The Case for the Emerging New Paradigm for the Arts

in the United States:

A Response to a Changing Creative, Social and Economic Reality

Draft: February 7, 2010

Revised: May 10, 2010

Contents:

New Developments 3

Introduction: Letter to Audiences 5

Wake-Up Call 7

A Longer, Deeper Look Back at the Arts 12

The Basic New Idea: Re-imagine and Reinvent 20

Conditions Needed to Move toward the New Paradigm 25

Questions & Concerns 26

Conclusion 28
 2

“(Andy Warhol is saying) . . . that anything can be an artwork, that there is no special
way that artworks have to look, that everyone can be an artist.”

- Arthur Danto 1
After the End of Art; 1997

“So we are witnessing, as I see it, a triple transformation – in the making of art, in the
institutions of art, in the audience for art. All this takes place where the reasons for
making art have themselves been undergoing change, making the present moment as
exciting as it is ill-defined.”

- Arthur Danto
Beyond the Brillo Box; 1992

1
Arthur Danto is an American art critic and philosopher born in 1924. He is best known
as the influential, long-time art critic for the Nation and for his work in philosophical aesthetics
and philosophy of history, though he has contributed significantly to a number of fields. His
interests span thought, feeling, philosophy of art, theories of representation, philosophical
psychology, Hegel's aesthetics, and the philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Arthur
Schopenhauer. He is perhaps best known in aesthetic philosophical circles for his 1981 book,
The Transfiguration of the Commonplace.
 3

New Developments – Informal, Interactive Arts

Since I finished the first complete draft of this paper in February 2010, I have become
aware that the concepts described in it are starting to emerge in communities and cultural
organizations around the U.S. Some of them, like the Music Center in Los Angeles, are
large, well-funded, and oriented towards traditional definitions of performing arts
(symphony, opera, ballet, and theater). Others are small, grassroots, community-based
organizations.

In April, I was invited to participate in a day-long convening of performing arts center

managers, public art programmers, architects, urban designers, consultants, foundation
officers and individuals in governmental arts policy at the Music Center in Los Angeles.
It was called City as a Stage: Placemaking in the Performing Arts. The event was
sponsored by The Bruner Foundation and the Loeb Fellowship, both based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

The topic was “informal arts” – amateur, passionate artists from local communities who
are hosted by professional presenters and producers and assisted by other “activators” to
rehearse music, dance, and theater, receive some instruction in these disciplines, and then
perform – some of them in large-scale, professional venues such as our performing arts
centers, or in public spaces such as plazas and streets. A secondary question of the day
was: how might or should traditional arts facilities be re-designed to accommodate and
encourage this type of work?

That I am aware of, this was the first formal convening of a few of the active U.S.
practitioners in this innovative form of programming and community engagement.

We shared our experiences. We imagined future possibilities. And what did we learn?

1. There is a hunger for informal, interactive arts around the country, especially from
the younger generations. There is a need to be expressive, to connect, and to form
communities through the arts in ways that are more deeply satisfying than traditional
spectatorship.

2. Informal arts programs supplement the traditional work of larger cultural

organizations in a revitalizing way. These programs attract new audiences at a time when
traditional audiences continue to dwindle.

3. One can sense a national movement starting to form around the idea of Do-it-
Yourself (DIY) and Professional/Amateur (Pro-Am) arts that are sponsored and
facilitated by first-rank, professional arts organizations.

Closer to home, at The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College this spring we
premiered our own commission, Bolero Suburbia, a large-scale theatrical event with 85
members of our community in the cast. They ranged in age from 3 to 85. The piece
 4

celebrated life in Westchester and Fairfield Counties. Choreographers Larry Keigwin

and Nicole Wolcott created it to the score Ravel’s Bolero. It was an enormous success.
We reached many people – as artists and as spectators. We engaged them deeply. We
made friends. And we are producing a documentary about the experience.

All of this is extremely encouraging. Onwards and upwards with the emerging new
paradigm for the arts!

May 10, 2010

 5

Introduction

Letter to Audience and Donors

January 2010

The Times, They are a Changin’

One of the dramatic effects of the Great Recession, in addition to joblessness and the loss
of many homes, is the growing number of arts organizations whose futures are
threatened. This includes such venerable cultural institutions as the Philadelphia
Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera. Closer to home are a
number of smaller, financially less-stable groups who face mounting challenges.

It is easy to blame the economic downturn for this, but there is mounting evidence that
the causes are deeper, that, in fact, the recession simply revealed a fundamental, long-
term, and growing problem that has been there for many years.

Over the past year, as I have worked to design a longer-term future for The Performing
Arts Center, I have thought about this a great deal. The questions I keep asking myself
are: “What is really going on in the arts in this country? And how should The Center at
Purchase respond to this?”

Every January in New York City, professional arts presenters from around the world
gather for a few days to share their news of the past year, trade ideas and seek the advice
of their colleagues. This year, after we traded our war stories, we eventually got around
to imagining the future.

Leaders in the field of arts presenting know that something basic has changed and that
things will likely never be the same again. But the most effective response to the new
arts paradigm which is revealing itself is still not apparent.

What do I observe in our community and around the country?

 That there are fewer and fewer individuals with the education and desire to seek
out the traditional performing arts in traditional ways.
 That more and more people want to be onstage and fewer want to be in the
audience.
 That modes of cultural participation, both in younger generations and in their
parents, are changing.
 That growing numbers of younger people are artistically expressive and are
finding new, media-based ways to communicate with those around them. 2
2
See Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper’s Cultural Renaissance or Cultural Divide?, Chronicle
of Higher Education (May 2006). http://chronicle.com/article/Cultural-Renaissance-or/6435
This was followed by their 2008 book Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of
America’s Cultural Life. Engaging Art explores what it means to participate in the arts in
 6

What principles do I keep in mind?

