The newly opened Honolulu Design Center is really trying to change the way people think about the place home and office furnishings has in their lives by positioning this facility as a gathering place.
If you have never considered your furniture store a center of social activity, you aren't alone. The HDC figures this is the first time anyone has ever tried anything like this. If you look at their plans closely, you can see they have really done some thinking about their target audience.
The three story building has a cafe, a wine bar offering 90 choices and a 90 seat fine dining restaurant which will feature some of the furniture they are selling in their 6 showrooms. There is also an events area where Jazz is performed on Thursday nights and Wednesday and Sundays are film nights.
Just as Home Depot and Lowes offer little classes for the do-it yourselfers, HDC offers seminars that fit the lifestyle of their target clientele. The Small Business Administration held a micro-enterprise workshop for people wanting to start their own small business with monthly seminars on other topics to come. Another workshop offered helps people view home construction as an interconnected system so that all the segments integrate well together and result in low operating costs.
A television show, "Generation X and WhY Inquiring" will be filmed there featuring students
"–ages 9 to 17 - from various schools who will discuss and debate...the dynamics between boys and girls and issues ranging from harmless teasing to more serious topics like safety, drugs and health. Other important areas like global conservation, pollution, oceans, Social and educational issues..."
A number of thoughts passed through my mind. First that it must be nice to have the money to build the place as well as the money to buy from this place. While I am told there are pieces I could afford, $42,000 leather couches are more in line with what they offer.
Still, even though they are in a good position to recoup part of their investment being located next to the construction site of two towers of condos which need to be furnished, they are taking a big chance with this project. People might buy coffee or wine while perusing furniture--but are they going to go to a furniture store, nice as it might be, for dinner and a movie?
I also wondered if all the performing arts centers that have been built in the last few years at costs the exceed those of that Honolulu Design Center by millions have had as good a handle on how to serve their target audiences as the furniture place does.
In some respects, clues about what to offer and how to position themselves already exist. As mentioned earlier, they have upgraded the classes that Home Depot offers. They also seem to have improved on Target Stores' Design for All campaign. At the prices they are charging, they certainly aren't offering design for all, of course.
As I observed in an entry two years ago, humans seem to have an intrinsic need for art/beauty/meaning/purpose in their lives. Target Stores aim to bring the semblance of the aesthetic high end stores like HDC possess within the reach of everyone. HDC has moved a step further and is trying to bring many elements of the lifestyle their furniture already represents into one location.
To their credit, this isn't some new initiative that marketing research indicated was a good idea. It is just another chapter in the company's long history of sincere investment in local arts and culture. Their weekly print ads feature local visual and performing artists and promote their work and upcoming performances.
Thinking about what lessons could be derived from this for the arts, I came up with a great deal of "if onlys"- If only arts organizations had the kind of money to do market research to develop a great plan for serving the needs of a target audience; if only they could maintain a consistent staff and cohesive vision to see the plan through (Took HDC 8 years to come to fruition); if only they had the funding enabling them to ignore the distracting noise of earned/unearned income woes.
What I ultimately end up thinking is that HDC may serve as an example of what an arts organization should be-- an unexpected arrangement that suits the community in which it is located rather than based on a standard set in other places. Somewhere out there may be a mini-van dealership/daycare/athletics field/community arts center catering to dual career-soccer parents.
Well it took me 2 years to find the answer, but I did it! Two years ago I was looking for the economic law that technological advances will make it possible to produce goods more efficiently, but because the performing arts create works in much the same way they did 500 years ago, they don't enjoy the benefits of this law.
An article on the New Music Box website on New Music Economics revealed what I had forgotten--it isBaumol's cost-disease!
Matthew Guerrieri does a good job covering the topic in the New Music Box piece. Much better than my brief treatment two years ago which was more about bemoaning the failure of technology forcing my theatre to go old school with our ticketing and lighting. (Though my entry is arguably more entertaining.)
If you are thinking about not reading the article, give it a second consideration. As Guerrieri notes, the Baumol effect is "one of the main rationales behind government subsidization of the arts." Opponents of government funding of the arts try to find exceptions to the rule. Becoming familiar with the arguments on both sides can be key to your arts advocacy efforts.
