Found a great comment on censorship tonight by one of my favorite authors, Philip Pullman.
He observes:
“The inevitable result of trying to ban something – book, film, play, pop song, whatever – is that far more people want to get hold of it than would ever have done if it were left alone. Why don’t the censors realise this?” (The spelling of realize is correct - it was printed in a British newspaper)
What do you think?
I just want to take a minute of your time to plug a really great organization that has helped hundreds of artists get their $*&# together in terms of their career. And, it basically has the best name of any organization out there… Getting Your Sh*t Together!
Getting Your Sh*t Together (GYST) is an artist-run company that applies the creativity of an artist’s mind to the complex and daunting world of professional practices in contemporary art. Their mission is to support artists and arts organizations with an integrated mix of software, services, and information in order to keep artists working. Founded in 2000 by Karen Atkinson — a media, installation, public artist, independent curator, and CalArts professor — as a software company, GYST’s products and services include professional practices software, a newsletter, workshops, artist resume and statement review, archiving, and consulting services.
Written for visual artists by visual artists, the dynamic new GYST v.2.8 software manages all the business-related paperwork for your art career, and comes complete with tons of educational and information resources, too. The software easily lets you keep track of your art, exhibition history, prices, sales, invoices, budgets, and your artist statements, resumes, proposals and research notes. It also has a powerful inventory management system integrated with your contacts and mailing lists. With all this great information in one place you can easily keep your sh*t together.
But the software doesn’t stop there. It also includes the ability to create exhibition checklists, budgets, to do lists and will guide you through writing a grant or proposal with detailed instructions. Finally, there are over 300 pages of information artists need to know including how to secure exhibition spaces, negotiate contracts, file taxes, and plan for retirement. GYST 2.8 is also packed with hundreds of helpful web links, suggested readings, and more. GYST 2.8 is available online at www.gyst-ink.com/products.
And Fractured Atlas members are eligible for a $20 discount on GYST software through their website: http://www.gyst-ink.com/buy/buyonline.php. If you are a member, please go here to get the discount code!
“…the process itself is more important than the plan.”
- Jeffery Timmons, New Venture Creation
One of the key objectives for our professional development program is to help artists achieve success through manageable, persistent, strategic and consistent action; without sacrificing their spirit. Basically, we want to help you learn how to design a strategic plan for your career or organization and encourage you to implement it effectively.
WHY?
Without directions the journey seems overwhelmingly long and impossibly difficult, but with directions the journey seems realistic and achievable. Research shows, the very process of designing a strategic plan for your business is highly motivating. It puts you in charge of shaping your future, evaluating your choices, and initiating fruitful actions. The plan gives you a clear path to your long-term goals that is paved with actionable short-term goals.
Additionally, a strategic plan helps you manage risks and uncertainty, work smarter not harder, test your thinking, achieve results, manage stress, and understand the costs and benefits (both monetary and non-monetary). Also, you can temper impulsive hunches with a thoroughly researched understanding of consequences, make educated decisions, and limit trial by error. It helps you say “no” to distracting opportunities that often slow or halt progress. And if you decide to say “yes” to non-strategic expenses of your time, energy, and resources; you can do so with a clear understanding of the opportunity cost…of what you are sacrificing.
“Medèn ágan”
- Ancient Greek maxim (written in Latin)
This ancient Greek saying, carved on the pediment of the temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece, literally translates into “Nothing in excess.” I caution any artist or arts manager to take heed when engaged in the strategic planning process. A plan is NOT A RIGID DOCUMENT; it is only a point of departure that MUST ADJUST as you attend to the unknown obstacles and opportunities that will inevitably emerge on your journey.
Common pitfalls in strategic planning involve letting the plan become:
The journey from idea to high potential opportunity requires navigating an undulating, constantly changing, three-dimensional relief map while inventing the vehicle and road map along the way.
-Jeffery Timmons, New Venture Creation
Again, you must accept that the plan (as written) will likely fail, because these fast paced times make it obsolete as soon as it comes off the printer. However, you can succeed if you take the time to go through the planning process:
A strategic plan will get you started, be a tool to measure progress/opportunities, and act as a battle plan for mitigating risk and overcoming obstacles. Just be sure to adjust the plan as needed.
Finally, taking the time to do a strategic plan is an investment in sustaining a lifelong passion, rather than a short-term fling, with the arts.
