Posts tagged arts management
8 Things I Just Learned About Building Participation in the Arts
Feb 7th
I just read “A New Framework for Building Participation in the Arts“, which offers interesting research insights into arts participation strategy, mostly for nonprofit arts institutions in the United States in a variety of artistic genres.
A few revelations from this I hope to integrate into my marketing and public relations:
- They suggest that “building art partipication” is the new word for “audience development.” Audience development implies that people only participate in art via attending live performances or visiting exhibitions. They define art participation to include hands-on, such as making a sculpture or playing a musical instrument; through media, such as watching an opera on television; and live attendance.
- More people in the U.S. attend live performances every year than sporting events.
- On a macro scale, the crossover effect is a myth. An amateur ballet dancer is not much more likely to attend a live ballet performance than a non-dancer, and someone who attends ballet performances is not much more likely to attend concerts than someone who doesn’t attend either.
- I already knew that education was a huge factor in determining arts participation, but I didn’t know it was the single most important factor.
- Art managers need to make their product accessable via media to people with flexible and unpredictable schedules. Three quarters of people in the U.S. consume art through media.
- Opportunities for art enthusiasts to interact with each other and be part of groups of other art enthusiasts fulfills a major psychological need in U.S. society.
- Unless you have way more resources than a typical nonprofit art organization, it’s pretty hard to simultaneously deepen, broaden and diversify your audience.
- In order to get why people with more education in and experience with art enjoy it, think about the analogy to sports. People are much more likely to enjoy a baseball game if they know the rules and background about the players, and they usually go for the first time with a family member or friend who invites them.
You can read the whole document here.
Where Art and Public Relations Intersect
Dec 17th
One of the most beloved instructors in my major Kelli Matthews wrote a blog post titled “What if You Don’t Have a PR Degree?” designed to give people in this situation advice on how to enter the field. I’m in the opposite situation, majoring in public relations but not working in it afterward.
At the age of 18, I decided on public relations as the particular skillset that I could bring to the arts world. In my public relations classes, I learned how to write much better than most adult Americans, even college graduates. I learned how to put together a killer PowerPoint and present it. I learned how to work in groups from the planning to executing of projects. I learned how to cold email and call people. I learned how to research efficiently and comprehensively. I learned how to network. I didn’t learn all this because I was an exceptional student; these were simply graduation requirements for everyone in the public relations sequence.
Many recent graduates complain that their classwork in college has nothing to do with their current jobs. However, I use the skills mentioned above at work at H!TANG & China Creative Connections nearly every day. Additionally, my degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations has gained me on-the-job respect for my writing and grammar in a field where employees come from a variety of educational backgrounds, at both my current position and at the art gallery.
Arts and administration classes at the University of Oregon can also supplement public relations coursework. This department offers a certificate in Meeting and Event Management and a class called Marketing the Arts. Marketing the Arts was one of my favorite courses of college, and I used coursework in Meeting and Event Management to help me plan the 2008 University of Oregon PRSSA Regional Activity.
It’s pretty easy, even in a small market, to find internships and student leadership positions where art and public relations intersect. For me, these were:
Marketing and Public Relations Intern at Hult Center for the Performing Arts
Marketing and Public Relations Intern at Seattle Theatre Group
Public Relations Intern at Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA)
Other UO PR students and grads who are combining arts and PR:
American expatriates in Beijing’s arts who did not major in PR but use it in their jobs:
Sarabeth Berman at LDTX
Kerry Holahan at International Festival Chorus
The Place to Work – H!TANG & China Creative Connections
Jul 15th
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to join the employees of the consulting firm H!TANG & China Creative Connections for lunch. It’s a cool company with a great work culture. H!TANG & CCC is an arts management firm of about a dozen employees. Employees work on projects such as planning fundraising trainings for clients’ employees and managing client events. Its workforce is about half Chinese employees and half employees from a variety of European countries. Most of the Chinese employees have formal training in arts management.
Something surprising – and fabulous – is about half the staff is interns. What a great place to intern! I grilled founder Felicia Schwartz on the internship program so I could share it with others. Interns work full-time for a minimum of four months, and get paid commission per project. Most interns take Chinese classes for part of the day and form their schedules accordingly. Language skills vary per project, but generally Hitang and CCC prefers interns who are good enough at Chinese and another language to use both on the job.
Want more info?
Visit http://www.hitangandccc.com
or e-mail info(at)hitangandccc.com
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