Reflecting upon my use of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to discuss the definition of quality, I wondered if my support of his grading experiment might have been an early predictor of my involvement in the arts.
It seems to me that a person who valued insightful comments on their papers might be more likely to gravitate toward professions that provided more intangible rewards like esteem and self-actualization rather than high pay and material perks. On the other hand, I wonder if people who valued a specific letter or numeric grade over extensive commentary might be more likely to join professions with clearer remuneration.
I did a brief search for studies that might have examined this and didn't find anything. I suspect the failure to do so is more a factor of not knowing what terms to use in a search than lack of research related to this topic.
About three years ago I included a Harvard Business Review article about the single perfect customer satisfaction survey question in an entry about customer service. (How willing would you be to recommend company X to a friend?)
I would be interested to know if there is any research out there that might support the dependability of using a single question to determine if someone in high school or college was disposed toward a career in the non-profit field based on what form of feedback they valued most on their assignments.
If there was a correlation between preferred form of feedback and profession, perhaps the perfect career path question might be: "What do you find more valuable in assessing the progress of your academic career, a letter/numeric grade or extensive written/verbal feedback?"
Does anyone know of research studies that might prove or disprove this notion?
I have been away for a few days, thus the lack of postings on my usual schedule. My thoughts have not been far from arts management though so I offer up the following article on the dearth of qualified theatre managers which appeared in the January 2007 American Theatre. The article was scanned and posted by Brooklyn College so some portions of the text may not be completely legible.
Jim Volz echoes the concerns I heard at the Arts Presenters conference regarding succession planning. The primary aim of the piece is to examine the academic and non-academic paths to executive level leadership of theatres. There are a lot of people worried about the lack of highly skilled leaders coming up the ranks to replace those who retire or are lured away.
The shortage of savvy, experienced theatre managers is evidenced by the number of long time managing directors of flagship regional theatres...who have been recently been recruited away or have played musical chairs with other theatres. Oftentimes, there's a demoralizing institutional toll (that's seldom talked about) when management leaders leave their theatres; this definitely has a snowball (or avalanche) effect on the board and the remaining personnel......Tired of the turnover and dealing with what many consider the "two-headed monster," many boards turn to an already beleaguered artistic director to run the whole show."
While sexier areas of acting and directing lure many people of a theatrical bent away from management, the elements Volz and many quoted in the article blame for the shortage of quality managers is that other profit and non-profit endeavors promise better pay and quality of life. Though managers are hardly alone since actors, directors and technicians all experience the same scenario.
A debate that appears throughout the article is whether academic training is necessary for success. Like the Bionic Man I allude to in my title, people can't decide what needs to be implanted by others to make you strong and what muscles one can develop by oneself. Everyone seems to agree that practical experience is an absolute. There is an implication in the comments of some (perhaps due to the way they were quoted) that academic training may not be necessary at all.
My personal view is that formal classroom training in legal matters-contracts, accounting, human resources-- can avoid a lot of serious trouble in the future. Formal training in personnel relations and conflict resolution practices can avoid a lot of heartbreak and resentment in a field where high pressure, long hours and low pay can breed a great deal of both. I can speak from experience that instruction in writing and graphic design elements won't make people into good writers. But unless you are possessed of talent and discipline, you probably won't be offered a paid opportunity to hone your skills with experience.
It only makes sense that if you were teaching someone all these skills, you would place it in the context of theatrical practice with courses on that very subject. There is a high likelihood, after all, that a theatre manager may wear the hats of marketer, bookkeeper, personnel director, programmer and graphic designer. So in my opinion, an academic program with opportunities for good practical experiences can be a real value for a fledgling manager.
One thing that many in the article agreed upon is that managers of the future need to be possessed of management skills and artistic vision. Given that the article mentions managers don't have the time to mentor subordinates or even each other and the report on the field that Neill Archer Roan presented to Arts Presenters said that managers rarely found the time to review and assess articles on the latest research and theory, the only place a manager is likely to acquire these skills is in a formal training program.
In reality, the proficiency that really needs to be acquired is flexible thinking. As students were taking classes to master the classes of an academic program, they should be constantly challenged to assess emerging situations in arts, entertainment in the world as a whole. The act of evaluation should be second nature by the time a student emerges from a program.
