There seems to be a rumbling about arts marketing lately. There are people that believe that artists and arts organizations need to step up their game or hire someone else that has more experience.
Here is the latest of the rumblings:
Cincinnati Art Museum makes cuts
The Cincinnati Art Museum recently eliminated its design team, instead opting to use a Cincinnati marketing and design company to complete its projects.
Yes, this is one way to change and step up in the game of arts marketing, that is if the company that is hired is truly a player. However, there is another way that will allow arts folks to keep their jobs. It’s called education!
There are many ways an arts administrator, arts marketer, etc., can obtain education. I see a variety of workshops, classes, and seminars that are being offered to get you started. I also know of some fantastic consultants (wink) that can teach you how to build your audiences and market more effectively.
It saddens me that the people that are truly dedicated to the arts are being cut in favor of bigger corporate companies that are paid well to get the job done. Except in cases where the employee is a complete yahoo, there seems to be a disconnect between wanting results and being loyal to the people that you employ. You can have both.
Wouldn’t it be better if education was supplied to help these dedicated individuals flourish and get them up to speed instead of skinning a bunch of cats in favor of spending more money with a big corporate firm?
You may get results going with those big corporate firms, yet you might be hurting our industry by not investing those dollars in the people that care more about the arts in the first place. Remember, these are the people that took the jobs despite the decreased nonprofit salaries.
You would also be helping all the educators, consultants and arts agencies that are supplying this form of education. It’s time to start helping the people in our own industry to get the results we want. Wouldn’t it be best to support our own while we help ourselves?
Cheers to happy and loyal audiences,
Shoshana
Shoshana Fanizza
Audience Development Specialists
https://www.buildmyaudience.com
“Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.”
~James Stewart
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[…] There seems to be a rumbling about arts marketing lately. There are people that believe that artists and arts organizations need to step up their game or hire someone else that has more experience. […]