Fractured U. will be offering online courses in strategic planning and many related subjects. However, if you need any assistance prior to the Fractured U. launch, please feel free to contact me at kamal.sinclair@fracturedatlas.org.
Arwen Lowbridge, Adam Natale, and I are in Los Angeles this week. We’re meeting with LA artists, service organizations, and others in an effort to gather information about the LA arts community’s needs. If you’re in town, feel free to drop me a line at adam [dot] huttler [at] fracturedatlas [dot] org.
Name: Jari Chevalier
Websites: http://jariart.com, http://livinghero.com, http://jariscope.com
Hometown: New York, NY
Artistic Disciplines: Visual art, writing
Fractured Atlas Member Since: Spring 2008
Fractured Atlas Service Used: Fiscal Sponsorship
Jari Chevalier is a mixed media artist and writer whose current visual work integrates the mysteries of the human body with cosmological and deep sea imagery, conjuring eerie narrative landscapes. Her influences include Eastern philosophy and advances in science, as well as her travel within Asia and background in poetry. Her solo exhibition “Mathematics of Ecstasy” is scheduled at seven venues in North Dakota during the 2008-2009 season.
We asked Jari to tell us about her influences and experiences…
How did you find out about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to join?
“I created an integrative exercise DVD that was videotaped by Randi Cecchine, a New York artist who makes independent films. At one of Randi’s fund-raising parties last year, I made out a check to Fractured Atlas in support of a Cecchine project.
I then joined Fractured Atlas to organize fund-raising for my own project. The Fractured Atlas system is fast, professional, and reasonably priced. I am an emerging solo artist with the need to raise cash fast, in order to take advantage of immediate and near-term opportunities. Fractured Atlas has provided answers to pressing problems and enabled donors to make tax-deductible contributions to my project.
The funding I’ve received so far has enabled me to update my website and purchase materials for continuing current studio projects, while I move forward to raise funds for a perfect-bound ‘Mathematics of Ecstasy’ show catalogue.”
What/who are your biggest influences?
“Visual Art: Anselm Kiefer, Tim Hawkinson, Elizabeth Murray, Matthew Ritchie, Lee Bontecou, Helen Frankenthaler, Fred Tomaselli and Barbara Takenaga. Literature: Kafka, Beckett, Henry James, William Matthews. Thought/Spirit: J. Krishnamurti, Vipassana practice and study of Buddhist psychology, quantum physics, shamanic vision. Music: Steve Reich, Bobby McFerrin. Overall: Loved ones, India, Japan.”
What have been your greatest successes to date?
“Integrative breakthroughs in consciousness and intuitive knowing. Development of patience, empathy, open-minded courage. Release of old patterns of thinking and feeling. Developing the aptitude for synthesis of multidisciplinary study, international travel, and rich life experiences into original metaphorical languages. Recognition of these inner successes through poems published in international journals, serving as a contributing editor for the literary magazine Barrow Street, and creating a solo touring museum exhibition of 25 works within five years of embarking on visual art-making.”
Finish this sentence: the artist’s role in society is . . .
“…to cut new pathways of perception; to venture into psychic wilderness; to provide antidotes to all that anesthetizes people; to create new rhythms and synapses; to crystalize and clarify; to share insight, wisdom, aesthetic pleasure, joy; to invent new codes for our tragicomic follies and the brave, enduring enterprise of life; to pass these codes on to our comrades of the future.”
How can we see, experience, or learn more about your work?
“My current work, exhibition schedule, and contact information is found at http://jariart.com. For my writings and teachings, visit http://livinghero.com (podcast page—interviews with living luminaries and mavericks) and http://jariscope.com (blog page—essays and podcast posts in a chronology).”
In case you haven’t heard, we are having a party tonight to celebrate our first decade and you are invited!
Some have wondered what kind of attire would be appropriate - around the office, we like to use the phrases “funky cocktail” and/or “bohemian chic”. If this inspires you, great. If it terrifies you, just wear something that makes you feel comfortable. If it makes you confused, these photos from our 2007 Benefit should help.
I’d also like to shout out to the FABULOUS companies who all donated something for this event.
Big ole’ thanks to Crumpler, Chubb, The Hartford, Philadelphia Insurance Company, Levitate Yoga, The Brooklyn Kitchen, Powerhouse Books, Threadless, and Babycakes NYC - we couldn’t have done it without you!
Here is how to find Galapagos Art Space and the party runs from 8pm - 11pm.