While I obviously think people should possess solid training in all the skill and knowledge areas I mention above, John McCann of Virgina Tech is singing my song in the article when he is quoted as saying-
"Today's focus is preparing folk to manage and lead yesterday's organizations...The solution, McCann believes, is to "focus more on leadership competencies and less on functional management training-challenge young potential leaders to be creative, intuitive and open to new ideas."
Just this week I was thinking back to an article I did an entry on back in 2004 where MIT students were trying to create a system whereby the Miami Symphony would be conducted by a hologram of a conductor standing in Germany. Unfortunately, the article I linked to back then is no longer available. But I was wondering whatever came of that effort.
Today via Artjournal.com there is an piece on Discovery News about how an actor in Orlando, FL and actors Canada both performed onstage in Illinois via the wonders of the internet. The Floridian and Canadians appeared on screens and not as holograms, but it looks like technology and practice might be moving in that direction.
This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened. Back in June I did an entry about Play On Earth, an effort which had actors on three continents interacting with each other. "An object hurled in Singapore flies halfway round the world and hits a character in Newcastle," reports a Guardian article.
Who knows, by the time the technology to create viable holograms is developed, efforts like the two mentioned here may have changed the whole dynamic of live performance -- not to mention the definition of what constitutes "live."
By some serendipity while I had my car radio scanning stations, I heard a story about a company offering the opportunity to hold massive conference calls.
A company called TeleTownHall uses voice over internet protocol connected to their technology to enable you to call up to 30,000 people in seconds. When people answer, they are asked to hold the line if they would like to participate in a townhall meeting. According to the website, 30,000 calls yields between 4-6,000 participants.
The service is marketed mostly to politicians and business executives, but it doesn't take much imagination to see how it could be used to solicit feedback or survey your community in order to discover how you can better serve them. You can also limit the calls to patrons and donors or similar membership groups.
You can keep control of the thousands of voices you have invited via a web interface.
A Web-based control screen enables the VIP to see the name and location of every person they are speaking with, and to invite each person to ask a question or to raise a concern. As dialogue begins, everyone can hear both the VIP and the selected speaker. In addition to this feature, the VIP can choose to pose questions to the entire group, and tally the answers that the audience gives via touchtone response on their telephone keypads
When it is all over, you receive a report of who participated, who answered the survey questions and what the results were.
They bill the service as being affordable but given that their primary clients have people donating $1500.00 at a time pop, that may be a relative term. There is no mention of what their rates may actually be. This may be an exercise arts organization can do periodically as grant funding for surveying allows.
If you are thinking about buying a plot of land in Second Life or creating a presence on Myspace.com, you may want to ponder your approach and consider what value doing so might have.
Okay, so a Myspace account is free, not much too lose. But there are always issues endemic to every new communication channel to be mindful of when making forays.
Via Artsjournal.com comes this article about the growing resentment against corporate presence in Second Life. Stores have been vandalized and destroyed and avatars of people shopping in the virtual versions of some corporations have been shot.
Granted, this type of thing happens all over--sans the bombings and shootings--whenever something goes from having niche to widespread appeal. Quoth the article:
"It's a path well-worn by SL's online ancestors, from The Well, a proto-online bulletin board community founded in the '80s through chatrooms, message boards and networking sites Friendster and MySpace. Early adopters shape the community as they wish, then have no choice but to stand by and watch it endlessly reshaped by the chaotic deluge of new users – some troublemakers, some commercial exploiters – that flood in as it gains popularity..."That's how it's always been with these spaces," Walsh says. "The new come in, the old get disgruntled and move on."
This is something of a similar sentiment echoed by a 17 year old, (who started a blog at 12. She is an old hand at online interactions), in a New York Magazine article about the fluidity and openness of the younger generation's identity online. (An interesting read if you want to gain insight into the emerging rules.)
I ask if she has a MySpace page, and she laughs and gives me an amused, pixellated grimace. “Unfortunately I do! I was so against MySpace, but I wanted to look at people’s pictures. I just really don’t like MySpace. ’Cause I think it’s just so … I don’t know if superficial is the right word. But plastic. These profiles of people just parading themselves. I kind of have it in for them.”
*Sigh* Just as I got my theatre on there, its relevance may be waning.
