For the next few months, we will be using the alphabet as a novel way to unpack the many concepts of arts administration. Please join in. Thank you to the following arts administrators for adding ideas to the project:

• Ashley Thorndike-Youssef, Now Next Dance
• Fernando Maneca, BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange
• Hillary Kooistra, Abraham.In.Motion
• Kathryn Humphreys, Hubbard Street Chicago
• Katie Kruger, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center
• Liz Hitchcock Lisle, Shotgun Players
• Rebecca A. Ferrell, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Sarah Crowell, Destiny Arts Center
• Tammy Cheney, Lines Ballet

Arts administration relates to work at dance centers, arts councils, arts education programs, companies, and college programs. Please read on to explore the many and varied topics within arts administration. Please feel free to add ideas and links in the comments section below.

The Letter A:

• Advertising
• Advisory Committee/Advisory Board
  
• Advocacy
• AEP Email List
  
• Alumni
• Artist Services vs Serving Artists
  
• Artists
  
• Arts Administration Masters Degree Programs
  
• ArtsEdSearch
  
• Assessment
• Audiences
  

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Let's unpack, consider, and reflect upon each one of these words. Even before reading further, you might want to take the list of 11 ideas here and simply journal for your organization. What do these words and phrases mean to you at your site – artist services, assessment, and alumni, for example?

Advertising

Advertising….for what, and targeted towards whom? Newspaper ads, Facebook promotions, ads in dance concert programs. Are you paying for the ads or bartering a trade? Ultimately – what is the purpose for the ads (more students, more visibility in the community, more ticket sales)?

If you could trade ad space with three others arts organizations in your community, who would they be?

And, does a robust presence on Facebook eliminate the need for more traditional advertising?

Advisory Committee/Advisory Board

As Fernando Maneca of the Brooklyn Arts Exchange added, "Look for people who can help with knowledge and skill gaps." You've got your Board of Directors….now, could an advisory committee help widen your circle of support and connections? Maybe you connect with this group of people 1-3 times a year over coffee or email. Advisory people are important to have in your network for needs and opportunities as they arise. Here are a few examples of Advisory Committees:

Kate Weare Company:

Board of Directors

• David Stein, President
• John Goldman, Treasurer
• Keira Chang, Secretary & Executive Director
• Kate Weare, Artistic Director
• Karen Brumer
• Kurt Perschke

Advisory Board

• Jeanne Collins
• John Elderfield

Now Next Dance:

Board of Directors

• Kim Roberts
• Melissa Glynn
• Katherine Silverthorne
• Colette Coleman
• Ashley Thorndike-Youssef

Advisory Board

• Annie Kloppenberg
• Jill Homan Randall
• Mandy Salva
• Lise Worthen-Chaudhari

Advocacy

Advocacy…..advocating for funding in general, keeping funding, more funding…advocating for your organization within the community. Advocating for your program when the Board of Directors will be making program cuts….

Advocacy should be a regular and yearly, if not monthly, action within the life of an arts administrator. And whether the advocacy is for your specific organization, or the field in general, this is a valuable muscle to regularly flex.

Here is a recent blog post about advocacy in K-12 schools. Many ideas can be applied in a variety of settings. Click here.

AEP Email List

If not familiar with the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), check out its site for valuable research and an email list to join. The email shares research information, upcoming conferences, funding opportunities, and job openings around the country in arts and education.

http://www.aep-arts.org/

Alumni

What is the role of alumni within your organization? Donors, students, advocates? Do you have a way to regularly communicate with them through an email list or Facebook Group?

Can you loop students back in as interns, teaching assistants, employees, board members, and donors? Firsthand, personal, and embodied experience with an organization is invaluable.

Artist Services vs Serving Artists

This is a great question to consider: "Are you serving artists through your work, or offering artist services?" What do the two phrases mean to you?

Looking at an organization like the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, they offer artists:

Subsidized rehearsal space, artist residencies, space grants, the Upstart Festival for emerging choreographers, subsidized theater rentals for self-productions, a season of cutting-edge performance, resources, workshops and classes.*

*Information pulled from: http://artistservices.bax.org/

Read more about Dancers' Group in the SF Bay Area and its 14 artist resources. Click here.

Fiscal sponsorship is a key artist service. Read a prior blog post on the topic here.

Artists

"Arts administration"……"teaching artists"…..it is essential to keep the art – and artists – central to our work. As administrators, we all know too well that days and weeks can pass simply mired in details, financials, and the business end of our organizations. We have to keep coming back to our mission statements and our essential beliefs about art, artists, performance, and arts education…..

Read here as 4 arts administrators share about "administration as a creative endeavor:"

http://blog.lifeasamoderndancer.com/2016/12/arts-administration-as-a-creative-endeavor.html

Arts Administration Masters Degree Programs

More opportunities are presenting themselves to study arts administration at colleges and universities. Goucher College in Maryland offers a low-residency MA. Drexel University in Philadelphia offers an online program.

ArtsEdSearch

As stated on the AEP website, "ArtsEdSearch.org is the nation’s first online research and policy clearinghouse focused entirely on student and educator outcomes associated with arts learning in and out of school."

http://www.artsedsearch.org/

Assessment

On the topic of assessment, I went back to a section in the book The Teaching Artist Sutras by Michael Wiggins. I respectfully quote Wiggins here from pages 92 and 93:

The different between Assessment and Evaluation is like the difference between the raw and the cooked.

Assessment is a process.

To assess a student, observe them and help them improve.

Evaluation is a concluding event.

Assessment, self-assessment, community needs assessment – so many ways to look, consider, and then act.

Audiences

Here are four prior blog posts covering various angles on this big subject:

On the Subject of Your Audience – By Kathy Dunn Hamrick

Expanding Your Audience

Making Dance and Giving It Away: Cid Pearlman Performance’s Year of Free

Questions We Ask Ourselves: For Choreographers and Perfomers

Kathryn Humphreys of Hubbard Street Chicago added into this arts administration dialogue, thinking about "audience" and the ideas of: determining your audience, evaluating your audience, and doing mission based work – whether with professional performances for adults or kid-friendly school programming. Michael M. Kaiser's book The Cycle extensively considers these questions and is an invaluable read for all arts administrators.

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