It is with both sadness and a sense of excitement for her bright future ahead that I must share with you the news that COPPeR Executive Director Bettina Swigger has accepted a position as the executive director of Festival Mozaic, a music festival in San Luis Obispo on the California Central Coast. This is a tremendous opportunity for Bettina for which she was approached as a part of a competitive national search. This not only speaks highly of her personal and professional integrity and work ethic, but speaks to the culture of COPPeR where we strive to provide our staff the best opportunities possible to actualize their fullest potential.
COPPeR has grown leaps and bounds since its inception four years ago. We've established PeakRadar.com as THE go-to website for arts, culture and fun. We've worked together with artists and arts organizations, donors, businesspeople and local government and municipalities to leverage the role of arts and culture as a vital part of the fabric of community identity, and a significant economic driver. We've told the story of how arts and culture bring together people from various backgrounds and perspectives to celebrate what is truly important, our shared humanity.
All of this with Bettina Swigger as the leader of this vibrant, ever-evolving organization. She served first as a founding board member and then as the organization's first executive director for three years.
As Bettina transitions into the next phase of her career, COPPeR itself is poised to head into the future with many exciting things ahead. In 2011, COPPeR will be working with members of the community to implement parts of the Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak Region; gather data for the next economic impact study on the arts and culture sector and its impact on the local economy; move forward with the board of directors on its new five-year strategic plan; publish the next edition of the COPPeR Pages; and more.
A party is planned to honor Bettina's legacy at COPPeR and to wish her bon voyage. Please save the date for January 5 and you can expect an invitation with all of the details shortly.
As we look to the future, the Board of Directors of COPPeR is seeking a new executive director who will help lead us into the next phase of our development. We are currently accepting applications and you will find the job posting on our website. Deadline for applications is December 3, 2010. Click here to see a complete job description.
Look to hear more from us as we embark on this exciting search for the next leader of this tremendous organization.
Thank you for your support of COPPeR, and of the entire arts community.
Amanda Mountain
COPPeR Board Chair
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Two new arts trainings - Audience Development and Impact Measurement and Outcomes
COPPeR is delighted to invite you to our final two arts training
"Boot Camp" sessions for 2010:
Audience Development: Beyond Butts in Seats
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
4:30 - 6 p.m.
Jack Quinn's Pub
21 South Tejon Street
In today's world, it takes enthusiasm, energy and innovation to grow audiences for the arts. This boot camp will explore new ways of opening up to new audiences. Hear from Ivette Gallegos and Karen Evers, the masterminds behind the Jack Quinn's Running Club, a phenomenon that has transformed Tuesday nights in downtown Colorado Springs by bringing thousands of runners together. Also hear from realtor Benjamin Day about his experience as an audience member and how the lessons he learned from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' CEO Michael Kaiser inform his business planning and building his client base. Finally, hear about trends in audience development from across the country from Brett Garman, manager of PeakRadar.com, fresh from the 2010 National Arts Marketing Partnership Conference. This conversational session will allow time for questions, comments and dialogue about how to expand our reach as an arts sector. Click here to register by email.
Impact Measurements and Outcomes
4:30 - 6 p.m.
Wednesday, December 8
East Library
5550 N Union Blvd
Measuring the impact of the arts can be challenging. This session will provide insight in to how your organization can measure and track your impact in real ways. Debi Krause-Reinsch with the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association will share tools she has used to measure impact in the nonprofit and commercial sectors. Susan Edmondson, Executive Director of the Bee Vradenburg Foundation, will discuss the importance of accurate measurement from a funder's perspective. And Caitlin Green, Director at the UCCS Gallery of Contemporary Art will share research she has done across the sector in new techniques. Boot camp participants will be guided through exercises. Click here to register by email.
All sessions include:
- Tools to help your arts organization survive and thrive in a challenging economy.
- Information geared specifically for the unique challenges of arts organizations.
- Time for Q&A and collective sharing of our individual organizations' successes and challenges.
- Networking with colleagues and new friends
Cost: $5 per session per organization (more than one member of an organization may attend).
$2 for COPPeR Arts Partners.
Pay at the door.
RSVP: Space is limited!
RSVP to info@coppercolo.org.
You may RSVP for all sessions at once, too.
Questions? Call Bettina at 634.2204.
"Boot Camp" sessions for 2010:
Audience Development: Beyond Butts in Seats
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
4:30 - 6 p.m.
