All arts staffers and boards should read this

I'm not a huge fan of the Huffington Post - Arianna being so big on not paying writers - but if you're in the arts business, especially the non-profit world, you should read Michael Kaiser's "Arts in Crisis" blog post and the comments it has drawn. Kaiser is President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His claim of only a 6 percent drop in arts funding seems small. But his points are good, even if he says "viscous" when he means "vicious." In a nutshell: "And what creates revenue for an arts organization? Good art supported by strong marketing. ... Cutting programming and marketing, the current favored strategy, therefore, ensures that future revenue will fall." Commenters seem to have a lot of experience on both sides of the question: "My position grew to include all bookkeeping and accounting, budgeting, graphic design and public relations, gallery management for three galleries, grants administration, human resources, fundraising, special events, arts education, a film series and facilities management. I was working 70-80 hours every week, made $40,000 a year, with no benefits." Yikes.

Thanks to the @amrep twitter feed for the tip.

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[emerald1970]

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