 That The Center must change to remain relevant to significant numbers of

citizens.
 That, as we change, we must preserve what is valuable to the culture and our
community.
 That the emerging new paradigm is an opportunity.

Personally, I look forward to this challenging journey and urge you to be an active
participant. It’s important that the largest portion of our entire community participate in
shaping The New Performing Arts Center.

Wiley Hausam
Executive Director, The Performing Arts Center

contemporary society – from museum attendance to music downloading. Drawing on the

perspectives of experts from diverse fields, this volume analyzes key trends involving technology,
audience demographics, religion, and the rise of “do-it-yourself” participatory culture.
Commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and independently carried out by the Curb Center at
Vanderbilt University, Engaging Art offers a new framework for understanding the momentous
changes to impact America’s cultural life over the past fifty years. Chapter 7 explores artistic
expression in an age of participatory culture – how and why young people create.
 7

Wake-Up Call

Since approximately 1982, audiences for the traditional not-for-profit professional

performing arts in the U.S. 3 have been shrinking steadily. (See a summary of the basic
findings of the 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Survey of Public Participation in
the Arts. 4)

3
Traditional arts disciplines are defined by the National Endowment for the Arts as the
following: art museums, musical plays, non-musical plays, classical music, jazz, ballet and other
dance, Latin music (added in 2008), and opera.
4
NEA Report on Cultural Participation 2008

N.E.A. Study Shows Declining Arts Attendance: “A new survey by the National Endowment for
the Arts has found that attendance at many kinds of cultural events by people age 18 and over
declined steadily from 2002 to 2008, The Associated Press reports. During that time, survey
respondents who said they had gone to a movie dropped to 53.3 percent from 60 percent; those
who went to jazz shows declined to 7.8 percent from 10.8 percent; and those who visited
museums or galleries decreased to 22.7 percent from 26.5 percent. But participants who said they
had read works of literature increased to 50.2 percent from 46.7 percent.”

- New York Times, December 10, 2009

Major Findings:

Performing arts attenders are increasingly older than the average U.S. adult

45 – 54 year olds (historically a large component of arts audiences) showed the steepest declines
in attendance

Sharp drops in attendance among the most educated adults

A rise in other modes of arts participation:

a. Creating
b. Internet use
c. Adult arts lessons or classes
d. Performances in schools or religious institutions

Participation by Art Discipline:

% of Americans who participated in the activity (attended) at least once in a year.

2002 2008
Arts Museums and Galleries 27% 23%
Musical Plays 17 17
Non-musical Plays 12 9
Classical Music 12 9
Jazz 11 8
Ballet and other dance 6 5
 8

Aging audiences, especially apparent in the last ten years, and the recent (since the onset
of the Great Recession in Fall 2008) economic failure of growing numbers of established
and prized arts organizations are now impossible to ignore, and increasing numbers of
arts managers, journalists, donors and even audiences have begun to express worries that
something fundamental is changing or has already changed – that perhaps even the
ecology of the not-for-profit professional arts is endangered.

The system for not-for-profit performing arts is literally breaking down in many places. 5

At the same time, there are other more encouraging trends in cultural participation.

Latin Music NA 5
Opera 3 2
5
What about visual arts? This paper focuses on the performing arts and rarely mentions
the visual arts. In part, this is because many facilities and cultural organizations keep these
disciplines separate. In part, it’s because live performance is my field, and I know little about the
world of museums and galleries. While the integration of visual and performing arts is certainly
desirable – and artists are making works every day that do just this – it is important to keep in
mind that there are a number of key and significant differences between the institutions,
audiences and business models that support these two worlds. In general, I have surmised, from
arms-length observation, that the visual arts are in healthier condition in the U.S. than performing
arts, which is to say that their relationship with their spectators is more lively.

The principle reasons for this are:

1. We live in a visual culture.

2. We live in a culture that prizes objects over experiences - and paintings and sculptures
are objects. Most often, they are one-of-a-kind objects.
3. There is a different and less-demanding relationship for spectators to time in the visual
arts. Enjoyment of museums and galleries is not governed so stringently by time (they
may be accessed at many points in the day, the visit may be as long or as short as the
spectator wishes).
4. The spectator controls the art experience by controlling his tour and his eye.
5. Museums are not reliant on earned income to nearly the same degree as performing
arts organizations.
6. Museums have collections with substantial cash value and that value appreciates over
time. Even those who do not understand the art on the walls understand that they should
respect an object which the market says has high value.
7. Museums have done a better job of innovating to stay connected to their constituents
and contemporary life.

In short, museums happen to access many of the aspects of modern life that citizens value.
Having pointed out all of this, museums are facing declining participation as well, and their own
share of financial challenges.
 9

What are the Big New Trends in U.S./Global Cultural Participation?

1. There are a rising number of passionate amateurs who are active as artists. This
do-it-yourself ethos has happened, in part, because technology has both reduced
the high costs of certain types of artistic production (video and recorded music)
and met the challenges of finding an audience.

2. The roles of professional artist, spectator and amateur artist are no longer as fixed
or as clear as they have been for the past century.

3. More people want to be “on stage” and fewer people want to be “in the
audience.” Witness the phenomenon of American Idol and other such television
programs devoted to discovering and encouraging new, young talent of all kinds –
chefs, fashion designers, etc..

