A Lasting Legacy of Recession

One of the legacies of the lengthy recession we appear to be leaving behind us is that arts leaders are exhausted.

I have spoken with thousands of arts managers over the past six months and it is astonishing how many are considering leaving their positions in the relatively near future.

Very few of them are departing for wonderful new opportunities with other arts organizations. The vast majority are planning to leave their jobs with no new position on the horizon.

These managers are so tired of struggling to create interesting programming while balancing the budget and appeasing their (nervous) boards that they feel they need a break. For the past two years, they have felt pressured by both passionate artists who want to do their work regardless of the economic situation and conservative board members, many of whose own companies are in trouble. The challenge of appeasing both at the same time has been overwhelming.

That so many arts leaders are considering leaving their jobs (or the profession) at the same time cannot be good for the arts. These managers possess a wealth of experience and talent that will not be easily replaced. (One of the challenges of the arts is that few organizations have 'seconds in command' who are prepared to run an organization after the current leader departs. While corporations often have people ready to step into the leader's position, few arts organizations have the resources required to fund a 'number two.')

Many board members, tired and frustrated as well after the past two difficult years, harbor the belief that their organizations would benefit from new managerial blood. They believe that the current managers did not have the skills required to deal with the economic downturn, did not cut budgets quickly enough or deeply enough, were not able to market the organization effectively and did inadequate fundraising.

The truth is there is not a wealth of experienced arts managers waiting to take these leadership positions. Ironically, board members only realize this after the current leader departs and they face a negligible pool of willing and able applicants. Too often, board members opt for a financial person from the for-profit sector hoping their skills and discipline will help solve the organization's financial problems. (Of course, these board members are forgetting that financial people measure problems; they rarely solve them!)

I hope a massive hiring effort is not required in the coming year. That as the season comes to a close, these exhausted managers will use the summer to replenish themselves, to regain their excitement for their work and their passion for arts management. That many, if not most, of them will reconsider their plans and remain with the organizations that need them.

And I hope that board members will remember that the arts managers they employ have been through two of the most difficult years in their lives, and they need and deserve support, encouragement and gratitude.

 

Comments

[clydefitch]

12:25 PM on 05/20/2010

Dear Mr. Kaiser:

Any time someone wants to step aside from any capacity of arts leadership­, I am ready and willing to step in. Part of the problem -- and with all due respect to you, but I don't see you addressing this issue -- is that too many arts leaders and managers stay too long, thus preventing newer, and dare I say younger, more innovative leaders from rising into the fray.

Visit my LinkedIn profile or my blog, The Clyde Fitch Report, to learn more about me. I'd jump at the chance to work at an arts organizati­on in any capacity -- public affairs, policy, marketing.

If arts leaders are tired, Mr. Kaiser, please remember that there is a long, long, long line of people out there, with MA's in Arts Administra­tion and many not, who never will be.

[Zack Hayhurst]

12:10 PM on 06/09/2010

I agree. I am going into the second year of my MA in Arts Administra­tion, and I am just hoping there will be something for me when I finish the degree. It keeps me up at night, wondering if there will be jobs a year from now.

[Peterell]

09:23 AM on 05/20/2010

Even in flush times, there is enormous burnout, because the work is very difficult and the financial reward is usually so small. The funders have created what is normally a very complicate­d system to apply for funds, in which the unfunded proposals far outnumnber the funded ones, and the dollar rewards for those proposals are so small and targeted (driven by the funder, not the art) that there is an enormous amount of waste for each dollar spent on the art. It would be nice to see some real discussion of a systematic look at the arts policies in this country, both generally and in each discipline­. I think there are better solutions out there that actually devise systems that create a better dollar-in/­dollar-out formula than our current one. A world in which arts managers spend more time creating and marketing and operating programs and less time chasing funding would serve everyone.