FYI: Galapagos just announced an amazing residency exchange program called Natural Selection: Artists in Residence. If you have any interest in an opportunity to work overseas in Switzerland, investigate now - the deadline is October 1st!
There’s a great case study in the current issue of CultureWork titled “How Can Arts Leaders Play an Active Role in Cultural Planning Initiatives in Their Local Communities?” Tina Rinaldi recounts her experience being tapped to Chair a Mayor’s Cultural Policy Review Committee in Eugene, OR. Among her insights:
After participating in the Cultural Policy Review, I believe strongly that arts leaders who want to play an active role in cultural planning must lead beyond the direct needs of and benefits to their organization’s narrow interests. In order to do this, arts leaders must understand and engage with the broader political and economic landscape in which they operate.
Nothing earth-shattering there, but a nice reminder nonetheless.
I’ve often argued that the traditional non-profit model discourages necessary risk-taking. It does this for a few reasons:
1) Employees can’t own stock, so they don’t benefit from financial success. Yet they’re still vulnerable to financial failures (i.e. they can lose their jobs or suffer career setbacks). To a lesser extent, the same is true for non-profit Board members. When someone’s got no stake in the upside but is still exposed on the downside, the rational response is extreme conservatism.
2) The culture of the non-profit sector is such that managers go to absurd, herculean efforts to avoid admitting failure, mostly in an effort not to embarrass themselves in front of funders.
3) Non-profit organizations are chronically under-capitalized. By failing to build reserves or hoard surpluses, we end up in a situation where each budget is a tightrope. A single serious misstep is enough to pose an existential threat to the organization.
So, if the non-profit sector is going to get more comfortable with risk, it needs to start acting more like the for-profit sector, right? It’s true that for-profit businesses rarely experience any of these problems. Unfortunately, they tend to swing too far in the exact opposite direction.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave (yes, your art studio counts), you’re aware of what’s going on with the financial markets. Huge, venerable institutions are collapsing (Lehman Brothers), teetering on the brink getting bailed out by taxpayers (AIG), or being sold for a fraction of their recent valuations (Merrill Lynch). A significant contributing factor to this mess is the fact that free-market capitalism - for which I am generally a sincere cheerleader - actually encourages excessive risk-taking. The reasons for this are a mirror image of those I listed above:
1) Companies “incentivize” their employees by granting stock options. The nature of an options contract is that it magnifies the gains from a stock’s upward movement but becomes worthless long before the stock itself does. Here’s how it works:
Let’s say your company’s stock is at 100 and you’ve got an option to buy stock at 105. Until that stock reaches 105, your option isn’t worth much. When the stock hits 106, it’s worth roughly $1/share. At 115, it’s worth $10/share. Etc. Now, imagine you’ve got to choose whether or not to take on a risky project with a 50/50 chance of success. If it succeeds, your company’s stock will go to 110. If it fails, your company’s stock will go to 60. If you’re a shareholder, this is a terrible deal: heads you win $10, tails you lose $40. But for the employee holding the options contract, it’s a golden opportunity: heads you win $5, tails you lose $0.
This is obviously a greatly simplified example, but you get the point. Options grants encourage employees to take big risks that aren’t necessarily in the best interests of the company’s shareholders.
2) Executives of publicly traded companies are equally eager to avoid admitting failure, but it has the opposite effect as in the non-profit sector. For a publicly traded company, the critical time not to screw up is in your quarterly earnings report. Wall St. is ruthlessly impatient. The markets rarely are willing to wait for long-term investments to pay off. Rather, they focus almost exclusively on a) earnings per share in the last three months and b) predicted earnings per share in the next three months. Miss your estimate and your stock price gets clobbered. Beat your estimate and it soars. This pressurized environment acts as an amplifier for the misaligned incentives in point #1.
3) The sophisticated capital markets that large corporations can access mean that companies can tap essentially unlimited resources. This was a huge part of the problems we’re seeing in the current crisis. Companies like Lehman and Merrill were leveraged up the wazoo, effectively investing $30-40 of borrowed money for each $1 of collateral assets. As long as those investments keep going up, profits are multiplied many times over. But as soon as they start to fall, the proverbial house of cards collapses. Under-capitalization is obviously a factor here, but in a very different form than afflicts the non-profit sector.
In both cases, the essential dysfunction comes down to what’s known as the “agency problem“. The term refers to a category of conflicts of interest that arise between management and other stakeholders. These conflicts most often occur when incentives are misaligned or when management has access to information that isn’t available to shareholders, Board members, creditors, etc.