4. The emergence of the “curatorial me,” which is made possible by an explosion of

cultural choice. The Ipod is a perfect example.

5. New evidence that certain groups of people now define their status by consuming
as omnivores rather than as snobs, including in their cultural habits.

6. The rise of what Richard Florida has named “The Creative Class” who define
themselves and shape their lives in terms of a creative ethos. They want to be
creative, both at work and in their leisure time.

Indeed, there is growing evidence that a new type of creative energy is animating a new
generation of young people - that U.S. society is no less creative than before, it is just
creative and expressive in different ways. These trends are compellingly described and
documented in Bill Ivey and Steven Tepper’s work together. 6 Perhaps they are a
response to the mass media pop culture that has dominated American lives since the mid-
Twentieth Century (television, film, recorded music). Perhaps we are seeing the rise of a
new kind of folk culture for the 21st Century.

The Cause of Declining Audiences (Technology) and its Results

The reasons are many and varied. The first and most important reason is: technology has
changed everything. I am thinking of the following information/communications devices
(with date of widespread adoption in parenthesis): the personal computer (early 1980s),

6
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i37/37b00601.htm

The Chronicle of Higher Education. Issue dated May 19, 2006. Cultural Renaissance or
Cultural Divide? By Bill Ivey and Steven J. Tepper
 10

the internet (early 1990s), the mobile telephone (1995), the iPod (2001) and the wireless,
portable, digital communications device (2002).

New technology has made “content” instantly available almost everywhere in affluent,
modern society. In many cases, it has made content free – including music and video.
The user is free to manipulate the content to suit his/her own needs. In fact, interactivity
with various devices is required; contrast this with television, the media device Baby
Boomers grew up with.

Technology has changed expectations, and, in my opinion, it has literally changed our
society’s relationship to information, liveness, time, and space. It has changed our ability
and our desire to contemplate a single object or experience for a sustained period of time
– which historically has been the central activity of the arts spectator.

There are, of course, other non-technological causes of the change in relationship to the
traditional arts. But the main driver is technology.

It only makes sense that all this would have an effect on the traditional not-for-profit arts
experience and the structure and paradigm that surround and support it.

What is causing the traditional arts paradigm to break down?

Basically, it is an economic problem caused by a disconnect between younger potential

consumers and the products, services, self-perception and definition of the professional
not-for-profit arts culture as controlled by individuals a generation or two older. There
are three basic facts that go to the core of the economic problem:

1. Demand for the product we are offering is declining quickly among younger
citizens.
2. Live performance is highly labor-intensive and the skilled labor required to create
and present professional art is expensive.
3. We find ourselves, at the present moment, serving the often conflicting
sensibilities, demands, needs and desires of several generations who span the
technological information revolution. 7

7
The primary constituency for traditional arts is the Baby Boomer generation (born
between 1943 – 1960) and their older brothers and sisters. Succeeding, less engaged
generations are: Generation X (1961 - 1981) and the Millenial Generation (1982 -
2001). Millenials are completely formed by the technological and communications
revolution. Generation X and younger Boomers are a transitional generation.
 11

Solution:

1. Give younger people experiences that satisfy them and compel them.
2. Create a structure that embraces and harnesses the power of volunteers and
students and amateur artists – without any financial cost, while repaying them
with other, deeply satisfying rewards.
 12

A Longer, Deeper Look Back at the Arts

The Artist, Art and Society:

What has been the general relationship among these elements in Western Society
since approximately the Renaissance?

It is easy to forget that the contemporary relationship of artist to art and society has not
always existed and that the term “art” itself did not always exist and has undergone
enormous change over the past several centuries.

Two artists we regard as among the all-time greats (Michelangelo and Shakespeare) lived
and worked in the Renaissance. Author Larry Shiner (The Invention of Art: A Cultural
History) reminds us that Renaissance society lacked the category of “fine art.” It also
lacked “our ideal of the autonomous artist pursuing self-expression and originality.”

“Three kinds of evidence suggest the beginnings of the modern concept of the artist: the
emergence of the genre of the ‘artist’s biography,’ the development of the self-portrait,
and the rise of the ‘court artist.’ . . . But to speak of Renaissance artisan/artists in general
as ‘autonomous,’ ‘sovereign,’ or ‘absolute’ is certainly an exaggeration.”

Shiner reminds us that the modern system of fine arts became established between 1680
and 1830. Modernization and secularization, evidenced through the expanded role of the
market, the growth and aspirations of the growing middle class, the increase in literacy
and some changes in gender roles, all helped bring about the modern system.

The point is: The professionalization of the artist, the commodification of the art, the
self-segregation of artists from the rest of their communities (beginning approximately
the 1840s in Paris), and the ever-larger and more specialized resources (including concert
halls) needed to create and perform opera, ballet, and symphonic music – all worked to
separate the artist and the arts from mainstream daily life. (Except for some ritual, this is
not the case in non-Western cultures that have not yet been permeated by American-style
popular culture; admittedly, there are few of these.)

Art became something that happened in a special place, at a certain time of day and only
for a special class of people. An artist was another type of special person who often set
himself apart from mainstream society. Art was handmade and each object or experience
was one-of-a-kind.

Certain of these trends were accelerated in the 20th Century by the first wave of modern
technology while other aspects of art were reversed.

“Beginning in the early 20th century, with advancements in recorded sound and
broadcasting, the growth of the moving-picture industry, and the rise of national record
companies, our local and vernacular world was transformed. As it became possible to
 13

mass-produce culture, national corporations and then big media conglomerates emerged
to package it and distribute it widely. Indeed, professionals were becoming responsible
for making our culture, entertaining us, and telling us our stories: stories produced by
people we had never met, about people we had never met.

