Poll: The Cultural Confidence Level
The 10/1/08 article about the impact of the economy generated some fascinating responses, albeit all private. Most of which predicted that the downturn in economic conditions will have a very negative impact on the immediate future for most performing arts organizations. As such, I’m curious to learn more about a wider range of readers think…
Where are cultural economic conditions headed?
Please answer the following questions from the perspective of an arts manager, board member, artist, donor, or ticket buyer.
Rate the current economic condition at your orchestra/opera/ballet:
- excellent (3%)
- good (17%)
- only fair (47%)
- poor (33%)
Loading ...Rate the level of economic conditions you believe will exist at your orchestra/opera/ballet at the end of the 2008/09 season:
- excellent (4%)
- good (14%)
- only fair (46%)
- poor (36%)
Loading ...We’ll use the above answers to begin formulating something of a national cultural confidence level that will be tracked over the next few months (or perhaps the entire season if need be). In the meantime, weigh-in on the topic with a comment.
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Adaptistration is authored by orchestra consultant Drew McManus and since its launch in 2003, the blog has become standard reading for arts administrators and arts administration programs throughout the world.
I had an interesting conversation yesterday with the president of an important funder of contemporary music. We were talking about the state of funding and the recent history of non-profits. What he said was that during the 90s there was a lot of grant money available and the barriers to starting a 501(c)3 were low, so lots and lots of people started them and got funding. So there are an awful lot of mouths to feed, and the current economic meltdown is going to have a significant impact on the funding that foundations have at their disposal. The downturn in funding may not happen for a year, given that the way foundations do their budgeting, but he thinks it’s basically guaranteed. It will be harder for organizations who receive ongoing support from foundations to stay on the list, and even harder for new organizations to get funding. Our conversation was limited to funding from foundations, but giving from individual donors will probably take a hit too, especially in the arts sector. Now is probably a good time to start stockpiling canned food and amunition
Speaking of individual donors… people will always spend money on the things that are important to them. I learned during Katrina (and Ike) a while back that you can’t come to work worried about who might not give money. If your cause is a good one, then it’s good regardless of other conditions (economy) and you have to be fearless about promoting it and funding it. Otherwise it becomes very easy to use negative headlines and reports from other organizations as justification for lowered expectations.
Very good advice Andrea, thanks for chiming in.