Given that the character of any social networking site or virtual world is apt to shift after the time you are first introduced to it, one must, as always, be adept at monitoring these changes and determining how one's approach may need to change. (I know, again with the assessing the appropriateness of technology theme.)
I don't think there would be any immediate danger of backlash for non-profits who tried to set up a virtual presence reflecting their real one. Artists who perform virtually on Second Life enjoy a certain cachet. (Presumably at least until they get too big and sell out.) Providing a well-designed facility for performances may actually enhance your reputation as a quality entity in the real world.
Even with the early adopters leaving and an undefined environment emerging, I don't think places like Second Life have played out their potential quite yet. Though who knows if something even better will emerge before Second Life really hits its stride.
The question about what constitutes quality is one of those things an arts manager usually doesn't have time to ponder but which is central to all the activities an arts organization undertakes.
Most mission statements for arts organizations allude to providing quality to the community if they don't do so outright. But when the doors open, are you offering the very best quality, the top quality you can afford or the top quality people are willing to pay for? Or does your product fall right there in the middle of the bell curve--something of middling quality that the largest group of people is willing to pay for?
Every couple of years I go back and read Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In the book, Pirsig methodically advances through various philosophical schools of thought in an attempt to create a valid definition of quality. He doesn't actually complete the process until his second book, Lila.
There is a summary of his conclusions here. It is pretty heady stuff and tough to see the application to the arts just by reading the summary unless you are avid about philosophy. There is an essay by Mark S. Lerner called "Management and Art" that takes a crack at it that might be helpful in understanding some of the implications of Pirsig's work.
I like reading Zen... because it gets me thinking and the detailing of his process aids my comprehension of the issues involved. I will admit I get lost at various points, though I make progress on each rereading. I don't know if he actually arrives at a valid definition of quality. What he does arrive at makes more sense than what the dictionary says. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I come away with a broader appreciation of the elements and considerations that comprise the measure of quality.
Does reading the book better inform my administration of my theatre and programming of its season?
Yeah, well it is often tough to take satisfaction in knowing that you have been responsible for the propagation and dissemination of a large concentration of quality into the universe when box office receipts are so dismal.
We go before legislatures and tell them that they should be concentrating on all the lives that have been changed and not numbers served when choosing to fund the arts. But when we get back to our offices, damned if it ain't a lot about the numbers, eh?
In his book Pirsig talks about how he decided not to let his students know what grade they got on a paper but instead give extensive feedback about the work they did and how to improve. The students went crazy. The comments on the quality were well and good, but they wanted a quantitative measure of their success.
When you are running an arts organization it is much the same way. You love the comments about how great the show was, but what you really care about are a satisfying number of butts in the seats (or butts passing through the doors if you are a museum/gallery.)
I should note that subsisting solely on a diet of comments, most of Pirsig's A & B students improve their performance. The C and D students either saw an improvement or hovered about the same with some D & F students sinking into oblivion. Operating an arts organization in ever fluctuating social, technological and economic environments is a lot more involved than applying oneself in academic studies. It is nigh impossible to survive solely on that diet of feedback, but handled well some nutritional value can be distilled resulting in organizational health and growth.
So yes, absolutely, reading the book definitely informs the day to day decisions I make. I ponder such things as I have written above and throughout this blog. Obviously, I think reading and thoughtful consideration of different issues is important even if the idealism presented in writings seems far divorced from the hectic, time crunched reality of our daily lives.
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A brief related story I wanted to share. I first came across this book while taking a class in college. I wrote a paper supporting his ideas about replacing simple letter grades with brief evaluations of a student's work. Much to my delight, my professor took me at my word and didn't grade my paper. (She was already in the practice of writing comments on our papers.)
Given the college's expectation that she assign a grade, she invited me to come to her office to discuss what grade I should receive. After reviewing her notes on my paper, I decided I had earned a B+. She was prepared to give me whatever grade I chose, but agreed that is what she would have assigned the paper.
Factoring in all the time and energy she invested in this whole encounter, this was very expensive for my professor. It is also one of the incidents that contributed to my feeling that I received a quality education at that school. An experience that resonates with me so many years later though she has probably forgotten all about it. (Though hopefully she offered similar experiences to other students.)
Back in January The Artful Manager linked to Peter Sellar's speech before the American Symphony Orchestra League (text found here.) One of the comments he made was that Beethoven didn't write polite music.
