Learning to share

Arts organisations feel vulnerable. This is no surprise for a sector that is used to living on thin and unreliable resources, and being valued for our instrumental impacts rather than the intrinsic value of what we do. One of the ways the sector has countered this impression is by developing extremely high levels of professionalism. We’ve developed ourselves as viable businesses, our plans, policies and procedures providing evidence that we take ourselves seriously, and that we expect to be taken seriously by others.

While I applaud organisations that are run properly and efficiently and which are effective at advocacy and meeting targets, I do wonder whether we should re-appraise how this approach can affect our relationships with audiences. Recently it seems that the brands that are doing well are those that allow their audiences to take some ownership of the values, activity and approach of the organisation. This is antithetical to traditional brand theory which has regarded fierce protection of every aspect of the brand to be crucial.

Led by new technologies which have enabled all of us to be able to have choice over aspects of our lives that we wouldn’t have dreamed about a few years ago – audiences want to be involved. And if they like you, there’s a chance that they will want to use your brand, share your video or comment on your work. This raises a challenge to arts organsiations, stuck in the rut of providing a glossy, untouchable outward face, a professional veneer to disguise our fear that others will see our vulnerability. That our audiences might know that we are not perfect, that we are struggling, that we sometimes get things wrong.

It’s a major shift, to let our audiences share our brand, admit their ideas into our planning, in effect, to see them as much a part of our organisation as our buildings, our staff, our brand. the world is changing quickly though, and it seems likley that those organisations that are prepared to let down their guard, and enjoy our audiences desire to share and be part of what we do, will be the ones thriving in the future.

 

Coach trip

It’s a long time since I’ve done an exam, and I promised myself that I wouldn’t put myself through any more. Like many of my personal promises, this one did not last. When I got an opportunity to do a Coaching couse through the Cultural Leadership Programme and Performance Coach Training, I decided the benefits outweighed the stress of the test, and signed up.

I was particularly interested in coaching after learning some coaching techniques on a Course on Consultancy and Organisational Change at Ashridge Business School last year. Practising some basic skills there I became excited by the way that coaching focuses on achievements, and empowers an individual to achieve things through unlocking their own ideas, thoughts, wants, needs and skills – rather than giving solutions in the way a trainer or mentor can do.

In the course I have just completed I have coached may people (and been coached), often for just 20 minutes, and every single session resulted in positive and powerful outcomes for the coachee. It’s such an inspiring process and I am really excited about the possibilites of making coaching a part of my work in the future.

I hope to be able to offer coaching services very soon. I also know 11 other excellent coaches who qualified at the same time as me. If you are interested in coaching or finding out more about the course I did or the coaches I trained with, please get in touch.

 

Is the recession good for the arts?

Over the last few weeks I’ve heard several stories in the press that suggest that the recession is good for the arts. The argument usually goes along the lines of arguing that the arts thrive in challenging situations, the implication being that we’ve had it too good for too long: the recession is shaking artists out of their complacency-funded comfort zones and leading to better, more challenging, more interesting work.

My first reaction to this is to shout – Nonsense! (or something ruder) – and leave it at that. However, the more I’ve heard this argument the more I think it is important that the sector refutes it strongly. Yes artists are resilient, and yes, artists will continue to produce great work in the face of adversity but that doesn’t mean hardship is good for them – anymore than it is good for the rest of us.

Some great art projects are riding the wave of the recession, for example artists in Stroud are using the empty shop units now found on the High Street to present work and run workshops. Exceptions like this project do not prove that the arts, and artists benefit from the recession. There is no doubt that financial hardship will no doubt affect the variety, diversity and quality of artistic experiences available. The impacts will range from fewer individual artists having enough resources to focus primarily on their creative work to large institutions have to make safer programming decisions to ensure they can cover building running costs.

I value the resourcefulness of artists and admire their response to the current financial difficulties. This shouldn’t be mistaken for the ability of the sector to sustain itself in the long-term, without proper funding and support, on the mistaken belief that the sector is better off when facing a crisis.

PS On this blog I have written several articles about the recession and the arts – which can be found below. Toby Young has also pulled together some facts about the impact of the recession on the arts on his blog. Although his facts seem to indicate that the audiences are currently holding up, it seems to me that this evidence holds little comfort when we consider how quickly the situation seems to be heading downhill – while figures might be good for 2008 I doubt they will sustain for 2009!