Arts groups thinking outside the box – and way beyond the box office
Zannie Voss, chair and professor of arts management and arts entrepreneurship in the Meadows School of the Arts and the Cox School of Business at SMU, talks about the changing financial landscape of the arts and their need to change to survive.
By JENNIFER LEWINGTON
Special to The Globe and Mail
A star cast of arts administrators, philanthropists and academics meet in New York next week to grapple with the same issue that looms large for culture organizations in Canada: how to adapt to turbulent times.
“People realize the market is difficult,” says Prof. François Colbert of HEC Montréal, the sponsor of the May 9-10 conference, entitled Leadership Nouveau: New Ideas and Strategies in the Management of Art and Culture for the 21st Century. “They are looking for new ideas all the time.” . . .
The stakes are high for arts organizations, with less government support, aging audiences, less-predictable ticket-buying habits, and the game-changing impact of social media.
Many organizations are trying new strategies to reach new patrons without abandoning their loyal base. . .
Identifying gaps and adjusting to new realities are themes running through the New York conference. “The environment has changed,” says Zannie Voss, a panel moderator at the conference, and chair and professor of arts management and arts entrepreneurship in the Meadows School of the Arts and the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “And when the environment changes, you can’t just provide the same old answer and do things the way you have always done them.”
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