The professionalization and nationalization of culture in the United States was reinforced
by the flowering of the nonprofit arts. In the early 1960s, there were only a few thousand
nonprofit arts organizations; today there are close to 50,000. By the end of the 20th
century, the arts in America had become highly institutionalized and professionalized.

Three interrelated trends underlay the last big transformation in American culture.

First, technology allowed previously fleeting art and entertainment to be “captured” and
thereby produced and distributed on a mass scale.

Second, local and vernacular art and entertainment were eclipsed by a culture that was
increasingly defined by the tastes of a national.

Third, the amateurs at home were overshadowed by the new class of creative
“professionals,” and audiences were increasingly socialized to be passive consumers.” 8

Why do people engage with the arts and what are the types and levels of
participation and engagement?

Why do individuals engage with the arts and what do they get out of it? (See Alan
Brown’s very useful Value System for Arts Experiences, which is attached.)

In Brown’s system, meaning and value are described in five general overlapping spheres
and along two axes:

Time: Before, During/After and Cumulative

Social: Individual, Interpersonal and Community

The spheres are:

Human Interaction
Imprint of the Arts Experience
Personal Development
Communal Meaning

8
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i37/37b00601.htm

The Chronicle of Higher Education

issue dated May 19, 2006
Cultural Renaissance or Cultural Divide? By Bill Ivey and Steven J. Tepper.
 14

Economic and Social Benefits

The successively more engaging levels of arts participation are:

Ambient
Concentrated Spectatorship – the traditional role of the audience
Curatorial
Interpretive
Creative

This web of expressions, actions, relationships, effects and benefits is incompletely

understood and appreciated. On the other hand, one major motivator for arts
participation could be as simple as Wayne Baker’s 9 insights below, but applied to the arts
experience:

“People Need to Believe.

People Need to Belong.
People Need to Contribute.
People Seek Transcendence.”

The Larger Ecology of the Arts

Even though our concern in this paper is the not-for-profit professional performing arts,
this is only one portion (and a relatively small one at that) of the total U.S. arts ecology.

One could describe the ecology along several axes:

Professional and Amateur

Not-for-profit and Commercial
Performing Arts and Visual Arts and Literature

If one is more expansive about the definition of the arts, and thinks in terms of general
creativity, then Richard Florida’s articulation of the Creative Class comes to mind, and
then we are talking about the lives and pursuits of thirty percent of the U.S. workforce
divided into two broad sections. 10

9
University of Michigan Business School.

10
The creative class is a group of people (arguably constituting a distinct social class) that
economist and social scientist Dr. Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity
Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, believes are a key
driving force for economic development of post-industrial cities in the USA.
 15

A comprehensive arts ecology would include the following:

Aesthetic Education: in K-12 schools, in higher education, in pre-professional arts

training institutions (conservatories), and through lifelong learning in the arts; Broadway
theater, film (Hollywood and independent), radio, television, commercial music,
publishing, the digital arts (including online gaming), community arts organizations
(theater, choral & instrumental music), as well as all the traditional not-for-profit
organizations we have come to consider as “the Arts” over the past fifty years
(symphony, ballet, opera, regional theaters, and performing arts centers).

The point is: the not-for-profit arts are a small portion of the total landscape. Perhaps
because our jobs in this field are so engrossing, those of us who work there tend to
experience it as the entire landscape.

What has been the traditional paradigm for the not-for-profit professional arts in
modern Western Society?

The Traditional Performance Experience

Here is an intentionally prosaic (and reductive) description of the individual elements of

the performing arts experience, which takes into account four groups of participants:
artists, audiences, gatekeepers and funders.

a. The artist creates a work of art.

b. A presenter or producer endorses certain artists or works as worthy and
appropriate and offers to present them to its audience at traditional times and locations.
There is a charge for admission; tickets are often quite expensive.
c. Audience members purchase tickets, arrive at the theater approximately 30
minutes prior to performance, and receive the art experience. They are encouraged to be
silent and focus attention solely on the work onstage. At the end of the art experience,

The "creative class" concept is controversial, as is Florida's methodology. He describes the

'creative class' as 40 million workers - 30 percent of the U.S. workforce, and breaks the class into
two broad sections, derived from standard SOC codes data sets:

 Super-Creative Core: This comprises about twelve percent of all U.S. jobs. This group is
deemed to contain a huge range of occupations (e.g. science, engineering, education,
computer programming, research) with arts, design, and media workers making a small
subset.
 Creative Professionals: These professionals are the classic knowledge-based workers and
include those working in healthcare, business and finance, the legal sector, and education.

Additional to these two main groups of creative people, the usually much smaller group of
Bohemians are also included in the creative class.
 16

they signal their approval (or disapproval) with applause, by standing and occasionally,
with cheers or boos. After this, they depart the theater fairly quickly. Usually, audience
members have no social contact with the artists and very limited social contact with other
members of the audience.
d. Funders and patrons enable the art to be presented by providing funds to
cover the financial gap between the box office income and the actual expense of the
creation of the performances.
e. If the work or the artist are deemed significant enough, a critic (sometimes
as many as three in major cultural centers) judges the value of the art experience and this
written report is published in newspapers (less often) and online (more frequently).
f. Other potential audience members make decisions about whether to attend
future performances of the work or other works by the artist.
g. The artist receives or ignores the critic’s judgments about the work, yet
receives essentially no feedback from the audience who experienced the work.
h. If the artist can support herself financially, she creates new works of art;
simultaneously funders, presenters and audiences reassess the value of the artist and
his/her work.