[Peterell]

09:22 AM on 05/20/2010

Michael raises an issue that is part of a much larger problem. It is a systems problem. We have an arts system that is asked to operate in a consumer environmen­t. It has not been designed or configured to provide art, but to try to survive. The regular success of an organizati­on is a patchwork of small and fragile connection­s, like a rubik's cube, that requires just the right twists and turns and tweaks to operate. In all but the most successful (or lucky) of our organizati­ons, a very large percentage of the funds are going to management­, rather than art.

[amyklebust]

02:04 PM on 05/19/2010

I was happy to see this article - it speaks to the challenges facing my own (tiny, rural, underfunde­d) organizati­on and makes me feel less alone.

[MrBillow]

06:30 PM on 05/18/2010

I know that a bit of recession burnout has made it easier for me to resign after 18 years running an opera company and follow my wife to a great new job in a new region where I can cut back to being an artist . I felt that MOST of my board truly appreciate­d my efforts, including taking a salary cut and doing innovative programmin­g and partnershi­ps to keep costs down. I do think that boards are going to look more and more for E.D.s with marketing and developmen­t specialtie­s, which might be a dangerous thing because creative programmin­g skills are just as important (maybe more?) in dealing with tough financial times.

[BondGirl8]

12:59 PM on 05/18/2010

'The truth is there is not a wealth of experience­d arts managers waiting to take these leadership positions.­'
I do wonder...i­s this what Mr. Kaiser tells the people that he consults for and offers arts management lectures to, including the Fellows in the Arts Management Institute program in Washington­, DC? It seems a dim outlook for those people that are under his tutelage to be better arts managers, that they have no prospects because no one thinks they are experience­d enough to weather financial or other equally rough storms.

I understand that people have to 'pay their dues' and an arts manager in one job for 15-20 years at one institutio­n is going to understand certain in's and out's better than someone that is green but the world is getting smaller not larger.

I believe the 'portfolio­' career of today's arts manager bears further considerat­ion by board members, employers and HR department­s. There are many experience­d arts managers out there...bu­t if they did not get in the game the traditiona­l way they are often overlooked­, despite years of relative experience and even more, a fresh approach to today's problem, born not only of solving the same problems 'rooted' arts manager have to but also solving the problems associated with being highly entreprene­urial.

[Bshendr]

12:21 PM on 05/18/2010

I left my position as Orchestra Executive Director three months ago with no prospects on the horizon. I had to do it to gain control of my health due to the incredible stress of the job. My blood pressure was out of control, thyroid was not working, I had gained 60 lbs in the past five years and my triglyceri­des were at seriously dangerous levels. My face had become gray and droopy. Within a few days of my departure all of these health issues started to turn around. I've lost 15 lbs, my triglyceri­des are down 200 points, my blood pressure is now under control and I feel like my healthy and happy former self. Okay, I have concerns about where the money will come from to pay the bills in a few months, but in the meantime I'm getting my life back and wow it feels terrific.

[trcasey]

12:21 PM on 05/18/2010

This isn't just an issue with arts managers and executives­. I have only been working in the arts for a few years, but it becomes more clear every day how impossible it will be for me to make a living in the arts. I have a Master's degree in arts management and work at a relatively large arts institutio­n. My salary is so low that I have to defer my student loan payments on the grounds of economic hardship in order to pay the rest of my bills. I don't want to be a millionair­e. I don't even care to make six figures. What I do want is to feel that I am being compensate­d fairly for the work I am doing.

The systemic issue is that my salary is completely in line with others in NYC at my level in comparable institutio­ns (it's probably a little higher). There is a culture of long hours and low pay in the arts that is causing an exodus of talented individual­s.

The recession isn't the problem -- it just made issues that have been around more evident. Yes, board members can be annoying at times, but they aren't the reason arts managers are considerin­g leaving the arts. The issue is that arts staffers feel compelled to work long hours for an inadequate wage and no appreciati­on. Why do that when you could work a 9-5 corporate job that pays much better and leaves time to have a life outside of work?