The main mechanism for addressing these problems in the for-profit world is government regulation. We’re going to hear a lot about this over the coming weeks, as the feds debate what kinds of new rules need to be imposed on Wall Street. In theory, such regulations are designed to mitigate the agency problem and protect shareholders, customers, etc. from excessive risk.
There’s no such easy solution on the non-profit side. You can’t force non-profit managers to acquire stiffer backbones by government fiat. However, you can tap into our tendency to dance shamelessly to the tune of our funders. Any meaningful shift in the non-profit sector’s culture of risk must therefore begin with a shift in strategy from our leading philanthropists.
I was at an event a few years ago with a bunch of peers from the arts service community, including Ben Cameron, who was then head of Theatre Communications Group but is now the Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Ben observed that, for the most part, arts funders were acting like consumers rather than investors. His point was that most funders focused on short-term, narrowly defined, project-based support, instead of identifying important organizations doing exciting work and providing the financial resources for them to leverage their native strengths over the long-term.
If our biggest foundations could break the habit of cautiously supporting tiny, specific aspects of an organization’s activities and begin ensuring sufficient capitalization and providing multi-year general operating support, we’d go a long way towards fixing at least 2 of the problems I identified at the beginning of this post. (The good news is that I’m starting to see a few moves in this direction, but that’s a subject for another post…)
The issue of incentivizing employees and Board members by ensuring that they benefit when the organization thrives is a lot trickier. IRS rules prevent “private inurement” from contributions given to a 501(c)(3), so any kind of explicit sharing of a revenue surplus would be illegal. At Fractured Atlas we’ve tried to work around that limitation by awarding annual performance-based group bonuses that, while meager by Wall Street standards, are meatier than at any other small non-profit I know.
Bonuses help, but they’re not a panacea. That’s partly because non-profit employees tend to be motivated by largely non-financial factors (e.g. belief in the organization’s mission, aesthetic appreciation of its work, etc.). Harnessing those passions in a way that encourages responsible risk-taking is difficult but potentially powerful.
Measurement is one tool. To the extent that you can quantify “mission return on investment” (whatever that means) and make that transparent throughout the organization, people become more likely to appreciate the “upside” of a given project or decision.
Culture remains the most important factor, though. We need to constantly remind each other that it’s okay to fail. In fact, if you’ve never suffered a complete, humiliating, public failure, then you’re probably not trying hard enough. Time to grow some cojones and take a chance.
It’s a fact, most artists want to up their income. So get out there and jump on these opportunities. Here’s a few good ones coming up in New York.
On September 24th from 9:00am - 12:00 pm check out Introduction to Grassroots fundraising for nonprofit organizations. Learn how to create a compelling case for support, to deliver your pitch successfully and to raise more money from more people. Led by Judy Levine and Gregory Cohen of Cause Effective: Nonprofit Resource Development Center, the workshop will provide practical exercises to assess and improve your organization’s grassroots fundraising success. There is no charge for this workshop - it’s free! Check it out on Wednesday, September 24th at the Repertory at Hostos Community College. The address is 450 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. To register go to https://www.nycharities.org/event/event.asp?CE_ID=2896
Also, check out Basic Finance for Artist offered by the LMCC. It’s a free, concentrated, six-week series of workshops that will help develop financial awareness and balance through practical training in money management. The program takes into consideration the complexity of artists’ income flow and diversity of artistic practices. Workshops provide a combination of seminar-style learning and hands-on group and individual exercises. Experts in the field and guest artists help lead the workshops and address issues that are relevant to artist-specific needs.
Artists who participate in this series of workshops will gain a better understanding of their financial profiles, specific goals, and contacts with the business community and other arts professionals. Participants will also receive a resource guide that will provide exercises, reference materials, and useful tips to continue to develop their skills. Location: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, 125 Maiden Lane, 2nd Floor, New York. Dates and time: Mondays, 4-7 PM / October 20 - November 24, 2008. To register, go to http://app.formassembly.com/forms/view/36988
Recently, I’ve been conducting interviews with mid-career artists to locate some consistent practices that have worked for career advancement and business development in the arts. Interestingly, negotiation continues to surface as a critical skill and unfortunate pitfall.