The traditional Live Performance Paradigm is mostly transactional, circular and moves in
primarily one direction – from the artist to the audience. One artist sends a message to
many in an audience and, except for a few exchanges among friends afterwards in the
lobby, communication stops there. The structure discourages genuine communication.
Unless the audience is presented with a set of art experiences, which are consistently on a
very high level, this paradigm can easily reinforce a deadening experience - artistically,
socially and even spiritually. The paradigm insists on an apparently passive audience of
individuals.

Ironically, it can be isolating for audience members and actually discourages community.
It divides the participants into fixed categories in a kind of hierarchy: first artists, then
audience, and finally workers in the cultural institution (who enable the physical logistics
of the event.) Artists too can feel isolated by the lack of interaction with audiences.
Consequently, except in rare cases when the performance is emotionally powerful and
perhaps even revelatory, the paradigm discourages a transformational experience for the
audience.

The traditional arts experience ignores, and even attempts to suppress (“turn off your
cellphones”), the apparent impulses, desires and psychological needs of people born after
approximately 1980, those shaped by the informational and digital revolution described
above.

One of the larger challenges traditional arts organizations face at this time is to bridge the
needs and desires of younger people who want different experiences and those who
continue to value the more traditional experience.
 17

What Structure Supported the Not-for-Profit Professional Arts in the late 20th
Century?

It was supported by a not-for-profit structure conceived in the late 1950s by arts leaders
in collaboration with leaders of major U.S. foundations. It built upon a history of private,
individual philanthropy. This was followed by the creation of a structure for government
support on a federal level. The creation of support from the individual states followed
several years later. Corporate support came last. The not-for-profit structure depends
upon patronage and significant annual fundraising. Almost always, this is led by a Board
of Trustees (in partnership with a professional development staff) who have fiduciary, but
not artistic or operational, responsibility for the organization.

Four Basic Factors Intrinsic to the Not-for-Profit Corporation in the Professional,

Traditional Arts

1. “The arts are labor-intensive: two-thirds to three-fourths of its expenditures are in

personnel.

2. Economic resources are devoted to the artistic process itself rather than to a single
artifact, performance or production.

3. There is an inability to convert to the economies of scale – performances are

hand-made products.

4. There is a dependency on contributed income varying historically from 25 to 50%

(in 1984).” 11

Fundamental Aspects of the Live Performance Experience that have been changed
by Contemporary Technology:

1. You Don’t Have to Be There Anymore

Webcasting and other technologies have made it possible to distribute live performance
digitally to a far-flung audience and at low cost. Admittedly, it isn’t the same thing as
being there. But if you’ve never been there, you wouldn’t know that.

2. Distraction versus Immersion & Contemplation

Traditionally, the method of the live performance paradigm has been to immerse the
audience in a single aesthetic experience while excluding all other experiences, with the
goal of uniting a group of mostly unrelated individuals through a contemplative state
generated by the artists and inspired by the art. Often, the goal of the experience is to
11
The Arts & Public Policy. W. McNeil Lowery, editor. 1984.
 18

become detached or removed in some way from daily life. The attainment of this state is
not instantaneous, and often requires more than an hour.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to the traditional live performance paradigm is that,
seemingly, contemporary life conspires in almost every way against the effect of the
experience. 12

3. Liveness and Physical Community in a Digital Age

The live experience has always been fundamental to the performing arts. Each
performance was born, lived, and died in a single span, and this was part of its
uniqueness and power. In a sense, the human condition was demonstrated in the life span
of each performance. In an age of pervasive, instantaneous technology, the question
“What is liveness?” is not easy to answer. Unquestionably, it has changed. How exactly,
and to what end, are not clear. I believe that bringing an audience and artists together
into a single room to exchange energies in a spontaneous, improvised manner is very
important to the experience. But increasingly, this is harder to accomplish. In fact, this
may be the most challenging barrier to potential audiences. To be in a specific place at a
specific time prepared for the experience is a challenge for ordinary citizens in
contemporary life.

4. Spectatorship and Interactive Participation

The declining appeal of spectatorship seems to be the aspect of the traditional arts
paradigm most affected by recent changes in technology and society. And one’s interest
in passive spectatorship is definitely related to the year in which the spectator was born.
The older you are, the more inclined you are to sit silently and concentrate/contemplate.
But will that be true as those born after 1980 get older? There is no evidence yet to
suggest that it will.

5. The Declining Power of the Cultural Gatekeepers

For more than fifty years, the Arts & Culture division of The New York Times was our
nation’s cultural “paper-of-record.” Arts and culture lovers all over the country believed
what the Times critics and feature writers told them. The chief drama critic of the Times
closed new Broadway shows overnight. Or he turned them into hits that ran for years.
The Times was enormously powerful. Major cities around the country each had their
equivalent of these cultural gatekeepers for their own communities.

With the rapid decline of newspapers (including the abolition of culture departments) and
the rise of thousands of online critics, none of whom are credentialed, the Times is just
one voice, although still a respected one, but primarily for individuals over a certain age.

12
It would be interesting, and perhaps useful, to study our environment and see how the
live performance experience should or could most effectively respond to the contemporary state
of multiple inputs and continuous distraction.
 19

The point is: there are no real cultural gatekeepers anymore. Everyone has an opinion
and everyone’s opinion is valid, although some have more power than others. Your best
friend’s recommendation is often the most influential. The artist goes directly to arts
consumers through media technology and hopes they can penetrate the general clutter. It
is an opportunity for artists and a challenge as well.

