You know you're in the Midwest when...

Today I was sitting in the waiting area at the hospital today, reading a business book for a class next quarter and a lady I'd never seen before started asking me about my studies.  So I told her about this arts admin master's degree I'm working towards and what my life ambitions are and so on.  She was so tickled that "a girl from Carroll, Iowa, was going places."  She was so thrilled she told me she'd pray for me.  I thought that was pretty sweet.  Five years ago, that would have upset me, praying for me like I cared.  However, 23 year old me is way more tolerant and a lot less angry than 18 year old me.  The older I become the more I have been able to appreciate being raised in a small farming community.  Here's a list of reasons I appreciate Carroll:

1. It only takes me 10 minutes with traffic to get from one end of town to the other.
2. Cost of living is so cheap
3. Great Mexican food -- I haven't been able to find decent Mexican in the 'Nati.
4. My family is here.
5. People are always saying hello and smiling.  People are friendly here.
6. Familiarity.  I feel a certain sense of comfort when I come home because I know things are pretty much the exact same as how I left them.  The same 7 old dudes walk laps in the pool at the Rec every night, and the same farmers get coffee at MC's Cafe in the morning, and the same group of little old ladies go to 6:30am Mass everyday.  I like the routine.

Please don't think that I'm planning to move back home after I graduate in June.  That will happen under no circumstances!  There are no jobs for me and I would go insane.  I've also complied a list of things I don't like about Carroll:

1. There is nothing to do here.  We have a movie theatre, a recreation center, and a bowling alley.  We're hopping.
2. People drive so slow here.  It's ridiculous.
3. Everything is fried.  That's fine and dandy when it's Fair time in August, but it's totally unnecessary for the remaining 50 weeks of the year.
4. In that same vein, French fries are a vegetable here.
5. I cannot find good coffee here.
6. The amount of snow we get each winter is insane!  Both my parents were without power for nearly a week last winter!

Neither of these are exhaustive lists, but they're a good representation of my feelings for my  hometown.  I hope all of my collegiate followers are surviving their time at home this holiday season.

Stay tuned, and happy holidays!

-Caro

The Wheels on the Bus

I am finally home.  After 31 hours of travel, I finally made it to Carroll.  Traveling from Cincinnati to Iowa is a lesson in inconvenience.  It appears that no one from Cincinnati wants to travel to Iowa and no one from Iowa wants to travel to Cincinnati.  I don’t blame either party.  However, this makes it rather difficult for me to trek home.  I usually fly, but due to my current unemployed student status, I cannot afford that.  Instead I took the Megabus.  This required me to take a six hour bus ride from Cincinnati to Chicago.  Then I spent the evening in the Windy City, only to hop on another but for another six hours the next morning.  It didn't end there, my friends.  After I got off the bus in Des Moines, Iowa’s fair capital city, I had to be retrieved by someone with a motorized vehicle and ride another two hours to my home town.  To be honest, flying isn’t much easier.  There’s almost always a layover somewhere, and I still have to drive two hours from either Omaha or Des Moines.  Dear Western Iowa, why must you be so inconveniently located?  Dear Cincinnati, Why do you suck? Love, Carolyne

Despite having to conduct my travels over two days, I actually enjoy the Megabus.  It’s warm, clean, cheap, and has free Wifi when the satellites are working.  My two bus tickets combined cost me $70, which is less than a third of what it would cost me to fly.  I also don’t have to worry about keeping my liquids in one travel size bag or security patting me down.  If I had to name the best reason to travel via Megabus, I would say are less likely to strike up a conversation with you than if you were flying.  You also don’t generally have share a seat with anyone.  Megabus is meant for people who don’t like people, like me.  You show up.  You put your luggage on the bus. You get on the bus. Driver drives. Simple.

