My New Year's Resolutions

This is the season to make resolutions for the coming year. Here are mine:

1. I resolve to work diligently to ensure that Any Given Child, the Kennedy Center's new approach to providing coherent and consistent arts education in public schools, grows from a pilot project into a fully-developed national program. We are testing this program in four cities and have invitations to begin work in 40 more communities. I am convinced that if we proceed intelligently, we can create a far more robust arts education system for our children. I will find the resources to fund a sustainable expansion of this program.

2. I resolve to maintain boldness in the artistic choices I make for the Kennedy Center. While there is pressure to program conservatively to maximize ticket income and contributions, I know that if I get too conservative I will bore my audience and my donors. I resolve to surprise my audience when I announce each coming season.

3. I resolve to find a way to bring more 20 year olds into the arts. We have a generation of young people who have not had arts education in their schooling. They believe the arts are "not for them." If we don't do remedial work to interest them in the arts, we may not have the ticket buyers, donors, volunteers and board members we need 20 years from now.

4. I resolve to bring our arts management training to more of the world. The entire world of the arts is threatened by an absence of strong arts leaders. Particularly in foreign countries where governments are cutting their funding, sometimes substantially, arts managers are desperate for ideas to generate new sources of revenue. I have been teaching abroad for many years and have created an international fellows program, but I need to do more. I will begin with a teaching tour to five African countries in February.

5. At the same time, I believe we must work to improve access to the arts in rural American communities. I learned on my national tour that there is tremendous interest in the arts in every community in this country. We need to ensure that the arts are not just available to urban dwellers. Those organizations that service rural communities need support and training. And we need to study how technology can play a bigger role in helping bring arts and arts education to all Americans. I resolve to work with the staff of the Kennedy Center on this important issue.

6. Speaking of technology, we must make sure that we develop techniques for using it to improve arts knowledge, reach more people, diversify our audiences and reduce the cost of programmatic marketing -- the marketing we do to sell tickets. I believe we have only scratched the surface in the use of the internet and other technologies. I resolve to devote time towards working with those with far more knowledge than I have about ways to use these technologies to advance our work.

It will be a busy year!

 

Comments

[whaat]

07:46 AM on 01/01/2011

Interesting that he left out any mention of the CREATORS of art.

[whaat]

07:41 AM on 01/01/2011

all of these resolutions focus on art jobs - WHAT ABOUT THE CREATORS OF ART
.-
--we can create a far more robust arts education system for our children.
-I resolve to surprise my audience when I announce each coming season.
-we may not have the ticket buyers, donors, volunteers and board members we need 20 years from now.
-I resolve to bring our arts management training to more of the world.
study how technology can play a bigger role in helping bring arts and arts education to all Americans.
etc. etc.

So where is any support or concern about the CREATION OF ART and THOSE WHO CREATE ART. The business of art has taken over - we need to develop respect for the artists instead of listening to those who collect their regular checks who condemn artist to live on the fringe - UNLESS they can be controlled by these "art jobbers"

[LindaInPhoenix]

05:59 PM on 12/28/2010

Kaiser's resolutions are inspiring -- most especially because they are doable while also being ambitious. See my extended comment at http://blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/2010/12/28/michael-kaisers-new-years-resolutions/

[eric14]

05:18 PM on 12/28/2010

There is a great deal of less famous, less often played music in the classical repertoire. And amongst that music are pieces for one or two instruments.

Creating informal, intimate performance spaces for ''The Rarely Played'' (solos and duets, some trios) might attract younger audiences. Especially if the pieces are romantic and lyrical.

Lunch-time, early evening, late night, short concerts might work well.

There needs to be a readiness to deliver what is wanted.

People wanted to talk while listening to jazz. Musicians got uppity and amplified and jazz audiences crashed. Not entirely true but there is a moral there. How much are you willing to concede to build a new audience?

[thebigbike]

05:07 PM on 12/28/2010

Your concept of "arts" sounds suspiciously restricted to "conservatory" arts; classical music, opera and ballet. If they require a conservatory to survive, (as enormously expensive as they mostly are - see the recent LA Opera Ring cycle at how many 10'a of MILLIONS of dollars to produce, to bring in ticket money of? enough to recoup that? , if they cannot be supported by those who value them most (largely the rich, with a significant impetus of augmenting social status within their social group), then, one wonders why they "should" survive at taxpayer expense. Arts education? great! , and by all means include the conservatory arts.. but by no means are they the be-all and end-all of "arts"

[Susan Dormady Eisenberg]

04:30 PM on 12/27/2010

I am so glad you've decided to focus on #3, bringing more 20 year olds into the arts. As a frequent patron of the Kennedy Center, I've noticed very few operagoers under the age of 50 and was surprised to see so few young people at the rock musical HAIR. I despair for the future of opera, theater, and ballet if the younger generation doesn't start buying tickets.

[clairelillianallen]

12:38 PM on 12/27/2010

Here's a suggestion for the 20-somethings: Student tickets to NSO performances. Many orchestras offer $10 and $15 tickets to students with an ID. Otherwise, those of us in college (especially in the arts) just can't afford to go to concerts (especially when parking costs $20).

[RitaNSO]

09:29 AM on 01/04/2011

Hello - The National Symphony does indeed offer $10 student tickets to many of our performances through the Kennedy Center's Attend Program.
Hope you come hear the NSO often!

Rita Shapiro, Executive Director

http://www.kennedy-center.org/tickets/attend/

[Rodney Punt]

10:10 AM on 12/27/2010

The successful arts companies now see arts education as an essential component of their programs. It's no longer just an add-on for the kiddies. Most Americans today do not have even the general knowledge of cultural history that our parents enjoyed, for a variety of reasons, but for starters we can cite public education's funding crisis and the social revolution of the 1960's that substituted popular culture for classic culture once and for all. So arts organizations have to almost go it alone. Amazingly, many are doing a terrific job. It's good to see the Kennedy Center taking a lead in stimulating public school arts education again. I like your other fine goals as well.