What’s an Executive Director to do when caught between an Artistic Director envisioning significant growth and board leadership that is resistant to change? That’s the question being explored by this case study developed by Chorus America for inclusion in the Summer 2010 issue of The Voice. The case study is accompanied by responses from current chorus leaders and governance experts, including NAS Vice President Gail Crider. What’s your response – what would you do if you were the Executive Director?
 |
 |
Publications
We partner with universities and faculty engaged in some of the world's leading research in organizational management and leadership. But there are questions that are critical to our sector that aren't always addressed directly in this research. With the support of national funders – and with your participation – we undertake research projects, interviews, convenings, and other activities to fill in the gaps, and share our findings here.
Click on a word or phrase to read articles tagged as such.
Adrian Ellis
Andrew Taylor
audience development
audience engagement
Ballet Memphis
case study
children's chorus
Chorus America
collaboration
creative sector
dance
Dorothy Gunther Pugh
endowments
finance
Future Leadership
Gail Crider
Getty Leadership Institute
GIA Reader
Gig
governance
innovation
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jim Rosenberg
leadership
Leadership training
leisure time
Metropolitan Opera
nonprofit arts organizations
participation
performing arts
Peter Gelb
professional development
relationship building
Russell Willis Taylor
Salzburg Global Seminar
Sonali Mishra
strategy
systemic challenges
technology
The League of American Orchestras
The Voice
There Are No Crises, Only Tough Decisions
There are no crises in the arts – there are crises in arts organizations as they are currently constructed. Audiences are not shrinking, they are growing, but they are not necessarily interested in consuming all the art our member organizations produce. Between 1970 and 2010, the number of arts organizations grew from 2,700 to 27,000 but the number of people funding them, and attending their events, did not grow at all. In this keynote address delivered at the joint annual conferences of Chorus America and The League of American Orchestras, Russell Willis Taylor, President and CEO of National Arts Strategies, explores the extraordinary opportunities that arts organizations have today.
Read the text of the speech, “There Are No Crises, Only Tough Decisions
The Performing Arts in Lean Times: Opportunities for Reinvention
What questions should performing arts leaders be asking themselves right now? Economic shifts, global and individual reach in technologies, the pursuit of strong and delineated national identities and the appetite for a voice from younger people are all changing how the performing arts are viewed, created and consumed. Fifty performing arts leaders from around the world gathered in February 2010 for a Salzburg Global Seminar focused on opportunities for reinventing the performing arts at a time when many factors are contributing towards a large-scale disruption of the arts. This report, written by the co-chairs of of the event, NAS President and CEO Russell Willis Taylor and Adrian Ellis, Executive Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, summarizes the discussions that took place.
Read the report, “The Performing Arts in Lean Times: Opportunities for Reinvention“
The Smart Marketplace: Bridging the Gaps in Arts Leadership Training
Many discussions about the field’s leadership gap focus on two general impressions: there are not enough prospective leaders or there aren’t enough professional development opportunities – but is it that simple? In this GIA Reader article, Russell Willis Taylor, NAS President and CEO, and Andrew Taylor, Director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration in the Wisconsin School of Business, argue that there are numerous prospective leaders and professional development opportunities, but that there are informational discontinuities which prevent them from adequately filling the field’s leadership needs. This article identifies opportunities for the field – including funders, professional development providers and current leaders – to tackle the systemic challenges currently preventing our prospective leaders from finding and taking advantage of opportunities to develop the skills they need to take on leadership roles.
Read the article, “The Smart Marketplace“
The Normal Approach
How do we sustain relevance and drive participation for the traditional not-for-profit arts in our communities? This is a recurring challenge for the arts and culture field. In his article for the October 27, 2009 issue of Gig Magazine, NAS Vice President, Jim Rosenberg, suggests that reaching a desired audience requires leaders to focus on the desired customer and work backward to the right artistic work, venue, timing, pricing, etc. This customer-centered approach can serve the core mission of an arts organization if its leaders are willing to challenge the assumptions of the field.
Read the article, “The Normal Approach”
Future Leadership Survey Results
The question of who will lead our cultural institutions in the future is being widely discussed in our field. NAS has launched an experimental, collaborative design program to provide future leaders with the skills and opportunities for growth that they need. NAS engaged current and future leaders on-line and in-person for conversations about the needs of future leaders from January through August 2008, leading up to a survey of the field. The survey produced a small but informative sample, the results of which are available here.
Read the report, “The Future Leadership Program Survey Results”
Dancing into the Future: A White Paper from Ballet Memphis
Ballet Memphis, a nationally acclaimed regional dance company, is facing all of the challenges endemic to the not-for-profit arts: rising costs, decreasing audiences, more competition for philanthropic dollars, and how to create work of real value to audiences in locally and beyond. The leadership of Ballet Memphis chose to stop and take a candid look at how the changing environment and the market for dance indicated that the current financial challenges are not simply a down-turn by-product, but are indicators of a systemic change that demands a new strategy if dance companies are to survive and add value to the communities they serve. With the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, “Dancing into the Future: A White Paper from Ballet Memphis” was jointly authored by Dorothy Gunther Pugh, Founder and CEO of Ballet Memphis and Russell Willis Taylor, President and CEO of National Arts Strategies. It outlines the learning from the first phase of Ballet Memphis’ reinvention.
Read the paper, “Dancing into the Future: A White Paper from Ballet Memphis”
Anatomy of a Leader
NAS President and CEO Russell Willis Taylor interviewed Peter Gelb for the Fall 2007 issue of Grantmakers in the Arts Reader. Mr. Gelb, the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, discussed his approach to leadership and his ambitions for the Met. Along the way, Mrs. Taylor, former managing director of the English National Opera in London, offers an inspiring glimpse into methods for changing an organization so it may thrive in the decades ahead.
Read the article, “Peter Gelb: Anatomy of a Leader“
NAS and the Getty Leadership Institute: Cultural Organizations and Changing Leisure Trends
In May 2007, the Getty Leadership Institute and National Arts Strategies brought together leaders from the nonprofit arts, the for-profit sector, and the media to discuss new models for reaching, engaging, and keeping audiences and customers in the face of new leisure trends. The discussion explored the effects of trends such as the segmentation of free time into shorter chunks throughout the day, the layering of activities as people multi-task in leisure time too, and the living of what were once private aspects of life in public via the internet.
Read the report commissioned by NAS and the Getty Leadership Institute, “Cultural Organizations and Changing Leisure Trends”
A Review of Endowment Giving Policy Options
Written by NAS President and CEO Russell Willis Taylor in 2006 for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, this paper discusses the tradition, benefits, and necessity of endowment funds in the arts. Mrs. Taylor provides a point of view about alternatives to endowment funding, and poses questions about how endowments help achieve mission. What is the impact of continued endowment giving? Read the paper to find out.
Read the article, “The Grasshopper or the Ant: a Review of Endowment Giving Policy Options“