Artists and arts leaders have been crying out about lack of money and patronage/audience support ever since I started following such conversations 25 years ago, when there was more money and support than we’ve ever seen before or since. The cry probably really meant “there’s not enough money and support for my art” (at least it did when I said it…). The people who were getting the cash and bodies – often the large institutions – kept quiet when that complaint arose, or waved the banner of their success to raise their economic profile even further. Because, let’s face it, no one really ever has as much money and support as we want, even the large institutions. That’s the nature of the beast.
However…. Unless I and many other arts observers have become Chicken Littles in the past week (to mix my parables), we’re no longer complaining to get attention from those we think should be doing more; we’re now getting worried that those might be actual wolf tracks outside the door. The decrease in interest and engagement in the “fine” (vs. commercial or popular) arts is starting to leave a visible mark on our culture – and no one’s worked up the courage yet to ask what it might mean for the future.
The first and biggest blow was a new report from the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States’ federal agency that engages with art-making in our country. The report showed a significant drop in arts attendance across several disciplines between 2008-2012 (as well as no change in some areas, and a slight increase in a few). Some details from that study are below. The news was worse than we expected.
Three more blows came soon after, to very visible classical music entities:
- The New York City Opera announced that it would declare bankruptcy and close, after an unsuccessful crowdfunding attempt to eliminate its budget/debt gap.
- The popular conductor of the large Minnesota Orchestra resigned after a year-long lockout due to stalled contract negotiations between organizational management and the musicians’ union.
- Carnegie Hall cancelled its annual opening gala, their biggest fundraising event of the year, because of a stagehands’ strike.
One of my favorite arts business writers, marketing expert Trevor O’Donnell, sees a connection between the NEA survey and the other three events. He tweeted “The arts are experiencing extraordinary publicity this week – mostly about things falling apart” and “It’s an audience crisis, not labor disputes, funding gaps or management lapses. The right name points to the right solutions.” Certainly our assumptions about economics, and about the financial value of what we do in the arts, are at the root of all of all four issues.
O’Donnell would say the real problem is that arts organizations aren’t giving the audience what they want; which is not to say that we should pander to them artistically, but we should tell them what’s in it for them, what they really need to hear to want to buy a ticket. Instead we make the erroneous assumption that everyone is already interested in what we do – who wouldn’t be? – and all we should have to do is announce our presence and they’ll come to us, right? That might have worked with past generations, but it doesn’t work anymore.
But the NEA study showed that attendance in classical music has stayed level in the last four years, if not increased very slightly. So what’s the problem at NYC Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall? Why are they “falling apart?”
Well, ticket sales aren’t their only income source. In fact, most non-profit arts organizations get 40%-60% of their revenue from donations. And charitable giving to the arts was still down 8.9% in 2012 from its “pre-recession peak,” despite increasing in 2012 from the even lower years immediately prior.
The LA Times quoted a philanthropy researcher, who noted that:
[During] the recession and in the early years of recovery, many donors had focused their giving on “what they viewed as essential services to help others in need.” The rapid increase for arts and culture in 2012, she said, may suggest that some supporters regard the arts as a “personal … priority” rather than an “essential,” and are feeling more free to indulge it now that they think the economy has improved.
Whether we like it or not, even our most avid fans might view our work as a “personal priority” yet not “essential” to their own and their neighbors’ well-being. It’s our job as arts leaders to make that case, not someone else’s. If we don’t speak the audience’s/patron’s language and tell them why it’s essential – or fun, or inspiring, or educational, or a great date night, or whatever the person really wants when they come to us – we’ll continue to be something they “indulge” when time/money is plentiful, rather than being a wellspring for their emotional, spiritual, and relational core. Advocacy – ad-voc-acy, speaking out – is the most important thing we can do right now. Even if it’s in our marketing campaigns.
As Christians in arts leadership and entrepreneurship, we have a stronger platform than most from which to make our case. There are many resources out there on the vital – life-giving – connection between faith and the arts from which you can draw. Contact me if you need suggestions, or visit our book recommendations page.
Let’s start making the case for the arts before the wolf comes down the chimney. As Dave Ramsey tweeted today, “”The best way to predict the future is to create it.” (Peter Drucker)
[If this stuff is interesting to you, you might like “Second Things Second,” an article I wrote about “value” in the arts. That, plus about 15 other things I’ve written. This seems to be my soapbox these days.]