Jack Quinn's Pub
21 South Tejon Street
In today's world, it takes enthusiasm, energy and innovation to grow audiences for the arts. This boot camp will explore new ways of opening up to new audiences. Hear from Ivette Gallegos and Karen Evers, the masterminds behind the Jack Quinn's Running Club, a phenomenon that has transformed Tuesday nights in downtown Colorado Springs by bringing thousands of runners together. Also hear from realtor Benjamin Day about his experience as an audience member and how the lessons he learned from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' CEO Michael Kaiser inform his business planning and building his client base. Finally, hear about trends in audience development from across the country from Brett Garman, manager of PeakRadar.com, fresh from the 2010 National Arts Marketing Partnership Conference. This conversational session will allow time for questions, comments and dialogue about how to expand our reach as an arts sector. Click here to register by email.
Impact Measurements and Outcomes
4:30 - 6 p.m.
Wednesday, December 8
East Library
5550 N Union Blvd
Measuring the impact of the arts can be challenging. This session will provide insight in to how your organization can measure and track your impact in real ways. Debi Krause-Reinsch with the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association will share tools she has used to measure impact in the nonprofit and commercial sectors. Susan Edmondson, Executive Director of the Bee Vradenburg Foundation, will discuss the importance of accurate measurement from a funder's perspective. And Caitlin Green, Director at the UCCS Gallery of Contemporary Art will share research she has done across the sector in new techniques. Boot camp participants will be guided through exercises. Click here to register by email.
All sessions include:
- Tools to help your arts organization survive and thrive in a challenging economy.
- Information geared specifically for the unique challenges of arts organizations.
- Time for Q&A and collective sharing of our individual organizations' successes and challenges.
- Networking with colleagues and new friends
Cost: $5 per session per organization (more than one member of an organization may attend).
$2 for COPPeR Arts Partners.
Pay at the door.
RSVP: Space is limited!
RSVP to info@coppercolo.org.
You may RSVP for all sessions at once, too.
Questions? Call Bettina at 634.2204.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak Region is finally here!
I'm sitting in my office, finally sitting at my computer and reveling after having just formally announced the first-ever Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak Region. It's been a whirlwind morning of press conferences and TV cameras. It's a big moment for our community.
Two years ago we embarked on a journey with Arts for Colorado. In 2008, before the National Performing Arts Convention was coming to Denver and bringing with it 8,000 arts professionals from across the nation, I spearheaded an application for Colorado Springs to participate in a statewide collaborative community planning process. We were selected as one of eight communities around the state, which also included Aurora, Cortez, Steamboat Springs, Monte Vista, Glenwood Springs, Lakewood and Glenwood Springs. We put together a team, which included Thomas Wilson, associate conductor of the CS Philharmonic, Jan Martin, Colorado Springs City Council, Deborah Thornton, Imagination Celebration, and Dave Talbot, an entrepreneur. We headed to Denver for NPAC that summer and began to explore the possibilities of launching a cultural planning process for Colorado Springs and our region. A previous effort at creat
ing a Cultural Plan for the region had led in part to the very formation of COPPeR, and cultural planning is a primary activity of cultural offices around the country, we figured there was no time like the present.
Two years later, I'm delighted to say that we have a plan! Click here to download the plan that will help guide arts providers to better serve the community for years to come. The Pikes Peak region (El Paso and Teller counties) is home to more than 200 nonprofit arts organizations that produce an annual economic impact of nearly $100 million. Thousands of individual artists also call this region home. Colorado Springs ranks in the top 15 percent of 276 metropolitan areas nationwide in the number of arts businesses per capita, proving that creative industries are a major force in the economy.
It just makes sense -- a strong arts and cultural sector benefits everyone from visitors to residents, educators to businesspeople, schoolchildren and seniors alike.
The Cultural Plan is a strategic plan which aims to develop, enliven, enhance and promote arts and culture to strengthen our community. Our arts scene already is vibrant - and we simply want to see even more of a good thing. This 10-year plan has identified the necessary goals, strategies and recommended action steps for supporting the growth, diversity and sustainability of cultural activities in the Pikes Peak region. The plan identifies methods in which the arts can strengthen all sectors of the community, with the understanding that the arts are an intricate ecosystem composed of individual artists, nonprofit organizations, and creative industries like film, design and architecture. In order for our region to be hip, exciting and attractive we all need to be on the same page, with a similar vision for the future built on shared values.
