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Michael M. Kaiser’s Followers (12)
Michael M. Kaiser
More books by Michael M. Kaiser…
![[Curtains?] [Author: Kaiser...](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1699889608i/141079247._SY75_.jpg)
“Strong institutional marketing also helps sell tickets. La Scala, the Bolshoi, and the Paris Opera Ballet all can spend less on programmatic marketing—the selling of tickets—because they benefit from their high institutional visibility, earned generations ago. No arts organization, however—no matter how famous—can afford to rest on its laurels. The Rome Opera, for example, is facing bankruptcy—and this was the house that offered the world premieres of both Cavelleria Rusticana and Tosca! We all compete for the same new audience members and the same new donors. If we are not working actively now, we will lose out to an organization that is.”
― Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America
― Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America
“(This reminds me of a group I once studied. The organization was an arts presenter in a major city; its mission was to break even. While not aspirational, it was indeed the board’s honest goal. I suggested that they could achieve this mission by closing shop and going home. This suggestion was not appreciated.)”
― Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America
― Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America
“The fact that costs rise faster for arts organizations than for other industries is often misread as “artists don’t handle money well” or “artists are wasteful.” Many board members believe that if an arts organization were managed carefully, it would turn a profit. They cannot understand why an organization that makes something people like should run at a perpetual deficit. This corporate prejudice can affect the way they govern their arts organization, encouraging them to try to cut budgets or to avoid addressing annual fund-raising requirements. Such board members start from the belief that arts managers are doing something wrong. They think that if corporate managers could run the arts organization, then it would become profitable, that if arts managers were smarter, fund-raising targets could be lower. They are simply wrong.”
― Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America
― Curtains?: The Future of the Arts in America
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