in my case at least). Though all in all I’d say it’s not all as foreboding as your high school guidance council made it out to be.

MADE HERE Project

I’m a little into this right now….

 

MADE HERE

Sitting in the way back: not a post about Rosa Parks

Dramatic Irony = Irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.

I experienced reverse dramatic irony a couple weekends ago. I went to see a play that revolved around 20 some-things (who may or may not have been puppets) and their experiences dealing with grown up life. Paying rent, being broke, relationships, ect. This play was at one of the largest theatres in Los Angeles, where Broadway shows come when they have stood the test of tourists and are ready to tour! Here’s where the irony comes in, the only tickets I could afford to this show about broke, 20 year old puppets were in the way back. And I mean way back. I’m sure anyone looking at this situation could immediately have grasped the irony of this but for me that realization just came now (hence the reverse dramatic irony). It should be mentioned that I also took the metro to the box office to avoid the ticketmaster service charge, in order to save a few bucks for my friends and I.

We had a great time, the show was funny and we enjoyed it. But it got me thinking about how we value art and the ironic situations that it creates. The fact that I’m almost too broke to watch a show about people who are broke (and singing about it) is mildly humorous and slightly upsetting – in equal measure.

I guess in someways I feel better having sat in the cheap seats, because paying for the $90 seats to a show where one of the hit songs is titled “The internet is for porn” would just not feel right.

Doing good…or trying to anyway

We all know it’s hard to find a good job these days. For every open position there are often hundreds of applicants vying for the job. Companies can afford to be picky as competition is fierce. These facts have become common knowledge these days but I was completely surprised to discover that volunteering is almost equally as difficult. This was even more of a surprise because it seems (with hindsight) that my jaunts into volunteering in Los Angeles have been relatively charmed. My first experience was at Antaeus (a classical theatre company) – and it was a truly beneficial experience. I am currently working with Cindy Marie Jenkins on her Voice from Chornobyl project and loving it. However, I know numerous people who have not had such a positive experience trying to lend their time to a good cause in Los Angeles.

I’ve had numerous friends comment to me about their struggles trying to volunteer in LA. Though they were not all looking specifically within the arts, they all expressed the feeling that they were looked at almost critically for wanting to volunteer at a given organization. One friend even said that she was treated as if she were wasting the people’s time since she was only available after work and this organization would only work with someone who could commit to a more full-time volunteer schedule. Another friend who looked into participating in the Big Brother / Big Sister program was told that there were actually more volunteers than children in the program, so they turned her away.

Hearing these stories got me thinking. What makes an organization turn away someone willing to donate time to a cause they are passionate about? While of course not all organizations have a need for volunteers all the time, it is surprising the number of people who have been discouraged while trying to get involved in an organization. Though I say my experience has been generally a good one I have had some negative experiences as well. Having contacted many organizations (mostly theatres or other arts based institutions) I often did not receive a response or even have been told that I should first patronize (read as: give money to) the organization and then we could talk about letting me volunteer. In an age when most non-profits are desperate for resources it seems like bad business to ignore anyone reaching out to your organization, even if you aren’t in need of a volunteer.

The non-profit community (the arts in particular) thrives on collaboration between passionate individuals; everyone I have heard express frustration at the lack of response they have gotten from the organizations they have contact are passionate about the causes they have reached out to. If the main issue is a lack of resources to train and manage volunteers it would seem in the best interest of organizations to put more into these programs as it seem to me there is an untapped wealth of individuals willing to donate time and talents to causes that motivate them.