After I got off the bus yesterday, I had explicit instructions to get in a cab and go to my aunt and uncle’s apartment.  Hailing a cab was going to be the highlight of my day.  I like to celebrate the little things in like.  At any rate, I ended up not taking a cab because it was going to cost me $40 to get from Union Station to Lakeview.  According to the fare finder website I looked up the night before, it should have only cost me $15-20 with tax.  I thought maybe the first cabbie was trying to scam, seeing as I definitely looked like an out of towner (damn you winter coat.).  So I walked about four blocks out of my way to find another cabbie.  He too said it would cost $35 - $40.  Not cool, cabbies.  Not cool.  I thanked the cabbie and proceeded to walk away from him.  He then rolled down his window and shouted profanities at me.  At which point, this became one of my highlights of the evening.  The other highlight was navigating myself from Union Station to Michigan Ave. to take a bus to my aunt and uncle’s house, saving myself $40 and bring the circulation back to my feet.  As I mentioned before, I like to celebrate the little things.

Dear Readers, I have done something stupid.  I promised my mother a 90% sarcasm free holiday.  For those of you who know me personally, this estimate was exuberantly enthusiastic.  I should have aimed for a more realistic number such as 65%.  However, I will do my best to keep my promise.  As a result from this very trying experience, there will be an increase in snarky blogs.  Stay tuned.  I won’t disappoint.

Art With An Expiration Date?

University of Iowa Performing Arts Entrepreneurship Professor, David McGraw wrote a very interesting opinion article for the Iowa City Press Citizen about the expiration date of arts organizations.  He mentioned our society’s habit of confusing age with quality, how we are more likely to support an organization that has been around longer, and our refusal to let organizations close their doors quietly.  Mr. McGraw suggests creating arts organizations with expiration dates.  An organization would be created with the sole purpose of creating art and ending at a specific date.  Mr. McGraw described such organizations as collaborations that focus on the celebration of art being created rather than the longevity of the organization. While I am not completely sold on this idea, I do think it has some merit.

I would like to address Mr. McGraw’s concern with our society’s inability to let longstanding organizations close their doors quietly.  Whether we realize it or not, we have a relationship with the arts and the organizations that produce them.  No one likes to see a relationship end, which makes it so difficult to let go of an organization we’ve been familiar with for so long.  Arts organizations that plan to exist for only a few years seem very similar to flings.  People go into the fling knowing it’s going to end soon, but eventually someone starts to have lasting feelings.  Someone always ends up getting hurt.  I cannot accurately say who will be hurt one in this situation.  Perhaps it’s the community because there is suddenly a void of the arts.  Maybe it's patrons who have come to enjoy, maybe even love, the work the organization created.  It could be the managers and artists who are suddenly out of job, forced to create another similar organization or move to a new city, away from their supportive community.

Who’s funding these short-term organizations?  Donors like to know where their money is going and how the company is being affected.  The minds of donors are put more at ease when giving to an organization that has been operating for long time because they know the company is sustainable.  Donors know there is a relationship between the community and the organization.  On a more egocentric note, donors like to a part of the legacy.  They like to see their names in programs and receive the benefits promised for their certain levels of donation.  If an organization only plans to exist for five years, it is going to be a lot harder to find people to give money.

Maybe in the future, when the economy is better and money is more plentiful, we can have these short-term organizations interspersed with longstanding organizations.  However, I don’t think this is a sustainable model right now. 

--Caro

Welcome to the 21st Century

Anyone up for some irony today?  Good, because here it is.  A one Mr. Greg Sandow recently posted an entry on his blog entitled, “Don’t Do It Online”.  Catchy title.  What does “it” mean?  For Mr. Sandow “it” has the Liz Lemon connotation of business.  More specifically he is of the belief that one should not promote one’s art organization online.  Really, Mr. Sandow?  You could not be more wrong.

First, I’d like to point out that this blog happens to be on the internet.  I received a link to the blog post via an e-mail from the Arts Journal.  If I am not mistaken, that is promotion via the internet.  I would be able to take this post more seriously, if it had been a newspaper article or a story on the radio.  Don’t bash the medium of promotion you’re using to promote yourself.  That’s just silly.

