So, almost a year ago, my mother passed along a report, commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, that set out to examine, study and provide a call to action for generational succession in the arts sector nationwide. All arts organizations and individuals are dealing with the issue of renewing audiences for sustainability and growth. Where are our next patrons coming from? Who will be our audiences? How do we build programs to attract our ever-growing young population?
This is a national question, but one that our own arts community asks itself each and every day. How can we sustain and compete in today’s environment when the competition for young attention grows more and more diverse by the second? This study offers some solutions and, if anything, very interesting reading. As stated in the report:
“As a whole, the nonprofit arts sector faces formidable barriers to bringing mor
e young people into its sphere, most notably its limited financial resources. Budget constraints and revenue stagnation continue to impede the ability of all organizations to compete for young people’s interest and involvement. Given the decline in dedicated public and corporate support for the arts, identifying and securing new sources of income will be difficult. However, perhaps the most significant barrier is a lack of awareness and sense of urgency that the arts need to start moving to address the challenge. Leaders across the field must come to a collective recognition that involvement of young people is critical and that ever organization must make that involvement an immediate priority.”
The report offers recommendations, albeit on a national scale, of ways the nonprofit arts sector can meet this challenge.
· Launch a national dialogue about youth involvement in the arts
· Develop a strategic plan to, 1. Aggressively market the benefits of involvement with the arts to young people, and 2. Create a nationwide, grassroots corps or young activists and advocates for the arts.
I am particularly interested in this section, simply because it speaks directly to the Greenville Forward Arts Task Force. It talks to, not just one organization, but the arts community and addresses issues that concern us all.
As a personal advocate for the arts in Greenville, I see the audiences skewing older with less coming in the back end. How do we cultivate a community of arts patrons? How do we engage our students? Our young professionals? Our children to embrace the arts in our community? What are the pieces that we can put in place to help create a community where the arts are not only appreciated, respected and fully funded, but are a part of our everyday life? A community where artists, of all kinds, can work and play as artists. They can make their living as artists. How that could shape our community.
I invite you to read this report and assess its information. Not everything here is applicable to our community, but much of it is food for thought.
http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/PerformingArts/Publications/YouthReport.htm
This is a national question, but one that our own arts community asks itself each and every day. How can we sustain and compete in today’s environment when the competition for young attention grows more and more diverse by the second? This study offers some solutions and, if anything, very interesting reading. As stated in the report:
“As a whole, the nonprofit arts sector faces formidable barriers to bringing mor
e young people into its sphere, most notably its limited financial resources. Budget constraints and revenue stagnation continue to impede the ability of all organizations to compete for young people’s interest and involvement. Given the decline in dedicated public and corporate support for the arts, identifying and securing new sources of income will be difficult. However, perhaps the most significant barrier is a lack of awareness and sense of urgency that the arts need to start moving to address the challenge. Leaders across the field must come to a collective recognition that involvement of young people is critical and that ever organization must make that involvement an immediate priority.”The report offers recommendations, albeit on a national scale, of ways the nonprofit arts sector can meet this challenge.
· Launch a national dialogue about youth involvement in the arts
· Develop a strategic plan to, 1. Aggressively market the benefits of involvement with the arts to young people, and 2. Create a nationwide, grassroots corps or young activists and advocates for the arts.
I am particularly interested in this section, simply because it speaks directly to the Greenville Forward Arts Task Force. It talks to, not just one organization, but the arts community and addresses issues that concern us all.
As a personal advocate for the arts in Greenville, I see the audiences skewing older with less coming in the back end. How do we cultivate a community of arts patrons? How do we engage our students? Our young professionals? Our children to embrace the arts in our community? What are the pieces that we can put in place to help create a community where the arts are not only appreciated, respected and fully funded, but are a part of our everyday life? A community where artists, of all kinds, can work and play as artists. They can make their living as artists. How that could shape our community.
I invite you to read this report and assess its information. Not everything here is applicable to our community, but much of it is food for thought.
http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/PerformingArts/Publications/YouthReport.htm
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment