Visual Art Auctions lag in London

London was once ahead of New York in art sales, but not this year. The buyers are more interested in Renoir's still-lifes and Miró's stick figures, instead of scenes of men in anguish as done by last year's huge success, Francis Bacon. People now seek comfort.

Article Tackles Our Questions

The Journal Sentinel has posted an article that intersects very nicely with the subject of our investigations: Theatres Across North America Take a Nimble Approach to the Economic Downturn. Check it out!

Small independent boutique saved from closing

On the brink of closing, SoKo fashion, which is a small independent boutique in Chicago, was saved by an entrepreneur who consistently shops at the store. So even though times are tough, some people are still willing to take the risk to save something that is local and creative!

This Blog fiercely asks Chicago to fight the Legislators who want to cut arts funding!

The Time Out Chicago Blog tells us just how important the arts are economically, culturally, and locally. Writer Lauren Weinberg offers us an incredible number of employed and involved artists: 132,882 people and Chicago is always attracting more college graduates and theatre goers near and far.

The Blog asks the community and surrounding public to click on the link to contact legislators and fight the threat of cutting out the arts!

Getting kicked out, but moving on Up

New York City council is cleaning up Dumbo in Brooklyn, but with this face lift they are displacing St. Ann's theater. However, artistic director, Susan Feldman sounds hopeful, even excited to re-root into a new space. What is surprising is that the city developers are not leaving her hanging; they are looking for a new space for St. Ann's theatre all over Brooklyn and even in Manhattan. It pays to have a close relationship between the artists and the city council!

Lots of Recent News Items

There's been a spate of recent news on theatre and the economy -- both positive and negative -- so I'll close some tabs and lay out the updates here.

A piece from the Boston Globe about how theatres are responding to the dark times with lighter fare, hoping to appeal to audiences' desire for respite.

Some bad news from LA on the financial strife facing the Center Theatre Group -- not only have they cut shows, but now they're being forced to cut a tenth of the staff.

A positive take on the theatre scene in San Diego these days, with discussion of small-budget theatres and the flexibility they're finding in response to the economic crisis, as well as an assessment of the larger houses' recent successes.

An interesting piece out of Chicago about the need to take bold risks, even in this economic climate.

Sadly, academia isn't immune from the economy's downward spiral. Washington State University is addressing this by completely axing the department of theatre and dance. 105 students are now out of luck -- and though the article snippet doesn't address this, so too is the university as a whole. What happens when a university sends the signal to its community that the arts are expendable?

In semi-connected news, the Department of Education has announced that arts skills in the nation's youth are "mediocre." Arts in education, anyone? Meanwhile, the NEA's most recent survey of Americans hasn't been released fully yet, but the early results seem to say that while many Americans practice "art" in some way or another, they aren't attending professional art exhibitions, plays, concerts, etc.

Interview with Artist and Craftsman Supply owner

Larry Adlerstein owns and manages 15 Artist and Craftsman supply stores across the country but is based in Portland, ME. He has stores in San Francisco's Bay Area, in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, in Louisville and right up the street from Boston University in Massachusetts. 

I asked him about the state of his sales under the strain of the recession. His answers really surprised me:

He said in the last year and a half his sales are up 9% as an annual percentage. Meanwhile his competitors, Art Mart, Dick Blick, and Pearl are down about 12%.

How is he beating his competitors who are major names in the art supply world?

Well, he says it's all about relationships. Whether it's his relationships with his managers in the various stores or the relationships with each customer, all of these matter more than a couple of cents. He says a store is successful when the employees are happy, and that happiness comes from having ownership. Larry Adlerstein says he gives every manager a lot of responsibilities and room to be creative and make decisions for the store; this way each manager has more invested with the company.

He also explained he has a lot of knowledge of popular brands and colors. I asked him how he  keeps on top of the popular products and how he knows what sells...

He says this job is a lot harder for me than for major companies, because he decides to go to trade shows, looks through trade magazines, and decides to buy from 20 smaller art companies than one huge whole sale companies. By ordering through these 20 small companies he has to fill out 20 different order forms, and keep track of 20 different shipments, and pay 20 different bills, but he says it's all worth it. 

Why so much work? He says it makes his store unique and artists like that. Plus the smaller companies offer their products at a better value. And this way he makes relationships with these small companies and keeps them alive instead of always resorting to the mass whole sale company. This formula for running a business also attracts the artist community, because they would rather support the "little guys" too.

His stores have a great atmosphere as well: each has cement floors with paintings on them and low incandescent light bulbs that are easy on the eyes. The employees are always nice. And I mean that too, because Larry is very involved in hiring and firing. Instead of letting someone else, even a manager deal with a problem, he flies out all over the country to confront the situation head on. 

Dedication to the people is how he keeps up his sales and so far he is battling the bad economy and winning.

Julie's Notes on Richard Florida's THE CREATIVE CLASS part 2

Florida breaks down the fundamentals of what makes a city creative with the three T's: Technology, Talent, and Tolerance. A great example of a creative city is San Francisco, especially Silicon Valley. There are other examples such as Portland, OR and Boston, MA and Austin, TX.