Mr. Sandow mentions how a performing arts center created a blog to promote a concert, complete with videos from the musicians.  He says and I quote “But none of the varied stuff got any comments, which surely means that hardly anyone was reading it.” What? Think again, Mr. Sandow.  Just because people aren’t commenting on a video doesn’t mean they’re not seeing it.  I view at least 20 youtube videos each week and have never commented on a single one.  I have read hundreds of articles online without commenting.  Not everything is worth a comment.  By Mr. Sandow’s logic, only 5 different people have viewed his post since there are only 6 comments written by 5 people.  That is obviously wrong as I read the blog, but did not comment on the actual page.  I also sent it to my professor and a couple of my friends, who in turn read the blog without posting a comment.  If it’s views you’re worried about, try using Google Analytics.  It can help you track unique views and define your audience and a bunch of other swell things.  Also facebook sends the administrators of fan pages statistics about the activity on their pages.  It’s not like these things aren’t being tracked.

“…putting things online is probably a waste of time…”  All I can do is shake my head in disgust.  If this was the early 90s, I would agree with this sentiment.  But seeing as it the year 2010, and we have such inventions as internet-capable phones, putting things online IS a great use of time. Using the internet is the best way to reach audiences, especially newer and younger audiences.  Our society is incredibly connected and informed—we crave information.  Not having a website is organizational suicide.  It takes a person 3 seconds to type the name of an arts organization into Google.  It’s so much easier and faster than calling the organization and asking them to send a brochure.  Spend 20 minutes reading a website and checking out reviews, or wait 48 hours for a brochure with limited information to arrive in your mailbox?

It’s also pretty obvious Mr. Sandow hasn’t heard of viral marketing. Sally sees a video posted by Arts Organization A and sends it to 5 friends and puts it on her facebook page and twitter.  Then, her five friends each send the video to five friends and post the video on their social network sites.  Those 25 friends do the same, and all of a sudden you’ve reached hundreds of people in a matter of seconds. Maybe Arts Organization A doesn’t sell 100 new subscriptions because of this video, but they’ve put their name in people’s minds.  You don’t need to understand Pascal’s triangle to know that viral marketing is a great method of communicating with the public.

I am by no means suggesting using the internet as your only vehicle for marketing. However, it should be a player in your annual marketing campaign.  In order to be effective, you must know how to reach your markets.  Don’t discount the internet and the power of social media.

-C

The Voices, They Are A-Changin'

Ever wonder what happens to a choirboy when his voice starts changing? In most cases, these poor little singers are kicked out of their choirs, left to navigate the tumultuous sea that is the changing voice.  That's exactly what an already confused and awkward preteen boy needs -- social isolation.  Fortunately the Los Angeles Children's Chorus recognizes this practice is unfair.  As a result they created the Young Men's Ensemble in the fall of 2009.  This ensemble provides a safe and nurturing environment for transitioning young male singers.  The current conductor, Steven Kronauer, chooses repertoire that is appropriate for these young voices.  Additionally, the boys have opportunities to participate in master classes with professional choral groups like Chanticleer, countertenor, David Daniels, and tenor, Ben Heppner.  Groups like YME are very rare.  This article in the The Los Angeles Times sites only three other ensembles in the nation.

I would like to raise a glass to these choral groups.  So often pubescent boys are left out of the equation.  They are ignored because no one knows what to do with them.  That sends the all the wrong signals.  Boys are turned away from their choirs, support groups and communities they have come to rely on, because of something they can neither escape nor control.  One boy in the article states, "I could still sing well, but it made me nervous and scared because I thought I might lose that connection to everyone and everything I had done."  While adolescence and puberty is embarrassingly awkward for everyone, it isn't fair for someone to be punished for it.  Here's to you Young Men's Ensemble!

--C

It's That One Time A Year...

...when people take a step back and realize what they're thankful for -- not having developed obesity-induced diabetes yet.  In all seriousness, despite of the economy and the recent midterm elections, we have a lot for which to be thankful.  For one, we're not in a depression, and according my iPhone savvy friend, Jon, the economy's doing better.  Second, this is not 1621, so there's a pretty good chance that most of us will make it through the night and the weekend.  Lastly, we have the internet.  I cannot fathom the pain and suffering our forefathers must have gone through knowing they couldn't tweet about the awkward silence at the dinner table because Aunt Mable drank too much cooking sherry, again.  How did we make it through the holidays before the internet?  How horrible it must have been to actually talk to ones relatives! Small talk. Ew.

