This year's Funding for Arts Month got off to a great start with our Resource Market at for the Arts, held at the Rialto Center for the Arts last Monday, October 3! Individual artists and arts organizations met and networked with funders and service providers to get information about state and local resources for the arts. For a complete listing of exhibitors, plus profiles and contact information, be sure to download the full resource directory>>
Prior to the Resource Market, Lisa Cremin, Director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, presented State of the Arts, an insightful look at the state of arts funding, audiences, and trends and challenges affecting and facing the arts sector both locally and statewide. Her insights came with encouragement and guidance, as she said, "There are a number of bright lights on the horizon." Here are Lisa's main takeaways, pointers, and advice:
Public Funding is Both Essential and Shrinking
Public agencies that fund the arts, "have been critical for planning, for thinking, for reflecting on our field, for convening, and for really making some changes that will better position us to weather the storm in arts and culture." Public funding serves an important role for organizations of all sizes: it is critical for the growth of the smallest, most grassroot arts organizations; it allows large art institutions to open their doors to the public for free events and performances; and it helps bolster revenues for small and midsize organizations. Additionally, as Lisa pointed out, “There’s a catalytic nature to public funding. It builds the confidence of individual and private funders.”
Unfortunately public funding has been decreasing for years, and continues to do so. You can see data about how local public arts funding has been affected in a fact sheet that Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund recently published on their Facebook Page. As an example, the Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) will be making $750,000 in 2011-12 in grants to arts organizations. This is a decrease of 26% from last year and a decrease of 52% from two years ago. There is also some very good news about the Georgia Council for the Arts: long an independent agency, GCA is now a part of the large and powerful Department of Economic Development. As Lisa put it, "arts leaders have always used the economic development case for the arts and now our state arts agency is part of the team making the case for competitiveness for our state; for growth and for vitality for Georgia."
Your Public Voice is Hugely Important
Echoing last year's Resource Market keynote speech from Susan Weiner, Lisa said, "My point about this is simple: get out there and advocate." It is important that artists and arts organizations are heard! In Lisa's words, "if you ever feel yourself feeling discouraged about severe declines in public funding for the arts, make an appointment with your elected official and go talk to them. There’s nobody else that should do it; you should do it, and your people should do it, and your board should do it. Tell them what you do, and tell them what a difference their support makes." Lisa also suggested writing letters, from organizations, from board members, and from individual artists. "One letter is a game changer. Ten letters is a landslide." Build this kind of advocacy into your organization's priorities and make sure it's in your strategic plan.
Another concern for the arts is that arts leaders are not "at the civic table." Civic issues like transportation are affecting the arts' ability to grow and thrive, and it is important for arts leaders to be present at community meetings and public forums to make sure arts issues are heard. Lisa cited a recent study showing that those who live in the Atlanta region now have the longest commute time in the country. She pointed out that a long commute also means that it takes a long time for people to get to arts venues: "A lot more people would be coming to your shows if it was easier to get there. We’re worn out by the end of the day just trying to get around this region."
Declining Audiences and How to Reach Them: "We're All Marketers Now"
One major trend that Lisa cited is that for the majority of arts organizations, audiences are declining: “What’s the art if nobody is in the room? We create art for people to see and experience. We build exhibitions and galleries and theaters for people to come and consume art that our field produces.” Lisa attributed this to a lack of connection between arts organizations and their audiences and she believes this disruption in connection started after 9/11, when people "started going out differently." As Lisa put it, "We wanted to own our time, we wanted to react, we wanted to go out when we wanted to go out and it really changed the psyche of America."
Another major trend affecting connection with audiences is the explosion of online channels and the hyperlocalization of media. Where organizations used to connect through newspapers and radio and mail, those avenues no longer reach the broad audience that they used to. Instead, everyone is getting their information from multiple sources: social media, local papers, email, blogs, digital radio. Lisa gave the excellent example of her 19-year-old daughter, who finds out about worthwhile arts events by following the King of Pops on Twitter. He sells popsicles at local events, tweets his location, and Lisa's daughter gets a head's up about what's going on. This shows how important partnerships can be to helping you amplify your message. "Where your information goes out and how your information is getting into people's heads is critical."
So where do we go from here? There isn't really a way around doing it all; to reach your audiences, you must do your best to be in all channels at once. To do this, arts organizations need to reposition themselves to make marketing and outreach an organization-wide priority. Pulling from a recent article in the McKinsey Quarterly, Lisa said: “We are all marketers now. From the CEO to the stagehand, everyone must participate in building the brand, selling the product, and getting people in the doors. This is everything, and diversity is key. Organizations must build media diversity to reach the same people they reached before.”
These key points are just a fraction of what was in the full presentation. Lisa provided great insights and some really important calls to action, addressing additional topics like foundation and corporate funding, individual giving and donor fatigue, as well as the general complexity of the current environment. I would definitely encourage you to check out the full recording, which will be posted soon on our Atlanta homepage. Stay tuned! For additional tools and resources for artists and arts organizations, visit the Focus on Funding for the Arts section of our web site.
I'm going to close with a great quotation that Lisa mentioned from Michael Kaiser, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts: "We must have faith in the work that we’re doing, of our critical role in this difficult time. We must continue to foster meaningful dialogue, inspire our audiences, and surprise our communities."
Elyse Klova, Program Associate, Foundation Center-Atlanta
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