On the way into work the next day I heard an ad that said something to the effect of "this moment of calm is brought to you by..." and named the local symphony while playing some sedate music. I wryly thought to myself that they were taking the wrong approach and should be advertising that they performed impolite music by the bad boys of their day.
I almost immediately started wondering how symphonies defined what music they played. Is it music that has stood the test of time? If so, why don't they try to adapt enduring music by groups like Led Zeppelin and the Doors. Some of the pieces might might not be appropriate, but "Kashmir" had orchestral backing and I think a symphony could do something interesting with "Riders on the Storm." Some effort in arranging the music for a symphony might create the basis of an interesting program that might attract some new audiences. These artists were certainly not writing polite music and were bad boys of their day.
About two weeks later at the APAP convention I actually came across a group in a showcase that had arranged many classic rock tunes for chamber instruments. I have subsequently learned that the London Symphony Orchestra has performed an orchestral arrangement of "Kashmir" and The Who's rock opera Tommy, which I had forgotten.
I suspect that symphonies define the music they play as falling within a certain aesthetic that bears similar elements to works by predecessors like Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc. This seems like a very limiting approach. Admittedly, there is some logic to this. Nora Jones is defined as a jazz artist based on similarities in song choice and vocal execution to Bille Holiday and Nina Simone.
I looked around at the websites of about 15 symphonies, both large and small, and saw that some were performing works by composers who are still very much alive and haven't needed to stand any tests of time. The only person I knew enough about to call a "bad boy" was John Cage.
I don't want to get into a whole elitism debate regarding orchestral music so I will simply say I can see why the music of Led Zeppelin, The Doors and The Who, while standing the test of time, might not be considered appropriate for the main season. So I started looking at the Pops seasons for each of the 15 groups I mentioned before. By and large, most of the pops programming seemed to consist of the orchestras performing with popular artists like Manhattan Transfer, The Chieftans and Marvin Hamlisch. Old standbys like Gershwin tunes and the 1812 Overture appeared in Pops seasons, too.
I don't know if I was looking in the wrong places or if performing arrangements of these songs represents a trend that has passed, but there seems to be a missed opportunity by not performing more contemporary but enduring works, even if only in a Pops season. If video game themes and cell phone rings can be the subject of symphony performances, why not these works? There is some real power, majesty and craftsmanship in these songs (or at least opportunities to use orchestra instruments to infuse these things into them.)
One of the strengths musicians of any stripe have is the ability to choose from a wide variety of songs. In theatre and dance, unless you are doing a series of short plays or short dance pieces, you are usually tied to performing a show linearly as written. People go to the symphony expecting they will hear selections from different artists in programs with titles like "A Foreign Affair" and "Glances of Love". I will be the first to admit that I have no idea how the music integrates with these titles. From my vantage, it appears as if some sort of randomization computer program is used to pick the titles.
My point is symphonies have a ready made format and an audience that probably only knows slightly more about the logic process that places these songs together on the same night. If someone advertised a program titled "Bach You Tonight" that featured Bach and "Stairway to Heaven" at the right price, people who had never attended a concert might be intrigued enough to attend. (I certainly would because I am having a hard time imagining them working together. Who knows.)
I am not going to suggest that people will come for the Zeppelin and be entranced enough to return for the "Strictly Strauss." It may be that the new attendees never become comfortable with anything more than the annual "Rock N' Rachmaninoff" series. (Yes, I am having fun making up these names. I promise to stop before something really goofy like Haydn and Halen). These type of programs would also need to be part of a larger effort to attract and welcome new people, to be sure.
Folks will say if I really understood how symphonies operate, I wouldn't make such ludicrous suggestions. Yeah, admittedly this may all be akin to the suggestions on our surveys that I present Christina Aguilera in my little theatre. From my perspective it can't be too far afield from what Pops programs already do. Even if I am off base, perhaps all this will inspire someone with the practical knowledge to make something similar happen.
The biggest problems I anticipate are 1) Some drunk guy standing up and yelling, "Play Freebird!" and 2) Existing patrons feeling that it is dumbing down the program to include it in the main season. Good monitoring at the bar will solve the first problem. The second problem--well even as unexperienced as I am with classical music, I know that it will take a lot of skill to arrange some of this music so it sounds awesome at a performance. Dumb ain't gonna cut it.