We actually should be thankful for being thankful.  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, showing gratitude is good for your health.  It doesn't really say why, but it does list a lot of positive "side effects" of being grateful.  I like to think when one acknowledges something good in their life, it gives one some perspective.  This is going to be shocking to you dear readers, but despite my usual acerbic, cynical, and sarcastic demeanor, I'm actually a very positive person.  Here's another shocker for you:  I don't believe in bad days.  There is always something good in every day, even if it's finding a quarter on the sidewalk or someone opening a door for you.  Sure, there are the days when awesome is your middle name, but that can't happen everyday.  At the end of every day, look back and find at least one thing you can be thankful for. I dare you.

At any rate, here's a list, in no particular order, of things for which I am thankful. Also, this list is not all inclusive.

1. Family -- Thank goodness my dad is here, not only because I love him and appreciate him putting up with me for the last 23 years of my life, but because he fixed the turkey.  I may have made a grown up step and purchased the bird, but I am nowhere near ready to stick my hand up it.  Some things are "worth" waiting for.
2. Friends -- For starters, my life would be a lot more boring without them.  
3. Coffee -- The only reason I've stayed alive through grad school.
4. Culinary arts -- Welcome to my backup plan if the arts admin thing doesn't work out.
5. Singers -- You give me a reason to get up in the morning because dealing with you is my job.
6. Books and my ability to read them -- Books are awesome.
7. Conan O'Brien being back on late night television -- Late night tv was just naked without him.
8. Common sense -- It's something people just take for granted.
9. Sharpie pens -- All the Sharpie goodness without bleeding through the paper.
10. Broccoli - It's a completely understated vegetable.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

--C

Rich People Like the Arts More Than Jesus

 The LA Times just ran an article in their Arts and Culture section discussing the philanthropic trends of 2009 and the last four years.  Every year Bank of American and Merrill Lynch publish a study called “Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy.”  They found in 2009 households with incomes of $200,000+, or a net worth of at least $1 million donated 7.5 cents of their charitable dollar to the arts.  The rest of the American population only gave 1 cent.  Of the “rich” households, three of four gave to the arts.  The “poor people” households had a rate of one in thirteen.  Looking at religious giving, wealthy households give 13 cents of every charitable dollar which is nearly one fifth of the 63 cents per dollar the general population donated in 2009.  From this we can clearly assume wealthy people care more about the arts than about Jesus.

Why is there such a gap between arts giving and religious giving among the social classes?  I can't you give any definitive answers. I can only hypothesize.  Perhaps wealthy people feel they can relate to the arts more than religion.  Maybe wealthy people like that arts publish the names of donors in their programs. Perhaps it's because you need to purchase a ticket to attend most arts functions and church is free.  Maybe the general population feel religion is more on their level in comparison to the arts.  Perhaps the general population feels they receive all the arts they need from church.  Again, I cannot make any definite claims. What I can say is the arts need donations from both the wealthy and the general population.

If you'd like to know more about the philanthropic trends of the last four years, I highly suggest reading the article and the supplementary information.

Should We Stay or Should We Go?

While I stayed home and watched television on my computer Thursday night, I viewed several commercials promoting my activities of choice for the evening.  PNC Bank was advertising its new “Virtual Wallet.”  In the commercial is poses the question:  Go see a movie and spend $12 or stay home and watch hulu.com and save $12.  The other commercial was advertising Direct TV.  The ad featured a pretty girl and a good looking dude who spends the whole ad trying to get this girl to go on a date with him.  He suggests the idea of going to the movies, the ballet, rock climbing, dinner, a gallery, all of which the girl turns down.  His final suggestion is watching television.  She smiles all big like and then agrees to watch television with the poor kid.  Golly gee willikers, arts world!  This is bad!

