Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Americans for the Arts Bringing More Bad News

The Americans for the Arts, an arts advocacy group, just published its National Arts Index and the data aren't encouraging.  The Index attempts to be for the arts what the Dow Jones Industrial Index is for the stock market.  To that end, the National Arts Index combines data from many different aspects of the nation's arts endeavors, some denominated in money, some in degrees, some in world premieres, some in percentages.  How one can justify combining these varied numbers into one number is difficult to imagine.  (The Dow Jones is statistically manipulated but at least starts with things that are all the same denomination: stock prices.)  But even if the Arts Index is unrealistic, the report is not because it details from where the figures come.  The data the Americans for the Arts published are dismal, if not surprising, to anyone interested in the arts.

Over the period from 1999 to 2007, not-for-profit arts revenues grew 21 percent but the number of nfp arts groups, fighting for a share of those revenues, went up 60 percent.  Attendance at live theater dropped from 50 million in 2003 to 39.6 million in 2009.  This is based on market surveys by  Scarborough Research. According to figures coming from the Theatre Communications Group, attendance at nfp theaters went from a high of 34.3 million in 2003 to 30 million in 2009.  Giving to nfp arts groups is down from most sources.The number of world premieres performed by American theaters is down from a high of 348 in 2003 to 247 in 2009.   

As the report notes as the first of its findings in the introduction: "The arts follow the nation's business cycle."

Friday, January 21, 2011

Don't Start a Theater Company!

Backstage this week has a brief essay titled, "Need an Acting Job?  Start a Theater Company."  Please don't, at least, don't start one to get a job. 

"Why open a theater company? Simple: So you can work," author Reginald Nelson writes.  Were it that simple.  A theater company is a small business and as such has all the requirements of a small business plus the demands of artistry.

Add to that two facts--the not-for-profit theater in the US is overbuilt, meaning there are too many theaters chasing too little audience, and the US is just coming out of a recession--and the conclusion is clear.  Without some sort of "angel" providing regular money inputs to a new theater, it's unlikely to be successful.

Of course, our book Stage Money has background on the not-for-profit theater that would be useful for anyone considering founding one.  This blog has a number of relevant essays and facts about the current environment for the not-for-profit theater, including: 

 

 

 

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