Some major takeaways from the plan:
NEW VENUES
This plan identifies that one of the most critical issues holding back the artists and arts organizations from serving our community is the lack of a variety of affordable and accessible venues throughout the region. This plan calls for dedicated effort toward ensuring a variety of cultural spaces -- from an amphitheatre that takes advantage of our beautiful scenery and weather to more simple and small-scale spaces for performances and exhibit spaces -- spaces that are achievable in partnerships with developers, institutions, municipalities and others.
NEW ARTS EDUCATION
Numerous studies have shown that in order to compete in an increasingly fast-paced employment market, arts education is essential for building 21st-century thinkers. This plan looks at ways to capitalize on successes in innovative arts training and connect more students to arts learning opportunities both in and outside of the classroom. The plan also calls for more interactive, instructive arts programming to build creative individuals of all ages.
NEW RESOURCES
Philanthropic support will always play a part in the arts. This plan identifies new systems and structures for generating new, sector wide private support for the arts, in addition to ways the arts community can better demonstrate its impact and its high level of professional management standards to donors and partners.
NEW NEIGHBORHOOD ART
Serving the community begins at the neighborhood level -- from block parties to coffeeshop poetry readings to concerts in neighborhood churches and YMCAs and community centers -- and especially integrating public art and murals throughout our two-county region. This plan calls for tools that will help artists and arts organizations work with our community at the neighborhood level to increase the quality of life for all of our residents -- in downtown Colorado Springs, in artistic hubs such as Manitou Springs and beyond to all of our neighborhoods.
Download the complete Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak Region here.
Two years ago we embarked on a journey with Arts for Colorado. In 2008, before the National Performing Arts Convention was coming to Denver and bringing with it 8,000 arts professionals from across the nation, I spearheaded an application for Colorado Springs to participate in a statewide collaborative community planning process. We were selected as one of eight communities around the state, which also included Aurora, Cortez, Steamboat Springs, Monte Vista, Glenwood Springs, Lakewood and Glenwood Springs. We put together a team, which included Thomas Wilson, associate conductor of the CS Philharmonic, Jan Martin, Colorado Springs City Council, Deborah Thornton, Imagination Celebration, and Dave Talbot, an entrepreneur. We headed to Denver for NPAC that summer and began to explore the possibilities of launching a cultural planning process for Colorado Springs and our region. A previous effort at creat
ing a Cultural Plan for the region had led in part to the very formation of COPPeR, and cultural planning is a primary activity of cultural offices around the country, we figured there was no time like the present.Two years later, I'm delighted to say that we have a plan! Click here to download the plan that will help guide arts providers to better serve the community for years to come. The Pikes Peak region (El Paso and Teller counties) is home to more than 200 nonprofit arts organizations that produce an annual economic impact of nearly $100 million. Thousands of individual artists also call this region home. Colorado Springs ranks in the top 15 percent of 276 metropolitan areas nationwide in the number of arts businesses per capita, proving that creative industries are a major force in the economy.
It just makes sense -- a strong arts and cultural sector benefits everyone from visitors to residents, educators to businesspeople, schoolchildren and seniors alike.
The Cultural Plan is a strategic plan which aims to develop, enliven, enhance and promote arts and culture to strengthen our community. Our arts scene already is vibrant - and we simply want to see even more of a good thing. This 10-year plan has identified the necessary goals, strategies and recommended action steps for supporting the growth, diversity and sustainability of cultural activities in the Pikes Peak region. The plan identifies methods in which the arts can strengthen all sectors of the community, with the understanding that the arts are an intricate ecosystem composed of individual artists, nonprofit organizations, and creative industries like film, design and architecture. In order for our region to be hip, exciting and attractive we all need to be on the same page, with a similar vision for the future built on shared values.
Some major takeaways from the plan:
NEW VENUES
This plan identifies that one of the most critical issues holding back the artists and arts organizations from serving our community is the lack of a variety of affordable and accessible venues throughout the region. This plan calls for dedicated effort toward ensuring a variety of cultural spaces -- from an amphitheatre that takes advantage of our beautiful scenery and weather to more simple and small-scale spaces for performances and exhibit spaces -- spaces that are achievable in partnerships with developers, institutions, municipalities and others.
NEW ARTS EDUCATION
Numerous studies have shown that in order to compete in an increasingly fast-paced employment market, arts education is essential for building 21st-century thinkers. This plan looks at ways to capitalize on successes in innovative arts training and connect more students to arts learning opportunities both in and outside of the classroom. The plan also calls for more interactive, instructive arts programming to build creative individuals of all ages.