Dear Arts Marketers, you certainly have your work cut out for you.  What’s going to happen to live performing arts if everyone stays home to watch television on a Friday night?  I think there are two options.  We can either fight it or work the trend to our advantage.  If we fight it, we’re going to have to do something drastic to get people off their couches and into the theatres.  I know art executives around the world will die a little on the inside when I suggest this, but what if we make tickets cheaper?  Perhaps we can bundle with local restaurants so both the local economy benefits.  I know ticket sales on average cover a mere 30% of the total operating budget, but we have to do something.  Arts organizations have to be the ones to change because we certainly aren’t going to be able to convince Americans to come to a show when the cheapest ticket isn’t even under $50.  We have to make the experience easier and better for the consumer or we won’t have an audience base any longer.

Our other option is work the trend to our advantage.  So people want to stay at home on Friday night, so what?  Why not stream live for a fee?  Indiana University streams their operas live.  You can even watch them after the show has stopped running.  The best part is that it’s free!  Now, I realize that it isn’t fiscally responsible or commercially practical to provide this service for free.  However, with the dawning of the internet capable television, such as this one from Sony , we can stream right into the consumers living room!  I know companies like the Metropolitan Opera have their own channel, but it’s only available on the computer and you have to pay for a subscription.  What if we created some sort of arts channel that was like Pay per View and the consumer could watch live and archived concerts, operas, and plays at their leisure? 

If we want to continue to exist, arts organizations must be relevant.  I know this is difficult because relevancy often requires more money than arts organizations have to spend.  Remember small progress is still progress.  Long live the arts!

--C

And now for something not written by the Old Dead White Guys Society

TalkOperaWorld.com recently posted an article announcing that 33 American opera companies of varying sizes will produce operas written by American composers over the next two seasons (2010-2011 and 2011-2012).  Nine of those productions will be world premieres.   Some of the companies included are Opera Southwest in Albuquerque, NM, Opera Memphis, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Portland Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Opera Roanoke, Sarasota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera.  The best part about this is the list will only continue to grow as repertoire announcements for the 2011 – 2012 season come out in the next few months.

Marc A. Scorca, President and CEO of OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, was quoted to say, “Over the last two decades, an American opera repertoire has become firmly established and American composers continue to have a tremendous impact on our art form.  We are delighted to see their work being performed on stages of all sizes throughout the United States.” 

Not only does OPERA America keep tabs on the repertoire being performed throughout the United States, it encourages the creation and production of new operatic works with The Opera Fund.  The Opera Fund awards grants to opera companies to assist with the expenses that are associated with developing new works.  The Opera Fund has also provided companies with grants to help revive productions.  Since it began, The Opera Fund has awarded nearly $11 million dollars to American opera companies.

How exciting to be a part of a musical genre that celebrates new works, even encourages them!  By supporting the creation of contemporary operas, we are keeping the art form relevant.  Way to go OPERA America and American opera companies.  Keep up the good work!

--Carolyne

Advocacy For Rationality

So I’m still in this Arts and Education class.  One of the readings I’m supposed to do by tomorrow is about creating arts partnerships with schools and/or the community.  I’m in the middle of a section discussing some of the common pitfalls of creating a partnership.  Apparently some people don’t do their research before they start a project.  Really?  Aren’t you supposed to be educators?  Don’t you teach students to research before you start a project?  Although, come to think of it, my parents taught me that.  If I ever wanted to know what a word meant I had to look it up in the dictionary.  Until I went to college I found their response to be infuriating and lazy.  However, I realized how incredibly brilliant my parents were.  They empowered me to seek out an answer by myself when I had a question.  (10 points for using a buzzword!)

This next example isn’t really about empowerment as much as it is about covering your butt.  My dad is a lawyer, so arguing with him just isn’t the best of ideas unless you come fully prepared.  You have to know your case inside and out.  Make sure there are no holes.  Let me tell you, even if he’s wrong he can make it sound like he’s right because he argues for a living.  So frustrating.  I digress.  I don’t understand how and why people don’t think things through.  I suppose if everyone was a rational human being we’d have less crime, lower teen pregnancy rates, lower divorce rates, and there would be nothing on television.  If rationality was as widespread as ignorance we’d have to say good bye to things like Jersey Shore, 98% of all political campaign ads, and jeggings.  Personally, I advocate rationality.  Unfortunately I am in the minority.