Isn’t Great Art Enough?
Doesn’t the artwork of a Van Gogh or Diego Rivera exhibit at a nonprofit museum make one seek insight into the meaning of life?
Doesn’t the performance of a nonprofit dance company’s production of Copland/DeMille’s “Rodeo” or Ailey’s “Revelations” make one try to restore the American dream?
Doesn’t the experience of a nonprofit theater’s production of “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Romeo and Juliet,” or “Angels in America” make one try to become more tolerant?
Do nonprofit arts organizations need more than those responses to justify charitable funding?
While many nonprofit arts organizations choose “art for art’s sake,” populist sentiment seeks quantifiable results to validate contributions to any portion of the nonprofit sector (social service, education, etc.).
So: shouldn’t great art be enough? Absolutely. Art can be produced for its own sake when no donations are requested.
Nonprofit Arts Organizations – Are you aware that the other parts of the sector believe that you’re stealing money?
In most nonprofits, a donor gives and someone else benefits. Food banks solve hunger, which promotes family stability, which stimulates re-entry into society for the impoverished. Environmental nonprofits encourage clean air and water, which promotes health, which supports longer, happier lives for everyone. Many religious organizations sponsor high morals (“Do unto others…”), which provides a sense of community, which fosters a safety net.
In the arts, the donor and the recipient are often the same person. The donor gives to a company, the company produces a performance or exhibit, and the donor/recipient enjoys the event. The arts are seen by many as elitist and unworthy of support.
We in the arts have to recognize that there is an enmity-laden relationship between arts nonprofits and all the other charities.
And then we have to do something about it.
“That Happened to Me!” – Can nonprofit arts organizations figure out a way to quantify personal meaning?
I wrote a strange and pretty bad play.
One scene took place at the World Trade Center in the wee hours of September 11, 2001. A financial analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald berates a brown-skinned file clerk. The scene was meant to be darkly humorous and uncomfortable.
After one public reading, a woman screamed about that scene.
Tearfully, she raged, “That happened to me! The World Trade Center happened to me!”
I asked, “Oh, were you in New York?”
“No. Baltimore.”
While social impact nonprofits exhibit myriad ways to show purpose beyond basic human needs, arts organizations struggle to show any measurable societal value. However, if we can quantify personal meaning with specific results and stories of value, then we can become successful charitable organizations.
For in every “That happened to me,” the impact is genuinely meaningful.
Nonprofit Arts Lingo Ready for Expunging…and Words to Use Instead
Subscription Season Tickets, Packages [“Subscription” = “Newspaper” = “Dying Industry”]
Audience Fans, Partners [Audiences hear, fans root, partners invest]
Watch Participate, Enjoy, Love [See “Audience”]
Us, we It, the [“We” requires “They”]
“Play a part” [Any non-cutesy non-cliche]
Spectacular, incredible, fabulous, gifted, talented, great, wonderful, delightful, fantastic, poignant, moving [Overused and does not describe the event – unless literally (big 3-ring circuses, for example, are spectacular); it also insults readers by dictating how they should feel]
Witty Funny, hilarious [“Witty” makes some feel as though the work is above their intellectual pay grade]
“Lost Ticket Insurance” [No one cares]
Engage, enlighten, educate Brighten, connect, involve [see “Witty”]
“Something for Everyone” [Never use this phrase. What your organization does is NOT for everyone; therefore, it’s a lie. It also implies that your organization is profit-seeking. Who would donate to McDonald’s?]
Where’s a good Medici when you need one? Oh, right. They’re still here.
Art for art’s sake? Not so much. Want to be paid? Then there had better be a good story behind it. Or you’re famous. Or you’re dead.
Artistry is everywhere we look… in everything we touch. Look at your desk right now. Find something with no art.
You can’t. Even paper clips have shape, color, and light.
But is a paper clip for its own sake? No. It clips paper. But it is no less artistic.
In 2014, art for art’s sake is aesthetic dogma meant to encourage artists to focus on their own thoughts, as though purity of thought is equivalent to purity of meaning – and, therefore, audiences are irrelevant to art.
Quasi-utopian Codswallop.
Whether commissions are contracted or in the open market, successful art requires patronage in the form of a sponsor, buyer, or audience.
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