Thursday, November 15, 2007

Cultivating Innovation

Friends,

Are we doing enough to fund innovation in the arts?

Last weekend I attended a conference in New York City held by the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), which is the nation's service organization for nonprofit professional theater. Called the TCG Fall Forum, this annual event brings together board members, artistic directors, managers and senior staff from theaters around the country. As a trustee of a fabulous professional theater, Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, I find it essential to attend these meetings, both to learn what other theaters and their trustees are doing to stimulate ticket and contributed income, and to gain inspiration from artists. Last year's Fall Forum fulfilled the latter, and we were privileged to hear from the Public Theatre's Oskar Eustis, dancer and choreographer Liz Lerman, and from Ed Waterstreet (in a beautifully interpreted sign language presentation) of Deaf West Theatre. This year was more cut and dry, as the main discussion was about how to fund innovation.

While the presentations were somewhat rudimentary, what I gained from them was an awareness of how most theaters are risk averse and nervous about aging audiences and how the traditional subscription model may no longer be the most effective marketing strategy. One manager suggested that we consider eliminating subscriptions and marketing departments altogether and sell individual tickets for $20.

CATF is a very daring theater, but we are facing the same challenges of filling seats and generating contributed income. Innovation and cutting-edge theater is risky, but I cannot imagine serving as a trustee of a theater that plays it safe. The other night we approved the budget. As a member of the finance committee, I can say that we asked the staff to make some very tough decisions to ensure that the spreadsheet balanced. I'm concerned that we aren't investing enough in artistic growth. Because we are in a capital campaign for a new performance space, we cannot project unrestricted contributions the way we would like. On the positive side, once our campaign is complete, our fundraising efforts for unrestricted gifts can be redoubled and we should be able to invest in artistic growth and innovation.

I'll have more to say soon about innovation, as I am concerned that public broadcasting is not investing enough in this area.

Talk to you soon!

Bob