NEW RESOURCES
Philanthropic support will always play a part in the arts. This plan identifies new systems and structures for generating new, sector wide private support for the arts, in addition to ways the arts community can better demonstrate its impact and its high level of professional management standards to donors and partners.
NEW NEIGHBORHOOD ART
Serving the community begins at the neighborhood level -- from block parties to coffeeshop poetry readings to concerts in neighborhood churches and YMCAs and community centers -- and especially integrating public art and murals throughout our two-county region. This plan calls for tools that will help artists and arts organizations work with our community at the neighborhood level to increase the quality of life for all of our residents -- in downtown Colorado Springs, in artistic hubs such as Manitou Springs and beyond to all of our neighborhoods.
Download the complete Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak Region here.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Congratulations to Kevin Johnson
Hello to COPPeR friends, donors, supporters and volunteers:
After two and a half years at COPPeR managing PeakRadar.com, Kevin Johnson will be leaving in mid-September for a brand-new position as
Information and Online Community Coordinator at Pikes Peak Community College. We are extremely excited for Kevin as he faces this bold new opportunity, and we are terrifically grateful for his work here at COPPeR. He will be missed.
Kevin says: "I have had the good fortune to make lasting connections with many of the fabulous people from the diverse arts and cultural organizations we serve at COPPeR, and I will miss working closely with them to support their programming. I was proud to be a part of an organization that has brought attention to the outstanding events and programs that are produced here in the Pikes Peak region."
After two and a half years at COPPeR managing PeakRadar.com, Kevin Johnson will be leaving in mid-September for a brand-new position as
Information and Online Community Coordinator at Pikes Peak Community College. We are extremely excited for Kevin as he faces this bold new opportunity, and we are terrifically grateful for his work here at COPPeR. He will be missed.
Kevin says: "I have had the good fortune to make lasting connections with many of the fabulous people from the diverse arts and cultural organizations we serve at COPPeR, and I will miss working closely with them to support their programming. I was proud to be a part of an organization that has brought attention to the outstanding events and programs that are produced here in the Pikes Peak region."
Thursday, August 19, 2010
With apologies to Battlestar Galactica
As we approach the rollout of the first-ever Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak region, I decided to combine my love of SciFi with my love of Cultural Planning in the video below...
Stay tuned. 9.9.10. The Cultural Plan arrives.
Stay tuned. 9.9.10. The Cultural Plan arrives.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
From Katie, the friendly Fellow
My name is Katie Ferguson and I’m so excited to be working with COPPeR this summer as their cultural planning coordinator through Colorado College’s Public Interest Fellowship Program. I’m a Mathematical Economics major and dance minor at Colorado College, just down the road. I have grown up in the nonprofit world, training with a dance company and school near Denver and working with their administrative and development departments and teaching in past years.
I’ve not posted a blog on here before so I thought I’d fill everyone in on what I’ve been up to and let you all know that, at least for the summer, there are more people in the office! (I wouldn’t want any of you coming into our office and thinking there was some random girl hanging out at a desk). So here goes!
During my time here at COPPeR, (about 2 months now!) I’ve gotten the great opportunity to work very closely with Bettina compiling and creating the first ever Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak region. This project is what drew me to the job in the first place so I’m so happy to be getting to do so much work with it ☺ So far this process has been a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the area and discover just how important the arts and culture are to this region. It has been really great to be able to meet so many influential people in the community through the plan0-writing process.
I’ve also gotten to explore the Colorado Springs arts scene and learn more about what’s going on here. I was shocked in my first few weeks to learn how much was going on! I have always considered myself to be pretty aware, but there was so much I hadn’t heard about. As I explored and visited places like Smokebrush Gallery, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and Cottonwood Center for the Arts, I also learned just how very essential the arts, culture and heritage are to this community and to so many people who live in it and work for it.
I had no idea places like Cottonwood existed, let alone so close to where I live. I got a tour of Cottonwood from artist Jennifer Hanson and to get to meet so many of the artists. I was blown away by the level of local talent we have here. From sculptors to painters and even artists who work with pastels (I never could do anything with those except get them all over my hands and clothes) the work was just brilliant. There was one artist who paints landscapes from pictures so that they would look brilliant-- even clearer than the original picture! And the truth is that there are tons of venues for local artists to show their work- we have an amazing artistic base here in the Pikes Peak region. Unfortunate
ly, not everyone knows about our rich arts scene and that's why COPPeR is so important for getting the word out.