Former mayor of Austin, Kirk Watson, speaks about the three T's in action in the creative Texan hot spot: "Austin has benefited from a convergence between technology and our laid-back, progressive, creative, lifestyle and music scene. The key is that we continue to preserve the lifestyle and diversity, which enables us to lure companies and people from places like Silicon Valley." Florida explains further that, "Austin sees itself as a wholly creative place, as opposed to just a high-tech city--one that has worked hard to build the kind of habitat to which creative people of all types are attracted" (p 299). The technology is very present in Austin with huge names like IBM, Intel, and Motorola. The talent is always flocking to the city with these companies recruiting top-notch students from schools like MIT, University of Texas, and Carnegie Mellon. The tolerance of Austin is noticeable because the city is incredibly open to immigration, alternative lifestyles, and many genres of music and entertainment. The city's government seems to really advocate each individual expressing himself and herself as they are.

The strategies to maintain the city's appeal are protecting cultural venues from displacement, maintaining traditional ethnic neighborhoods, and inspiring a tolerant attitude among the community. These seem somewhat vague to me, so for more concrete examples let us look at what Dublin began in the 1960's. Ireland's city thrived until the recent recession because the Irish government supported the formation of technical skills in electronics and computer disciplines along with the restoration its Temple Bar district, and the recruitment of creative people. The recruitment is very interesting because the city invited technology companies, entrepreneurs, actors, writers, musicians to come live in Dublin and the city would offer tax breaks!

Florida tactfully brings up a point about these cities overwhelmed with creativity; often in environments where there are so many strong-willed and creative minds there is little room for others who are meek artists or people who are more family-driven and less interested in the career world. He says that sometimes these places develop an elitist attitude or a reputation for being exclusive. But he quickly scraps this judgement and says: "What is elitist--and inequitable, inefficient and even dangerous--is the persistence of a social order in which some people are considered natural creators, while others exist to serve them, carry out their ideas and tend to their personal needs" (p 323). He says we need class awareness. Everyone is needed and valuable in a society be she a mother, be he a mechanic, be he a hair stylist, be she a CEO of Amazon.com; all are contributors in some way.

Empathy

Sometimes it's wise to back up and remind ourselves of the big picture....  

Yes, the economy is in the crapper.  Yes, arts organizations -- and of interest here, specifically theatres -- are suffering mightily.  People are out of work, communities are losing vital fora for drama.  

So what?  What does it matter?

I offer a recent article from Charles McNulty as a reminder of the Big Picture.  It's about empathy, and how the theatre is one of the ways human beings learn to be empathetic.  It's worth a read.

Lessons From Mass MOCA and Russia?

A feature from the Boston Globe about the art museum Mass MOCA and how it managed to plan and execute a financial turnaround.  Of interest is the role of the organization in the community.

A piece from the NYT about the Russian city of Perm, and the local government's decision to significantly invest in the arts as a method of civic turnaround.

Funding Bright Spots

Variety talks about the Shubert Foundation and the Tony Randall Foundation, and their new grants ($12.5 mil.) for non-profit theatres.

New much-needed funding in Michigan.

Fundraising in a Time of Economic Crisis

An NPR piece about a fundraising gala at the Washington Opera.  How do you wow your donors for $150K less than last year?

A piece on the Duke Foundation and the adjustments being made to accommodate the needs of grant recipient organizations for unrestricted funds.

A piece out of Philly about the current crisis in philanthropy.

What is Silicon Valley?

Silicon Valley could be a useful comparative to a theatre model because it is a community that is incredibly successful in the world of business, simply because it is a society of creative people in terms of Richard Florida's Creative Class. Richard Florida is author of two best-sellers, The Rise of the Creative Class and Who's Your City, which are examinations of how creativity is reshaping the global economy. Silicon Valleyis one of Florida's favorite examples for a prime creative city and it is made up of very highly educated and motivated people, much like the theatre communities who are using technology to further enhance their sales by targeting younger audiences.

I talked to the theatre manager at Lyric Stage Co. in Boston and she informed me the internet was their best weapon to combat falling income. By posting seasons and discounts on Facebook, their student ticket sales increased!

Silicon Valley is an area in south San Francisco's Bay Area. It is the leading economic center and Richard Florida constantly refers to Silicon Valley as a model to live by. Its name comes from the silicon chip manufacturers who concentrated their semiconductors and engineering complexes there. The industry in Silicon Valley began with electronics in radio, television, and military electronics. Stanford University is very well-connected to Silicon Valley and many engineers have internships, are paid to do research, and will get a job in some section of the high-tech businesses or Defense Department.

William Hewlett and David Packard were graduates of Stanford and started their Hewlett-Packard industry in Silicon Valley. Other leading software and internet companies are based in Silicon Valley as well such as EBAY and google and Apple.

Here is Silicon Valley's home page.

One of the links on the front page is "tweets" from soldiers in Afghanistan. These posts are sent out to the world before media announces it formally. The U.S. Military also uses YouTube and Facebook.