Let’s take Seattle’s Intiman Theatre. A month ago, the Intiman announced that they were going to raise $200,000 by hook or — well, the other way, in order to survive at least one more season.
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Measurable Impact: The Real Bottom Line for Nonprofit Arts?
Let’s take Seattle’s Intiman Theatre. A month ago, the Intiman announced that they were going to raise $200,000 by hook or — well, the other way, in order to survive at least one more season.
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3 comments:
I feel like it is always a shame to see small non profit theaters go under. I am not sure if I agree with this author or not on how they say that it would be better for those theaters to try to fundraise for other theaters that are still having an impact as they go under rather than trying to save their own company. It is only natural to want to save what you have put your time and effort into, especially if it is something that you truly believe in. I guess the cynical side of me wants to say that they should have done a better job of managing their company or should have had a more realistic approach to their theater in terms of what the people in their community actually wanted, but it is hard to blame people for those things especially when they are feeling the ramifications so blatantly. I guess this all goes back to the idea of non profit vs for profit theater, and it makes me wonder about where I want to work in the future. I feel like nonprofits have more ability to do work that can really inspire people and get people passionate about theater, but it also has the chance to fail at that. Maybe for profit is the right way to go, so long as you are able to bring over some of those same ideas from the nonprofit world.
I agree with Cooper that the article makes an interesting claim about when a theatre is about to go under it should fundraiser for the other community arts organizations. This makes sense but also a practice that I’m pretty sure happens to some degree when an arts organization goes under. I’ve worked with several theatres that have gone under and then donated their assets to nearby companies but I find it interesting that a not for profit should as the author suggests put its fundraising efforts to other community arts organizations. I think something that is flawed by this argument is that people the failing arts organizations are trying to protect its workers and not just its company. Maybe that last-ditch fundraiser gives everyone a final paycheck, which is better than another organization, in my opinion, getting some money. I think also the statement about the NEA was off-putting because I know of several jobs that I have gotten and that fellow colleagues have gotten exist solely or in part because of the NEA. Overall I think that article is very argumentative and I am confused at its claim of how this one theatre has a more measurable impact than the other.
I think that this article brings up some discussion points that are very important but commonly a difficult conversation to have in the non-profit theatre industry. I hadn’t thought about it before but the gun to the head idea of fundraising initiatives is a deeply flawed concept and there are a lot of factors to consider in what arts organizations are doing to uphold their mission along with greater contribution to the community since that is part of the non-profit world. It’s simple to say that financial stability should be at the core of every organization but assuming that every non-profit comes into fruition with someone capable of the large scale financial planning needed is optimistic at best. Many of these companies have strong ideas and want to contribute to the greater good but can lack the financial stability to achieve this or have their mission lost in trying to achieve financial stability. The author of this article makes it sound a lot more clear cut than I think the complicated reality of the situation is. I think with the variety of financial resources available to different companies and how in flux these resources commonly are makes it a longer conversation though I can’t deny that some valid points were certainly made in terms of the case studies observed for this article in particular.
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