I brought a couple friends with me to the Pioneer’s Museum and besides learning new things about Colorado’s history; we got a secret tour up to the top of the bell tower! Check out this picture - there's COPPeR wa-a-a-y down below. If any of you heard the bells ring a couple random times in mid June- that might have been me! It was great up there; you could see for miles.
In addition to my work on the Cultural Plan and exploring the area, I have also gotten to work on the PeakRadar.com Arts/Culture/Fun(d) drive, in which we raised more than $8,000 to support PeakRadar.com! There have been lots of other activities, too - there's always something going on at COPPeR.
Last weekend I got to hang out at the COPPeR booth at Pride Fest which was so much fun (Click here to see some great photos)! It was great to see the diversity of our region so engaged in such a great festival. It has been a really truly great experience working with COPPeR and I’m excited to continue on through August!
I’ve not posted a blog on here before so I thought I’d fill everyone in on what I’ve been up to and let you all know that, at least for the summer, there are more people in the office! (I wouldn’t want any of you coming into our office and thinking there was some random girl hanging out at a desk). So here goes!
During my time here at COPPeR, (about 2 months now!) I’ve gotten the great opportunity to work very closely with Bettina compiling and creating the first ever Cultural Plan for the Pikes Peak region. This project is what drew me to the job in the first place so I’m so happy to be getting to do so much work with it ☺ So far this process has been a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the area and discover just how important the arts and culture are to this region. It has been really great to be able to meet so many influential people in the community through the plan0-writing process.
I’ve also gotten to explore the Colorado Springs arts scene and learn more about what’s going on here. I was shocked in my first few weeks to learn how much was going on! I have always considered myself to be pretty aware, but there was so much I hadn’t heard about. As I explored and visited places like Smokebrush Gallery, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and Cottonwood Center for the Arts, I also learned just how very essential the arts, culture and heritage are to this community and to so many people who live in it and work for it.
I had no idea places like Cottonwood existed, let alone so close to where I live. I got a tour of Cottonwood from artist Jennifer Hanson and to get to meet so many of the artists. I was blown away by the level of local talent we have here. From sculptors to painters and even artists who work with pastels (I never could do anything with those except get them all over my hands and clothes) the work was just brilliant. There was one artist who paints landscapes from pictures so that they would look brilliant-- even clearer than the original picture! And the truth is that there are tons of venues for local artists to show their work- we have an amazing artistic base here in the Pikes Peak region. Unfortunate
ly, not everyone knows about our rich arts scene and that's why COPPeR is so important for getting the word out.I brought a couple friends with me to the Pioneer’s Museum and besides learning new things about Colorado’s history; we got a secret tour up to the top of the bell tower! Check out this picture - there's COPPeR wa-a-a-y down below. If any of you heard the bells ring a couple random times in mid June- that might have been me! It was great up there; you could see for miles.
In addition to my work on the Cultural Plan and exploring the area, I have also gotten to work on the PeakRadar.com Arts/Culture/Fun(d) drive, in which we raised more than $8,000 to support PeakRadar.com! There have been lots of other activities, too - there's always something going on at COPPeR.
Last weekend I got to hang out at the COPPeR booth at Pride Fest which was so much fun (Click here to see some great photos)! It was great to see the diversity of our region so engaged in such a great festival. It has been a really truly great experience working with COPPeR and I’m excited to continue on through August!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Nuggets from Michael Kaiser's Arts in Crisis Presentation
We just returned from a fantastic morning at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center where we heard from Michael Kaiser, President and CEO of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on his only stop in Colorado on his 50-state Arts in Crisis tour. I served on the interviewing panel along with Maurice LaMee from Creede Repertory Theatre and Elaine Mariner from Colorado Creative Industries (formerly Colorado Council on the Arts). We had a lively crowd and Mr. Kaiser presented some great information about what he's learned during his tour and some of his advice for arts groups moving away from crisis and toward organizational health.
COPPeR Board Member Benjamin Day live-blogged the whole thing on Facebook – so for those of you who couldn't be there - here are his posts for all to enjoy!
Michael Kaiser's Fan Club @ FAC... Representing COPPeR at "The Kennedy Center Presents: Arts in Crisis". Parking lot was full more than a half hour before event was to begin.
“Yes, I'm blogging live... Yes, we have had a Coffee Crisis when we almost ran out of decaf; a Strawberry Squeeze when there was a fresh fruit deficit; but no CC Compromise with Bettina facilitating!”