Summary:
The 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts was based on a supplement to the 2012 Census, answered by more than 35,000 adults in randomly-selected households.
The survey reported no “statistically significant” change in attendance between 2008-2012 in classical music; opera; jazz; ballet; dance other than ballet; Latin, Spanish, or salsa music.
The overall percentage of Americans polled who reported attending at least one performance of those events in the past 12 months (i.e. excluding recordings, mobile devices, online or other electronic media) was: classical music 8.8%; jazz 8.1%; dance other than ballet 5.6%; Latin, Spanish, or salsa music 5.1%; ballet 2.7%; opera 2.1%.
However, in a few areas, the poll found a significant drop in attendance between 2008-2012. Attendance in the past 12 months of at least one theatre performance dropped 12% for non-musical plays and 9% for musicals; those visiting an art museum or gallery at least once dropped 8%; those who voluntarily (i.e. not for work or school) read at least one novel or short story dropped 4%, and those who read poetry dropped a whopping 19%.
The overall percentage of Americans: attending at least one non-musical play 8.3%; musical play 15.2%; visiting an art museum or gallery 21%; reading a novel or short story 41.5%; poetry 6.7%.
The poll showed a 6% increase in movie-going (again, digital excluded), with 59.3% of the population attending at least once in twelve months.
No questions were asked in 2008 about consuming art through electronic media, but 71% of those polled in 2012 consumed art through TV, radio, handheld or mobile device, internet, DVD, CD, tape, or record player. (Tape? Record player? Really?)
Other areas were studied – view the report highlights for details.
CAELA/Church and Art Network 
Someone asked me an excellent question, which I didn’t make clear in the post – what do ticket sales and reduced donations have to do with the strikes at Minnesota Opera and Carnegie Hall?
An op-ed piece in Minneapolis’ Star Tribune said “As much as both sides would like to think that the orchestra is all about the art, it’s really, at this dreadful moment, all about the money. There’s simply not enough of it.” I would guess it’s a similar situation at Carnegie Hall.
Luann, as you know, I’m an avid amateur singer and musician. I have a classical music college degree, I’m a lifetime lover of classical music, and I am an active volunteer and consultant in promoting classical music in my home-town of Atlanta.
I have two words for you: chamber music.
There are many different kinds of classical music. Opera and the symphony orchestra are only two of them. They are also, far and away, the most expensive kinds of musical performance to put on. Opera companies and symphony orchestras have always required staggeringly large budgets to employ and retain a large number of highly-trained musicians (and theatrical artists and technicians) that have to work closely together year-round to be a cohesive performing group.
Opera companies and symphony orchestras are wonderful things, but I fear that the reality is that both of these forms of classical music are becoming untenable and unsustainable. The economy seems unable to support them, and fans and patrons seem increasingly unwilling to support them to the degree that they need to thrive. The most telling aspect is that the remaining fans and patrons who say they love opera and symphonies offer distressingly little support for new works — they mostly want to pay to hear and see Mozart and Beethoven and other works that were written before about World War I, ignoring almost all of the 20th century, and they are dramatically unsupportive of contemporary grand opera and symphony orchestral works. These art forms cannot be expected to survive if the fans and patrons honestly have little interest in supporting new art, but only care about music from the distant past.
Despite my deep love for classical music, as strange as it may seem to some, I have never been a fan of grand opera or the symphony orchestra per se. I have always enjoyed small-scale chamber-music groups, small choirs, and small opera companies that do modest productions, as well as traditional “classical” Christian church music in concert or worship. These classical music art forms have always had a greater appeal to me, esthetically.
Moreover, these groups can thrive on much lower budgets, and be more responsive to changing conditions in the economy and the changing times and the expectations and desires of fans and patrons. There are life-long professional classical musicians and singers who make a living in chamber music. More to the point, the few fortunate musicians who get hired to full-time staff positions in symphony orchestras have always supplimented their musical activities and their incomes by playing chamber music with chamber groups between symphony orchestra gigs. Musicians can adapt to the marketplace, as it were, as they always have.
I fear that the era of the grand opera company and the symphony orchestra is dying out, and will not ever be what it once was. I expect that in a couple of decades there will be few if any opera companies or symphony orchestras left. On the other hand, I feel that chamber music groups and choirs will flourish, and will continue their great tradition, including commissioning, performing, promoting and supporting new composers writing new works. So I’m optimistic about the future of classical music, even though I think opera and symphony orchestras will have a markedly reduced presence in it.