While I am talking a lot about classic rock, I don't want anyone to get their minds stuck on that. There is plenty of other enduring material to explore for rearranging like some of the works of Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, etc.
Not everything deserves to be arranged to be interpreted by a symphony. It should be more about showing off the symphony's prowess than playing something just because it is easily recognizable. Yet something recognizable can also make it easier for a person with a low level of experience to appreciate the skill with which a piece is rendered.
Many people recognize the "Blue Danube Waltz" but might not be able to discern whether it is played well. On the other hand, an existing familiarity with "Gallows Pole" (which has absolutely endured centuries) provides a reference point from which to judge a symphony's rendition.
Back in November I had an idea for making theatre performances more interactive by inviting people to send or bring in music in support of a show. (Follow the link for the details.) I received a lot of support for the concept via email and links from other sites.
Even without the expressions of support, I was determined to see it attempted one way or another. Since the whole concept is experimental, I didn't think I had the audience or people with the right artistic alignment to implement the idea at my facility. I broached the subject with a director who possesses both at another venue. He was intrigued with the idea but needs time to ponder it and find a show and approach that would make the idea viable.
I wanted to toss the whole concept out to the ether again. New people have started reading this blog since I first proposed it. I would be interested in any suggestions or ideas people may have to execute it.
From the technology perspective one would need a high speed internet connection in order to receive submissions via email or some file sharing software and then a computer with enough processing power to manipulate the music and then burn it on to a CD or other medium from which it can be played during a performance. Obviously, one would also need a speaker and amp system in place connected to said medium.
On the personnel side, a person in the technology integrator position I mentioned in my earlier entry would need to be part of the artistic team and involved in making choices among what is submitted. I suspect that one might be faced with the artistic choice of whether to use some fantastic pieces that don’t fit with the mood of the rest of the show or using some really good pieces that do fit.
One of the reasons I am proposing a separate position from the director and even the musical director is that while an arts organization might start by having people submit music in advance for use in one spot during the show, if the organization refines their technique they may be integrating music brought to the performance on an iPod 20 minutes before the show starts into the whole performance.
The novelty of having their musical choices included in a show may be enough to inspire people to send in material days in advance of the show at first. As the practice becomes more prevalent, people will make the decision to attend closer to the performance time and will want the opportunity to have their contribution included in the show. The person in charge of processing these submissions will have to be more like a club DJ than the traditional music director and be able to make decisions on the fly about what music works well with the director's vision of the show but also doesn't clash stylistically with the other music he/she is using that night.
This sort of scenario really infuses a live performance with a sense of excitement and danger. The actors never know what music is going to be played that night and how it is going to change the atmosphere and dynamic of the performance. It will become abundantly clear if actors are just reciting their lines and slightly altering their approach so it is more appropriate to the energy the music has created.
Stage managers and the tech integrator need to work incredibly closely so that the stage manager knows when to call the next cue. The music may be fading out later one night than it did earlier due to the integrator's desire to sustain a motif a little longer.
Performing arts venues often promote the unpredictability of live performance as a selling point. Attempting what I propose will make this energy palpable to audiences.
Speaking of promoting events. I can't imagine that an arts organization would have too much success explaining what they were trying to do and appealing to audiences for musical submissions through newspaper stories. This type of thing is so far removed from the usual experience that I fear newspapers would report the project incorrectly and readers wouldn't quite understand the process.
Emails and letters to ticket buyers might be better. I suspect an appeal to people over social networking sites like Myspace by those involved with the production might initially produce the greatest yields until audiences had a chance to experience a performance.
As much as I hate to imply that someone my age may be too obtuse to be an early participant as a contributor, young as I am, I think the younger set would have a quicker, more intuitive understanding of what was involved and would contribute far more interesting compositions.
There are hundred of consequences and implications I have already envisioned. As I have already implied, some are a matter of upsetting an established order and can be resolved with flexibility and good planning. Other problems will be unique to each performance and require sound artistic judgment.
But what am I missing? What other technological tools and personnel requirements have I overlooked? What suggestions would make this concept better and more practical to execute? Is there a technology out there that seems ready-made for this type of idea?
Email me or comment below!