The arts have always been a delicate ecosystem that thrives on balance. At its core are three interdependent players: the artists, the audiences, and the not-for-profit organizations. When any part of this trifecta fails, the entire system risks collapse.
Today, as the arts confront new challenges—shifting audience habits following a significant pandemic, subsequent financial strain, and an evolving technological landscape—the need for balance is more critical than ever. Companies ask artists to accept less to compensate for a shrinking market. Because artists cannot depend on income from companies they must diversify their employment in areas outside of the arts to supplement. Many live paycheck to paycheck or leave the field because double duty becomes unsustainable. Organizations are facing rising cost and market competition on every front and leadership must make tough spending cuts. Audiences, dispirited by canceled performances and fewer offerings, venture to other things, competing for their time, money, and attention. The results lead to less. It all leads us to ask the inevitable: Why is this happening, and what must we do to change course?
For me, this ecosystem starts with the product: the art. Art is a collective conversation, a meeting place, a communion of ideas and emotions put on display for all to engage with. Artists dedicate their lives to nurturing and honing talents to contribute to the world. As a wellspring of creativity, the artist is the ecosystem’s lifeblood. They are the public face of creativity, the conduits of inspiration through which the divine enters the world. That exchange between the artist and the audience is the magic of it all.
The audience gives this ecosystem its vitality. Audiences are drawn to art and artists who speak to something that resonates with them. In it, they find understanding, belonging, and a connection to something greater. Art challenges us and expands our capacity to live a myriad of existences. It transmits our knowledge of self and others. It informs our cultural and societal identities. We commune around art to feel something, to affirm something, and to confirm our humanness. That is the beauty of attending a sold-out artistic event. An interchange of potential occurs, rooted in the shared belief that something that matters to all in attendance is happening. We all have experienced some artistic exchange that has undoubtedly left us better, more evolved people.
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With arts organizations cutting programming to stave off total collapse, artists must also understand the effects of pulling from a well drying up or tapping reserves meant for the darkest days. Artists are traditionally left out of the business of art, a flaw in the ecosystem. Most artists do not understand how precarious the opera landscape is and that companies measure loss more, not gain. Artists reap the benefits of organizations doing what they can to ensure, at the least, our participation, if not our happiness. We must recognize that a small army within arts organizations works daily to ensure a season can happen and artists can earn any living.
The audience is one of the most critical elements of this ecosystem. They are the quiet power in the arts. Without an audience, there is little need for an artist or organization. Among them are the fuel that allows artists and organizations to do what they do, especially donors who become board members, for they are the ones who take fiduciary responsibility for a company. It is a privilege for an artist to engage firsthand with someone who respects and loves the craft enough to put up their hard-earned dollars to ensure that art can be shared. Being on a board is a voluntary gesture not a mandated obligation. The beauty and power of what artists do, creates something so special that the connection to something greater is worth the voluntary time and expense.
We need to acknowledge the connected relationship between these three players. Artists cannot create in a vacuum; they need platforms, resources, and connections to their audiences. Arts organizations sole reason for existing is recognition of the power of the arts and to facilitate the interrelationship between artists and audience. Organizations must adopt a model of stewardship, that supports artistic exploration while being in tune with their community to nurture access and relevance to its diverse voices. Finally, the audience must acknowledge its role, not as passive consumers but as active participants in shaping trends, and culture. Artists must recognize their duty and commitment to the craft and the reflection of the humanity they are.
To preserve the vibrancy of the arts, we must cultivate a balanced ecosystem in which artists, audiences, and arts organizations all thrive together. It is not about favoring one over the other but recognizing that their futures are inextricably linked.
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What must we do to change course? We must re-center the importance of the arts to our communities and culture. We can no longer sit in offices, disconnected, and blindly plan offerings hoping they resonate with audiences. Ask, what is going on in my community/market and what art can we produce to speak to that? While creating new works, we cannot abandon traditional works. However, we must consider what we want to say to our current community in our programming choices. Stats from ten years of market analysis and affordability cannot be the sole reason to put on a show.
Artists and community engagement teams can be great assets. They are the trust builders with audiences and have their fingers on the pulse of the market. Artists are engaged last in the process and slid into the equation like a puzzle piece. It negates their artistry and mutes the value of their connections and voices. Community engagement teams promote a season or a show when they can also be active partners in the vitality of the arts of a city. By building partnerships and showing up in ways that only the arts can, it signals, we are not here selfishly, but here as invested neighbors. We want to hear and support you and have you hear and support us.
If organizations used these assets in early planning, it could minimize programming guess work, tap the allure of celebrity, prime audiences, and build intentional, instead of transactional, relationships and conversations. The magic of the artist/audience connection becomes an organizational asset. Audiences become engaged because there is more personal connection to the organization and creators of the art that resonates with their everyday. Artists begin to understand the business of making art and become invested partners in finding solutions for success. Negotiations are no longer us verses them, they become we. The investment in each other becomes mutual rejuvenation.
Communication and collaboration must open between artists, organizations, and audiences, with the understanding that we are in business together. The pot is only so big and if individuals are trying to get the lion’s share of it, we fail. When mutual respect, mutual appreciation, transparency, and grace are at the core of this ecosystem, the arts not only survive but flourish, reflecting the true spirit and creativity of the human experience.
