{"id":5121,"date":"2010-07-29T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T07:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=5121"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:27:24","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:27:24","slug":"not-cut-and-dried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/29\/not-cut-and-dried\/","title":{"rendered":"not cut and dried"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have taken quite a bit of time thinking about the question of whether or not cutting arts organization budgets is a good way to their improved health.\u00a0 It’s a complicated question, one that the best minds in the industry can spend time arguing over ad infinitum<\/em>.\u00a0 I’ve come to the conclusion that cost-cutting is analogous to the geometric relationship of squares to rectangles:\u00a0 All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares<\/em>.\u00a0 Therefore: All cuts may save money, but not all cuts may help improve revenues. <\/em>You can cut costs, but that only trims one side of the balance sheet.\u00a0 It doesn’t improve your revenue, it just makes it appear better because the costs it is balanced against appear smaller.<\/p>\n

It’s also helpful to know how the public (both the foundation\/donor subset and the general public at large) will perceive the cost cutting measures.\u00a0 If the cuts make basic sense, in the greater scheme of improving the health and efficiency of the organization, then that can be a good public relations boon for the organization.\u00a0 Cuts as a comprehensive and far-reaching plan are generally perceived as a good thing.\u00a0 Cuts for their own sake are often seen as desperate acts by an organization on the brink of collapse.\u00a0 Look at Honolulu and Charleston for good examples of how not to make cuts. UPDATE: and now look at what is being asked of the musicians in Detroit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What you cut is almost as important as how much you cut.\u00a0 If you take a look at your organization’s offerings and decide that you’re competing too much with yourself, then pruning out less successful and redundant programs can make what’s left over more attractive to prospective patrons.\u00a0 In addition, cutting selected repeats to create more ticket scarcity might help to create a healthy demand for the remaining performances.\u00a0 This has to be done with care, however, as it tends to be (along with salary and health care benefit cuts) very alarming to the musicians or artists of the organization (see Sam Bergman’s quote in yesterday’s post<\/a>).\u00a0 For example, cutting all pops programming because “the audience is all dying anyway” is catastrophic cutting, whereas searching for the audience that we most want to develop and then catering to them within the general pops genre is the better route, though possibly more expensive and time consuming. The difference is what you or I might do to our prized Japanese maple tree if we just randomly hack off stray limbs instead of hiring a skilled arborist to perform careful pruning to make the tree more healthy.<\/p>\n

I think that the point Michael Kaiser is making is more complex than it has been portrayed by most journalists.\u00a0 I think he’s against dumb, short-sighted management.\u00a0 To manage effectively, you’ve got to develop a plan, then do what needs to be done in order to effect the plan.\u00a0 You need to realize that selectively cutting expenses can make room for careful expansion or experimentation.\u00a0 Being conservative doesn’t always mean you’re being safe – it can just mean that you’re scared, or incompetent.\u00a0 The best managers seem to have dozens of balls in the air at once, and everything is a balancing act – and not just an act of balancing the budget.\u00a0 Even if they don’t have a clear vision of the future of the organization, they do have a clear vision of where they don’t want it to end up.\u00a0 That’s what has been sadly lacking in arts organizations over the years, especially in Portland.\u00a0 We are fortunate that here in 2010, we have our major arts organizations run by very competent professionals who not only compete for donor dollars, but also collaborate in ways to improve everyone’s lot – just as they should in such a close-knit artistic community.<\/p>\n

As the African proverb goes: Knowledge without wisdom is like water in the sand.<\/em><\/p>\n

Questions? Comments?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have taken quite a bit of time thinking about the question of whether or not cutting arts organization budgets is a good way to their improved health.\u00a0 It’s a complicated question, one that the best minds in the industry can spend time arguing over ad infinitum.\u00a0 I’ve come to the conclusion that cost-cutting is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1783,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administration-the-orchestra-world-music","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1kB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5117,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/28\/to-cut-or-not-to-cut-that-is-the-question\/","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":0},"title":"to cut, or not to cut, that is the question","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It shows how quickly the blog-based news cycle moves, that I delay a response to something I've read and I'm beat to my reply by a fellow violist (or as Robert Levine would put it: Bratsche Blogging Brother) in Minneapolis! David Stabler wrote an article on July 25 in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/saw.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":866,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/20\/communities-boards-orchestras\/","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":1},"title":"communities, boards, and orchestras","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As I write this, there are two orchestras in the U.S. which are currently facing an existential crisis. The Columbus Symphony and the Shreveport Symphony are both facing cuts which will forever alter how they function, sound, raise money, and basically exist. Over the past week, two fellow violists\/bloggers have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":305,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/01\/music-is-useful\/","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":2},"title":"music *is* useful","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A Scottish father and son team of musicians (and the father was also a former codebreaker for the British government) have seemingly unlocked a mysterious musical code carved in the ceiling of Rosslyn Chapel, which was featured prominently in the blockbuster book and movie \"The DaVinci Code\". The carvings on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2565,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/21\/more-cuts-as-orchestras-attempt-to-stabilize\/","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":3},"title":"more cuts as orchestras attempt to stabilize","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's some more news from around the orchestra world as organizations attempt to stem the tide of red ink as contributed and earned income continue to fall across the nation: Phoenix cuts all salaries 17% across the board. Charlotte gets arts funding cut 50%, told to improve financial plan. Chicago\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fundraising"","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8086,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/12\/11\/michael-kaiser-cutting-is-not-the-answer\/","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":4},"title":"michael kaiser: cutting is not the answer","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Kaiser has a new column entry for the Huffington Post today - here's the gist of it: Too many of our great arts institutions have migrated from the typical challenge of balancing the annual budget to a far deeper evaluation of their very viability. Earned income has failed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2298,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/06\/obt-pit-goes-dark\/","url_meta":{"origin":5121,"position":5},"title":"OBT pit goes dark","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's Oregonian: In yet another round of bad news for Portland's arts scene, Oregon Ballet Theatre is cutting its budget 28 percent. The ballet will go on. Just don't expect a live orchestra at any OBT performances or quite as many dancers on stage next season. Approved by OBT's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dance"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/dance\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}