The decline of gatekeepers, the loss of newspapers as advocates for the arts and the
decline of educated arts lovers (because of the virtual elimination of K-12 arts education
since the early 1980s) are major factors in the decline of audiences for traditional arts
disciplines.

Conclusion about the Traditional Paradigm

It seems logical to conclude that, if no significant changes are made in the system, the
traditional not-for-profit performing arts will continue to lose audiences and donors and,
ultimately, collapse – except for a few special cases (in cultural centers like New York
City, or through road tours of Broadway musicals). If we want to avoid the loss of
valuable cultural expressions in communities throughout the country, then we must
reconsider our situation, and then act.

In my view, to keep doing what we’re doing, but only more efficiently, will not address
the problem. I believe we must make a dramatic change. Or, at the very least, devote
resources and attention to an experiment with potentially dramatic potential.
 20

The Basic New Idea: Re-imagine and Reinvent

I believe we must generally reinvent the concept of the professional not-for-profit arts
(preserving what’s valuable and economically sustainable), while making our cultural
institutions more financially self-sustaining because they are more relevant to larger
numbers of people who will pay the costs. We must reinvent for the current cultural
moment, embracing the changing creative, social and economic reality and harnessing the
power of amateur artists and volunteers.

As a first step, we should make some of our cultural organizations a laboratory where the
new model for the arts in a community is developed. We must embed creative thinking
into all aspects of this process

What do People Want/Need?

The shapers of the new paradigm (individuals called arts administrators or arts managers
up to this point) will need to understand on a deep level and embrace the reasons why
individuals engage with the arts – even if these conflict with their self-concept.

It’s important to keep in mind that the different generations (Boomers, Generation X and
Millenials) probably want different types of experiences – not only different artists and
programs.

As we seek to determine what the generations share and how they are different, I offer 9
principles and insights that underpin our understanding and inform our vision of the
future paradigm:

1. A Supported Creative, Dynamic Community

First, the new arts community is a group of creative individuals who form a highly
dynamic unit that coalesces in and around live performance experiences. These
individuals are artists - both amateur and professional, teachers, learners, spectators and
facilitators. They rotate in and out of these roles as the community needs and as they
desire. They create a broad range of experiences through human interactions in a varied
collection of small to medium-sized, fluid, flexible, spaces equipped with digital and
theatrical technology. Professional artists are admired but not privileged above
passionate amateurs in the new arts community. Amateur and professional artists interact
and collaborate to the degree that the distinction between the two categories becomes
essentially meaningless.

2. The Foundational Role of Aesthetic Education: Striving for Wide Awakeness

A unique and highly valuable form of learning and knowing about the world occurs
through artistic spectatorship, creation and mastery. It is a form of education that is
achieved by a combination of both contemplation and “doing.” Aesthetic education
develops what philosophy MaxineGreene calls “wide-awakeness,” an active mode of
 21

living and an awareness of the human quest for meaning. 13 Wide-awakeness moves
people to critical awareness, to a sense of moral agency, and to a conscious engagement
with the world.” 14 Aesthetic education for all is the foundation of the new arts
community. 15 I believe a learning-centered philosophy in the service of what Bill
Ivey calls The Cultural Bill of Rights 16 is central to the new arts paradigm. Much

13
It achieves this through the development of imagination, which may be defined as the
ability to invent new realities, the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. This rare
mode of perception has so much to do with humans feeling fully alive in the world.
14
Inspired by the philosophy and writings of Maxine Greene. Maxine Greene is a
philosopher of education who joined the faculty of Teachers College, Columbia University in
1965. She is the philosopher-in-residence at the Lincoln Center for the Arts in Education.
http://maxinegreene.org/index.html
15
It seems logical that the new paradigm will have a profound impact on the field of pre-
professional training of traditional artists (especially actors, dancers, singers, musicians). A
world with dramatically fewer professional arts organizations will hire dramatically fewer of
these interpretive artists. A startling fact: 20% of The Juilliard School’s graduates make a living
in the field they were trained. What must this percentage be at all the other conservatories in the
U.S.?
16
The Cultural Bill of Rights

1. The right to our heritage – the right to explore music, literature, drama, painting, and
dance that define both our nation’s collective experience and our individual and community
traditions.

2. The right to the prominent presence of artists in public life – through their art and the
incorporation of their voices and artistic visions into democratic debate.

3. The right to an artistic life – the right to the knowledge and skills needed to play a
musical instrument, draw, dance, compose, design or otherwise live a life of active creativity.

4. The right to be represented to the rest of the world by art that fairly and honestly
communicates America’s democratic values and ideals.

5. The right to know about and explore art of the highest quality and to the lasting truths
embedded in those forms of expression that have survived, in many lands, through the ages.

6. The right to healthy arts enterprises that can take risks and invest in innovation while
serving communities and the public interest.

Written by Bill Ivey

Published in Arts, Inc.: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights by Bill
Ivey. 2008: University of California Press.

Bill Ivey chaired the National Endowment for the Arts from 1998 through 2001, directed the
Country Music Foundation from 1971 to 1998, and was twice elected chairman of the National
 22

was learned about the learning consciousness and the potential audience for the arts in a
1997 study commissioned by The Kennedy Center and the Association of Arts
Presenters. 17

3. Hybridity
The new arts community is simultaneously a highly-evolved version of a community arts
organization, a center for lifelong aesthetic education, an innovative creator and presenter
of highest-quality arts, a town square for the examination in a performative setting of
ideas and the values of the community, and a social hub.18 The new arts community may
be supported by a hybrid business structure, as well.