“first instinct of arts organizations when faced with economic constraints is to start cutting." Equates programming to marketing: your programming is your message.
"There is no reason to give to an organization that is doing nothing". Huh. Does that extend to organizations / municipalities / communities / organizations outside of the arts?
70% of international tourists to the US identify themselves as cultural tourists. 17% of GDP is manufacturing. Smallest number of any developed nation.
A wish not a plan is to do more marketing and more fundraising. Hint: programming. You can't balance your budget on bequests. Talk about the present and the future, forget the past. Plan big transformative projects, meaning a five year calendar. Kaiser has five years of projects as a menu: donors will connect to one or two; if you have only one, ... See Morethey might get distant. The length of time actually helps tighten the bond with the audience. Five years gives him time to educate an audience. Take time to do the exciting work.
Institutional marketing connects people to "the family." marketing: you do it and you do it again and you do it again. Hint: arts organizations fear doing anything big. You don't need big donors: people want to be involved. Big is a pretty easy way to get people involved. Haley Dance Company facing bankruptcy in 1992 paid off their debt within 12 mos.
There is zero room for negativity in the arts, the spokesperson must be optimistic and communicate the positive attributes exclusively. Arts are notorious for whining about their financial problems, reducing programming, being entitled ("ask Bill Cosby for $1 million"... "why? We don't deserve it"), and living in the ruins of their past ("who was ... See Morethe fool who approved the $56K cannon for The Nutcracker? That was dumb. Let's marinade in dumb..."). That thinking organizes no one. Arts must be visionary and paint a picture/direction that is optimistic.
Arts ticket prices have created a large degree of exclusivity and thus irrelevance. The Met has decent tickets for standard opera next year are $750/piece. Arts orgs have to think inclusive and how to get everyone involved. Kennedy Center has a free performance daily at 6. Changes daily. Most popular are what likely would seem most irrelevant: symphonic music and ballet. These "free" events draw more than anyone.
We are channeling Seth Godin here: don't work on your donor base. Work on being exciting. Example Soweto Dance Company. If you can do it there (one of the poorest slums on the planet creates a top int'l dance troupe)... You can do it anywhere. Do exciting & important, focus on that. Biggest arts progam of 2010 was in Gand Rapids, MI, Visual Arts Festival. 1500 artists showed up: year one. Interesting and Important can happen anywhere.
Creede Rep. Theatre has a value of "we will fail." Kaiser: arts must lead. Probably will fail when you lead. Most "best" arts performances people experience are not ones they expected. Arts are risky: embrace that. People don't claim Phantom of the Opera as their lifetime best arts experience... It's good, maybe great, but the best lies in surprise... See More. For me, Arcade Fire and the Sam Lay Blues Band (at Shove Chapel, 1995) are the two best live music experiences I can think of, not the huge, high expectation events. Both surprised me and left me transformed. (Now we are channeling Aeschylus!)
Lots of grumbling before event on the title and use of "Crisis". We are clearly crisis'ed out. We are city 66 out of 69, maybe is resonated more six months ago. In any event, the theme is exceedingly positive and pokes at the crisis-to-crisis mentality, and that "from the 1890's there are accounts of the arts are doomed." Arts are not allowed to function from a crisis mode.
Totally agree..if you have a product, it needs to be exciting more than anything else. Organizations that cut back on programming also cut back on product...no product, no sales. Most marketers look for the "home run" donors, exclusively. But they don't understand that by tapping the base of the pyramid, you can get tons of singles....Singles win Ballgames!
Arts Crisis Alert! Educational problem and arts not considered part of the necessary curriculum. How to address? Proactive behavior of arts orgs should be to concentrate on inclusive events and actions. Again mentions ticket prices as a huge problem and a deficit of thinking about big programming that's exciting. Innovation also really brings people in.
Interesting spiritual nugget: arts leaders should be mentored and mentoring.
Oh dear... First person has left and I can't say I'm surprised who it was. Yes, an EDC member.
More spiritual... Know when to build a building. Debt kills. The line between sickness and health is very slim. What, is he addressing a bunch of 30 yr old men? :) awesome advice for life not expected at an arts event.
Singles win ballgames... I love it Mark. Thanks!
Send off: we sell more tickets for arts then sports in the US.
Imagination Celebration presents the Dragon Hat, as the Protector of the Jewels of the Kingdom.
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