“Artists have to learn business, because they are constantly negotiating…you are constantly negotiating with business people…it’s harder for artists, because we need the money… Also, don’t argue….negotiate…don’t blow an opportunity on emotion…” – Visual Artist and Arts Professor, Atlanta
As previously stated, many of the artists we surveyed and interviewed expressed feelings of being inept at (or resistant to) learning business skills like negotiation. However, negotiation is a requirement of living in a socially interdependent world that none of us can escape.
“Negotiation is an interpersonal decision making process necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly.” - The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, by Leigh Thompson
The question is not: “Do I want to negotiate?” Or “Do I have to negotiate?”
The question is: “Can you effectively negotiate?”
I, also, have been resistant to (or intimidated by) the concept of negotiation, because I associated the word with the stereotypical car sales man who tries to manipulate you into a crappy finance deal for a lemon disguised as an automobile. You can imagine my surprise when I took a negotiation class last spring and discovered that negotiation is more effective when the parties involved try to:
· find solutions that fairly meet each other’s needs,
· to create value for both parties (1+1=3),
· and to build trust.
“Effective negotiation is not just about money – it is equally about relationships and trust.” – The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator by Leigh Thompson
I was under the assumption that negotiation was about fighting over who gets the bigger slice of the last pie on earth. I never considered that it could be about finding ways to make the pie bigger or make multiple pies. Also, I assumed that all negotiating parties wanted pie. I never considered that one party might not even like pie. That they might prefer to trade their slice of pie for the chocolate cake that makes the other party break out in hives.
In fact, researchers have found that negotiating parties rarely want the exact same thing. Most negotiations involve parties with at least some asymmetrical or complementary needs.
Fictitious example:
An emerging rock band (Young Bucks) with a strong grassroots following and a well-established music venue (Giant Stage) are negotiating the terms of a booking agreement.
A week ago, Young Bucks were approached by a major label (Big Guy Records) about opening up for a major celebrity (Bon No) on an international tour. However, Young Bucks have never played a large audience. Before booking the tour, executives at Big Guy Records want to see how well Young Bucks can perform in a large venue. Other then the Giant Stage concert, the only other opportunity Young Bucks have to play a large venue is at a new venue opening up across town (The Comp). Although The Comp is offering good money, they would have to wait a few months for construction to finish and risk losing the interest of Big Guy Records. Also, Young Bucks are aware of another emerging band (Ambitious) that wants their time slot at the Giant Stage concert.
Meanwhile, Giant Stage is going through some cash flow issues due to poor investment decisions by management. Although they have a reputation for paying bands a little over industry standard; they’re too cash strapped to pay their normal rate. Also, they are concerned about competition from The Comp. Giant Stage needs to protect their reputation as the leading edge presenter of “hot” new talent and there is industry buzz that Young Bucks’ could be the next Jonas Brothers. If they don’t book Young Bucks, they might sign a year-long booking agreement with The Comp.
Entering the negotiations, neither party is aware of the other party’s interests. Giant Stage assumes the negotiations will be about the pay rate. Young Bucks assume they have to fight for their time slot. Young Bucks enters the negotiation with “guns slinging.” They talk up the offer from The Comp, in order to indicate their value so Giant Stage will give them the time slot. Giant Stage interprets this to mean that Young Bucks wants them to beat The Comp’s pay rate, which Giant Stage can’t afford to do.
Unfortunately, no deal is reached.
When negotiating parties do not communicate their needs properly, then false assumptions, information hording, and misplaced suspicion cause them to “leave money on the table.” According to my professor, experts calculate that approximately 20% of negotiations end in a lose-lose situation, where resources are left unclaimed by either party.
“Understanding your counterpart’s interests and shaping the decision so the other side agrees for its own reasons is the key to jointly creating and claiming sustainable value from a negotiation.” - Six Habits of Merely Effective Negotiators, by James K. Sebenius; Harvard Business Review
Good negotiations result in a situation where all parties:
· make trades (not compromises),
· walk away with what they need (not just an even split),
· feel good about the deal,
· and maintain a good relationship for future exchanges.
In the light of this definition of negotiation and the ethical/fair practices it requires, I was able to overcome my resistance to learning about how to become an effective negotiator.
Currently, Fractured Atlas is in the process of developing infrastructure and course content for Fractured U., an online business training center for artists and arts manager. When the full fledge program is launched, we hope you take advantage of the opportunity to learn from industry experts and sharpen your business skills. Not to become a hardened sales person, but to avoid some of the pitfalls other artists and arts managers have suffered in the past. We don’t want you to “leave opportunity on the table.”