4. Reintegrate the Arts into Daily Life.

One by-product of recently invented digital, portable, wireless technologies is to make

entertainment ubiquitous – for anyone who wants it, it is almost completely integrated
into the daily life of average citizens. The traditional arts must emulate this accessibility
if they are to remain in the consciousness of significant numbers of citizens. The temple
for high art set apart from daily life is a thing of the past.

5. A Bigger Perspective: From Performing Arts to Performance

We need a bigger perspective on what we do and the contribution it makes to societies.
The academic field of Performance Studies views the traditional performing arts as one
element in a broad spectrum of performative acts. This field incorporates theories of
drama, dance, art, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies, and sociology. The
performance continuum includes the following:

Play-Games-Sports-Pop Entertainments-Performing Arts-Daily Life-Ritual

Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He presently serves as founding director of the Curb
Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University.
17
Learning Audiences: Adult Arts Participation and the Learning Consciousness. The
Final Report of the Adult Arts Education Project. 1997. This valuable report is still in print. The
members of the Adult Arts Education Project identified six disciplines of the learning
consciousness. They are: 1. A value base addresses beliefs. 2. The personal connection
underscores the centrality of relationships. 3. The unifying idea addresses meanings. 4.
Relating content and meanings is strategic. 5. The connection field considers the practical. 6.
Defining success addresses expectations.
18
The intersection and cross-breeding of the arts disciplines (music, dance, theater and
visual arts) will be highly encouraged. The concept of “high” and “low” in the arts will be
irrelevant. In many cases, periods and styles will mix freely within performances.
 23

This deep-structure view of the complete performance landscape makes it possible to see
the total arts community and not-for-profit professional performing arts through a new
lens - an eye-opening one. 19

6. Flow States through Creative, Immersive Communal Experiences

In the new arts paradigm individuals are immersed in and actively engaged with
experiences that are variously artistic, entertaining, educational, social and community-
oriented. They are both physical and virtual. Community does not end with the
performance. The successively more engaging levels of participation are: ambient,
concentrated spectatorship, curatorial, interpretive, and creative. Participants will have
opportunities to access all levels. These experiences and human relationships increase
the probability and occurrence of what Csikszemtmihalyi calls the “flow” state. 20 The
hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.

7. Meaningful Relationships
The foundation of the new arts community is deeper, more meaningful and nurturing
relationships rather than transactional human interactions (“I sell you a product – you buy
a ticket – we exchange cash – you consume the product.”). In addition to the arts
experience itself, through these human interactions, participating individuals will find
opportunities for personal development and communal meaning. The new arts
community is a bottom-up, open-source, social structure. Through these experiences,
individuals contribute to communities where they feel a sense of belonging and from
which they draw meaning. The new arts community is relevant and compelling to a
much broader swath of the American population; it serves a broader, more diverse
portion of the community – and throughout the day.

8. A Broad, Open and Evolving Concept of Art and Creativity.

19
The academic field of Performance Studies was originated by highly influential scholar
and theatermaker Richard Schechner at New York University in the 1970s. It came into existence
because of a radically changed intellectual and artistic landscape that emerged during the last
third of the twentieth century. The traditional performing arts are a part of the field of
Performance Studies. Schechner has identified seven functions of performance:

To entertain
To make something that is beautiful
To mark or change identity
To make or foster community
To heal
To teach, persuade, or convince
To deal with the sacred and/or the demonic
20
The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove. The flow
state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he or
she is doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great
absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food,
ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
 24

Over the past twenty years or so, the intrinsic value of art was displaced by its extrinsic
values: art as an economic engine, art as a tool to increase reading scores in youth, arts
experiences as a tool to help socialize children, art as a service to underserved
communities. The Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act pushed the intrinsic
value of the arts completely out of the K-12 classroom.

At the same time, traditional arts organizations have held on fiercely to 19th century
concepts of art and the role of arts in society.

It is long past time for all participants to reconsider our definitions of the arts, our self-
definitions, and to open up our organizations and resources to evolving ideas of art and
creativity.

9. An Organizational Culture that embraces Fluidity.

Motivating and managing change is perhaps the most difficult aspect of managing an
organization. Even small procedural changes can be threatening to managers and
employees. But the emerging new arts paradigm cannot be embraced or shaped without
change.

We need to re-build our cultural organizations so that we embrace experimentation and

change. And we need to re-build organizations so that we learn from failure as well as
success.

What Business Are We In?

Business schools train managers to think carefully about the question: What business are
we in? This is because history teaches us that industries that did not do so often went out
of business due to changing conditions and competitive environments which they did not
recognize and understand. Often, industries confuse their products with the desirable
outcomes of their enterprises. They make a specific product and they are very attached to
it. The newspaper industry is the latest example of an industry that doesn’t possess the
broadest, deepest understanding of the business it’s in.

What business is the not-for-profit arts industry really in? From a not-for-profit
point-of-view the question is: what is our mission?

I believe we support artists of all types and connect them with their audiences and
potential audiences. We are the facilitators, the connectors, and the teachers. We
provide the meeting point – the town square for the creative experience in our local
communities.
 25

Conditions Needed to Move toward the New Paradigm

Conditions Conducive to Change:

1. A new way of seeing what we do and what our value and impact is on our
communities.
2. Be open to experimentation.
3. Make a properly-resourced system for aesthetic education for all ages the priority.
4. Embrace and exploit technology.
5. Create an effective method to make change in a culture which resists change
6. Create a protected, creative entrepreneurial space for the reinvention.

In simple terms, how do we accomplish this?

