Arts Admin. Hey Girl, It’s The Sexy Career Choice

February 22, 2012 |

In case you’ve been stuck under an office rock the past few months and have been missing out on Ryan Gosling, Arts Administrator then we need to get you an appletini and some trendy new threads stat. If you’re not up on the whole Ryan Gosling “Hey Girl” thing, it’s a Tumblr meme that started with one guy and snowballed into a host of derivatives, even arts administration.

Let’s hope that isn’t the meme’s jumping the shark moment because most of the posts are pretty damned funny in the sort of “you have to work in this business to get it” sort of way.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house. I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why. In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, and love a good coffee drink.

View all posts by Drew McManus →

Connect With Drew

Louisville Musicians Reject Arbitration Then Miss An Opportunity

Skinning A Cat, Beethoven Style

7 Responses to Arts Admin. Hey Girl, It’s The Sexy Career Choice

RG, AA February 22, 2012 at 10:36 am #

Hey Girl (boy),

Thanks for the mention on your blog!

For your readers, in addition to the tumblr, we also have a facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Gosling-Arts-Administrator/346937052003113

and a twitter account @RyGos_AA

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- Drew McManus February 22, 2012 at 11:03 am #
  
  The pleasure is all on this side!
  
  Reply
Lisa Hirsch February 22, 2012 at 12:21 pm #

Hey, girl! The reason you have to wait overnight to get “subscriber” status? We’re running Tessitura on a hamster-powered XT system (8 mHz!) that we keep under MTT’s desk. The Second Century fundraising might let us upgrade to a puppy-powered Pentium under someone else’s desk.

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- Drew McManus February 22, 2012 at 12:35 pm #
  
  Hey Girl. I got employer matching so now you can put it under two desks.
  
  Reply
ALV February 23, 2012 at 3:40 pm #

Hey, girl! Why did we schedule Youth Concerts during the week of Spring Break? Because we know how awesome you are and that you can get kids to attend school concerts anytime of the year – just get out that magic wand.

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- Drew McManus February 23, 2012 at 3:44 pm #
  
  Love it, I don’t think they’ve had any youth Orchestra gags yet so you should submit it at the main website.
  
  Reply
ALV February 24, 2012 at 8:22 pm #

Will do. But it’s about concerts for young people, not youth orchestras. Nonetheless, I doubt anyone has submitted either yet.

Reply