Articles

Leadership of cultural organisations

Preoccupation with board performance has grown over the last ten years and at an accelerating pace more recently, following revelations of both incompetence and misconduct in leading corporations and a number of non-profits, from Enron to War on Want. For cultural organisations, incompetent direction and leadership has been the main culprit rather than avarice. Faltering artistic vision, critical opprobrium, declining audiences, rash over-expansion or financial deficits do not happen over-night but are usually translated into the less judgemental language of external threats or operating challenges such as funding cuts, revenue declines and marketing failures.
Organisations rarely take a step back and look critically at the most senior leadership team — the board and its chief executive — and the value they can add or the potential they have for crippling the organisation.
For the most part, the responsibilities of these two positions can be formally separated and clearly differentiated. The board and the chief executive should be a team with complementary skills, committed to a common purpose and approach for which they hold themselves accountable.

Managing Museums in Critical Times

American art museums face challenges of a magnitude unsurpassed in recent history. They are overwhelmed by a confluence of contemporary internal and external events. Some are dramatically referring to the situation as the “Perfect Storm.” While this may be overstating the situation (and one hopes, not indicating a similar ending), it is a serious situation.

Unlike a recently published McKinsey study, I will not recommend the obvious, that nonprofit executives concentrate on high-level donors or use the Internet for fundraising. Nor will I insult museum managers by suggesting that they may solve their organization’s problems by being more efficient or working smarter. I believe the solutions are not simple and tactical, but rather require broader strategic actions.

This paper covers four areas:
- The current situation in American art museums;
- Some of the consequences, actual and inherent, that are the results of this situation;
- A series of recommendations on how to insure that museums emerge healthier and stronger;
- And finally, with the reader’s indulgence, my views about the long-term situation museums are likely to face, even after they have weathered this crisis.

Public to have a voice in future funding of the arts

THE Scottish public is to be asked for its views on arts and culture in a series of forums.

The consultation by the Scottish Arts Council could also see people being asked to leave their opinions in video diary booths.

Graham Berry, the director of the SAC, which distributes around £60m in funding a year, is to launch the forums as another stage in his reorganisation of the quango, which is on the verge of a major review of its form and function by the executive and Frank McAveety, the new arts minister.

Mr Berry said the forums would inform the SAC what the general public wants from the arts, what its interests and concerns are - as well as letting the public know the SAC is interested in its views....

Government of Ontario increases investment in arts and culture

TORONTO - The Ernie Eves government is investing an additional $15 million to the Ontario Arts Council 's base funding to revitalize the province's arts and cultural sector through new business growth and training, Culture Minister David H. Tsubouchi announced on July 3rd.
The base funding increase for 2003/04 is $7.5 million, with another $7.5 million increase to base funding in 2004/05.
"The Eves government is committed to strengthening the arts community with new jobs, especially in culturally diverse communities where the province is experiencing significant population increases," said Tsubouchi. "Today's $15 million base funding increase is a substantial investment by the Ernie Eves government which will provide the resources needed to rejuvenate arts and culture in Ontario."

SARS and the Arts

When one is in the middle of the SARS emergency it is easy to focus almost exclusively on its local impact. Toronto's arts and entertainment community has been seriously affected by performers unwilling to come to the city, cancelled performances and reduced attendance at performances that have been held.

However, as Eva Johansson relates in the May issue of International Arts Manager, the arts communities in Asia have been hit even more seriously. In Taiwan, a ten-day contemporary music festival was cancelled after its organizers learned that one group scheduled to perform had travelled on the same plane as someone who was infected with SARS. In Beijing, all theatres and public venues were closed in an effort to contain the spread. Prior to that, the Third International Beijing Piano Competition was cancelled and tours by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra were called off. In Hong Kong, many visiting artists and groups decided not to come, forcing the cancellation of many events by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

At concerts that did to on, ushers and audiences alike wore face masks and according to the Hong Kong Sinfonietta's chief executive, at a concert in late March "nobody coughed during a whole movement."

In Japan, performances by Chinese artists have been cancelled and Singapore's Asian Arts Mart has taken many health precautions to encourage attendance. Among the precautions are health declaration forms for delegates, daily temperature checks and certification by a doctor for anyone who appears unwell that the do not have SARS.

It is too soon to determine what the economic impact to arts organizations will be in any of the countries affected. But for arts organizations everywhere that are chronically short of funds, it is certain to be significant.

Tough Competition To Reach Shortlist For Largest Arts Sponsorship Awards Event

Despite the slowdown in the economy, arts sponsorship continues to represent a significant tool in the marketing armoury judging by the entries to Irelands largest Arts Sponsorship Awards event, the Allianz Business2Arts Awards 2003.

Minerva. European Support Program for Digital Development in the Cultural Sector

Minerva stands for “Ministerial Network for Valorising Activities in digitisation” and its main task is to bring together European Culture Ministries to discuss, co-ordinate and harmonise the digitisation of cultural scientific content.

International Journal of Cultural Policy

The International Journal of Cultural Policy is increasing in frequency to three issues per year. The Journal aims to provide an outlet for an interdisciplinary and international exploration of the nature, function and impact of cultural policies. It includes a broad view of cultural policy, encompassing culture as a "way of life" as well as culture in the narrower sense of the arts and cultural industries. It is concerned both with the policies of institutions and with the wider discourses which relate to the general conditions of culture.
Online features include SARA Scholarly Articles Research Alerting. SARA is a free email contents alerting service designed to deliver tables of contents for over 750 journals of your choice in advance of the printed edition. Registering for the service is simple and you can now request to receive alerts by keyword or by title. For more information visit www.tandf.co.uk/sara

A conversation with Stanley N. Katz

The following conversation is a follow-up to "Criticism of Foundations," an article by Stanley N. Katz that appeared in Grantmakers in the Arts, Volume 9, Number 2, Fall 1998

Cultural Commons

On June 2, 2003, the Center for Arts and Culture launched the Cultural Commons, an online space for networking, information exchange, community building and issue identification in cultural policy.
The Center's experience with its Cultural Policy Network and its Cultural Policy Listserv has illuminated a continuing communications divide between researchers and practitioners. The Cultural Commons is designed as a web space through which different kinds of information and data can be sorted and accessed: news, events, opportunities within the field, and research.