  The business case for supporting the arts Audiences have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels for many arts organizations. Yes, they need your financial help, but more importantly they need to be part of your culture and business community. Buy tickets and share them. Music, dance, and theater help make cities vibrant – and we could use a little more of that these days. 13-Oct-23 – Every arts organization in the country, large and small, without regard to location, is suffering in the post-pandemic era from a lengthy assortment of ailments that in fairness are largely out of their control. With the possible exception of certain mega-churches, which are more political and marketing organizations than religious institutions, you could say the same thing about most churches, synagogues, and other community-based organizations. While the COVID declines were abrupt and radical, the recoveries and returns to anything like pre-pandemic levels have been slow and far from sufficient for most of these entities to make ends meet. The world is still very much watching and waiting to fully re-engage. The common list of constraints and concerns includes: the lapsing, expirations, and general disappearance of government arts and venue assistance programs; significant increases in operating and staffing costs as well as employee retention issues; cutbacks in donor support, media in-kind promotional partnerships and corporate sponsorships; and, of course, dramatic declines in attendance and participation, which have shrunk new memberships and renewals, and overall audiences. Museums and venues that are generally more spacious than theaters are doing incrementally better but a major staple – school group visits – hasn’t seemed to have returned. An equally important consideration in the economics is the traditional timing of funding and receipts. So many of these groups depend on front-end loading and annual subscriptions to provide the resources necessary to program performances throughout the year. But the public’s new and residual uncertainty and reluctance to make longer-term commitments – even as short as a few weeks ahead of an event – has seriously disrupted the normal cash flow and operations of these organizations.
This problem has been exacerbated by the growth of rampant and random crime in the central business districts of many major cities. No one wants to be the latest victim. Interestingly enough, the recovery has been much better for smaller neighborhood venues and for those located in the suburbs where the offerings are far more varied and diverse, the crowds are smaller and older, and there is less concern about robberies, gangbanger shootings, and carjackings. The business leaders and government officials in most of these cities continue to regard this as someone else’s problem. They content themselves with pro forma delegated responses and by throwing a few bucks in the general direction of their fewer and fewer favorite players. They feel that they have much bigger fish to fry and frankly don’t understand that their ability to attract, retain, and excite their current employees and especially new recruits depends far more than they imagine on the arts, music, culture, and entertainment resources of their city. You only need to look at the continuing influx and growth of startups and tech talent to and in Austin, Nashville, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh to see the impact.
For too many business leaders, age, ignorance, and lack of exposure are clearly factors. They are largely insulated and removed – except for the persistent supplications of [Taylor] Swiftie-besotted children and grandchildren – from the more current, diverse, and popular entertainments. But there is a far more serious misunderstanding at work here. This isn’t a problem, as we used to say, that can simply be solved with a check. You can backstop the arts with bucks for a while, but you need a better and longer-term plan to bolster the arts by building, educating, and exposing new audiences. That takes more than simply a bigger donation. Companies that really want to help save and secure their cities need to understand that, if you help foster and encourage your employees’ engagement with these activities, the economics will largely take care of themselves. Money never leads, it follows. Widening the lens of your involvement beyond just stroking a slightly larger check doesn’t diminish or dilute the desired impact; rather, it expands and broadens the effect.
Here are a couple of simple steps for leaders to help pay more than just lip service to saving the arts in our cities. Success in these endeavors is a different kind of numbers game. Building the bandwagon, creating the crowds, re-generating buzz, and even some FOMO all help to spread the word and convince the wallflowers to join the fun. Real art is communal and active. Attendees become advocates and word-of-mouth salespeople who are far more credible and persuasive than mere marketers. 1 Lead by personal example – Go see a show Your people aren’t going to listen to your lectures and ignore your behavior. It’s always more helpful and convincing to lead from the front and definitely a worthwhile investment of your time. Leadership is a performance art that needs to be visible. You need to be conscious about your behavior because everyone else is. Enjoy the show and let people know that you did. 2 Buy season tickets – Share them among the staff Just like the boss’ baseball or football seats, splitting up a couple of season tickets and spreading the shows and performances among the employees who’d love the experience, but can’t afford to make that kind of financial commitment, is a great way to expose and excite your people about the arts. 3 Bring the artists to your place – Break down the barriers This isn’t as hard to do or costly as you might imagine. Performers love to talk about their work and these kinds of in-office luncheons and other talks are great, up-close, and personal ways to inform and educate your teams – and also to bring them back into the office for good reasons. 4 Send a school to see something – A museum, a concert...anything Nothing has suffered more than arts education and resources in our schools and there’s very little on the horizon to suggest that things will get better any time soon. This is an excellent time to “adopt” a nearby school’s arts program and send a couple of classes of kids each semester to see a new exhibit, show, or event somewhere in the city.
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