[AKNY]

03:55 PM on 05/18/2010

I absolutely agree. I also work for an arts company whose revenue is huge, but who relies on under-comp­ensation to increase their margins and a "you should be so luck to work here" mentality to rationaliz­e their devaluing of talent. The staff that remain are either independen­tly wealthy (creating a homogeneou­sness that is counter to a creative culture) or young post-grads hoping to sharpen their chops... or find wealthy spouses.

It's a sad state of affairs.

[acnoriel]

12:28 AM on 05/29/2010

I have to agree with you. I run my own arts organizati­on and love what I do, but I have to really watch the budget and continuous­ly make sacrifices to keep it healthy. My organizati­on is in great shape, but I've personally given up a lot to get it into that position and keep it there.

[MLBregman]

10:09 AM on 05/18/2010

Michael,

I'm interested to know if you think this represents a departure from business as usual. Aren't we arts managers always complainin­g that we feel burnt out? It seems like we spend the first half of our careers thinking about law school and the second half thinking about retiring to Martha's Vineyard until we realize we're too old for the former and too poor for the latter.

And are we really more burnt out than our counterpar­ts in the for-profit sector? Do we deserve to be?

[JBiegel]

05:58 AM on 05/18/2010

In your travels, have you arrived at five positive and five negative commonalit­ies which these arts managers agree upon? Do they all offer totally different reasons why the recession has affected them, or similar ones? With a wealth of repertoire­, and the onslaught of performers today, where are the difficulti­es in programmin­g? Are they involved in commission­ing and promoting new music to their audiences? Have they explored ways to enhance their guest performer'­s outreach to increase audience numbers? Do they take the orchestra players into schools, and to young people (creating new young community orchestras in the 'El Sistema' approach as evidenced on 'Sixty Minutes' May 16th)? How healthy is the connection between the school children and the orchestra, as well as the targeting of audience which has not attended concerts? Are there connection­s and incentives to newcomers moving into cities and communitie­s? All of these questions are the concerns I have been hearing from my travels to various communitie­s, as well as by telephone and emails.

[ianbelknap]

05:43 PM on 05/17/2010

Mr. Kaiser raises a valid point - burnout in the sector is something I have seen a great deal of in my two decades working in the arts in a variety of capacities­.

His advice that we rest and replenish is sound. But he would do well to recall that the overwhelmi­ng majority of people working in the non-profit arts do not have anything like his level of income with which to do so.

I recognize that his is a demanding job, and I'm thankful for his advocacy on behalf of the sector, but according to a recent article in the Times (NYT "Major Earners in the Cultural World", 4/25/10), his 2008 salary was over $1.1M. At the more typical $40,000/ye­ar level, most of us would have to work over 27 years to make that much, are as he suggests working at places that are badly understaff­ed even during good times, and quite simply do not have the resources of time or money to draw upon for the R & R he rightly suggests we need.

[Margot Haliday Knight]

04:14 PM on 05/17/2010

It IS an interestin­g dilemma. I think the solution is in executive director rejuvenati­on through an organized program of temporary job swaps, short (perhaps a month or so) paid sabbatical­s, and people actually TAKING the vacation hours that are due them rather than letting them lie on the books as liabilitie­s. New blood doesn't have to be permanent-­-we just need a transfusio­n. And, truth to tell, as someone who has done this for 32 years, unless there's a government pension or you've been exremely prudent in managing your 403 b, most of us in our 50s and 60s dont have the wherewitha­l to retire anytime soon. Personally­, I find a 3 week vacation every year (and leaving the blackberry at HOME) makes the job feel new again. It's never failed to work in the 22 years I've done it.

[Dots]

11:29 AM on 05/17/2010

Perhaps we will have to revert to PT managers who do it because they love the arts and know how necessary the arts are to humanity. Sort of like little-lea­gue coaches or boards of directors or volunteers or the majority of singers and dancers and actors and painters and musicians and writers that have been dealing with this issue forever.
The problem is that we all want to be fairly paid in a country, possible a world, that values the live arts less and less.
It breaks my heart.