1. Imagine the structure/community we are seeking to create.

2. Create the Logic Model for the structure/organization.
(Inputs. Outputs. Outcomes – Impact.)
3. Design a strategy for change. In a culture that is resistant to change, this is
perhaps the key planning step to achieve success. Possible questions: What are
the major obstacles to change? Do we make change incrementally or
paradigmatically?
4. Identify potential funders for this new model of the arts.
 26

Questions & Concerns

1. What is an example of a piece of programming that reflects, to some degree,

the new paradigm you describe and how does it fulfill the principles?

Bolero Suburbia, which will premiere at Purchase College in Purchase, NY on May 6,

2010 and is choreographed by Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott. We expect 80
individuals onstage. There will be professional dancers, college-age pre-professional
dancers-in-training, and completely inexperienced amateurs of all ages and from many
parts of our local and regional community. Bolero Suburbia is a celebration of life in
Westchester and Fairfield Counties.

This is a piece based on the following principles:

 It was commissioned for our community to be overseen by a professional artist.

 It will be created in and by our community.
 It is a hybrid – Pro-Am.
 There will be professional artists taking leadership roles in the creation process.
 They will work side-by-side with conservatory students, non-conservatory
students, other members of the Purchase community, and members of the
surrounding communities beyond Purchase. There is no distinction between
professional and amateur artist.
 It is about process and community rather than artistic product.
 It will engage individuals on a deeper level and for a longer period of time than
spectatorship at a performance. (Under the old model, a professional company
drops in to give a performance and leaves immediately afterwards.)
 The possibility of Flow states is enhanced and may be created in the participants.
 It is a community-based undertaking reflecting the community.

2. How do we harness the power of the volunteer, the student and the
passionate amateur?

This is perhaps the most difficult question to answer. Most arts organizations have
volunteer groups (ushers, for example). And many arts organizations work with these
individuals in a somewhat patronizing way – probably not tapping into the power these
individuals can bring to the organization.

This question needs significantly more study because it is the key to the economic
challenge facing the field. But first, volunteers and amateur artists need to be approached
with respect.

3. How will this new paradigm affect artistic excellence? It sounds like artistic
excellence will receive a low priority in the new structure.
 27

In the new arts paradigm, the communities we serve and the artistic process are as
important as the final artistic product. But not more important.

Much can be learned from artistic excellence. And some aspects of the artistic
experience can only be discovered through direct contact with greatness in art. World-
class artists who listen to, engage with and serve their communities will continue to be
the leaders in the new paradigm.

4 It sounds like your new paradigm is writing off the entire Western classical
performing arts tradition as though it is not relevant in contemporary culture.
Look at the success of El Sistema inVenezuela 21. This is proof that the symphony
orchestra tradition is as strong and relevant as ever if given proper support and if
citizens are educated properly. Do you agree?

I agree – but these are two big ‘if’s.’ I believe that El Sistema proves four things: 1.
That, if children of any class or background are given early exposure and opportunities to
participate actively in the arts, then they will embrace them and flourish. 2. That the arts
are a symbol system to which individuals must be given the ‘codes’ if the arts are to
make sense and be compelling to them. 3. That aesthetic education is the foundation of
everything we do in the arts. 4. That the arts can literally change the world – one local
community at a time. Interestingly and sadly, the American classical community still has
not figured out how to translate El Sistema to our society and educational system.

5. It sounds like you are writing off the Boomer generation - who are your loyal
subscribers, often affluent, now entering retirement and with free time and interest
to commit to new activities.

Not at all. These citizens continue to be our core constituency. And we will continue to
serve them with programs that satisfy them. The challenge we face at this time is how to

21
El Sistema (founded by Jose Antonio Abreu in 1975) came to the attention of larger
numbers of Americans who care about classical music in November 2007 when a panel about its
extraordinary work was presented at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts.
El Sistema uses music education to help youth, most from impoverished circumstances, to
achieve their full potential and acquire values that favor their growth and have a positive impact
on their lives in society. Abreu views El Sistema as an alternative to the drugs and crime that
plagues the lives of many Venezuelan children. It is now a nationwide organization of 102 youth
orchestras, 55 children’s orchestras, and 270 music centers engaging close to 250,000 young
musicians. It is a music education program, but it is much, much more. In fact, it is perhaps the
most remarkable and moving arts project I have ever been exposed to. For more information
about El Sistema see the links below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Sistema
 28

bridge their needs and desires with the very different needs and desires of two younger
generations.

6. What will be the role of the affluent, elite class in this new paradigm?

This is a key consideration in how to move forward. Historically, wealthy generous elites
have been the enablers of the high arts. The fine arts as we know them and as we have
come to treasure them, could not have come into existence or remained healthy without
generous patronage. To a great degree, the 20th Century paradigm and the cultural
institutions of this period were created by and for this class, in partnership with artists and
arts managers. It is very important for us to find out from members of this group what
appeals to them about this new paradigm.

7. What makes you sure this is a paradigmatic breakdown? Perhaps after we

recover from the economic slump, the arts will recover as they always have.
Perhaps, with your proposal, we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

I am not absolutely sure. But I have a very strong and persistent and insistent intuition
about what’s happening in and around the cultural organizations I am familiar with. I
believe it is more important to understand our core values and protect those than to
doggedly protect specific programs. Yes, we must be prudent as we approach this
possible new paradigm.

8. What are the best scale and structure –and the most prudent commitment of
resources – towards an exploration and development of the new paradigm?

We must determine this in conversations with our various constituents. The embodiment
of a new paradigm is not possible without a broad acceptance and openness to the
concept throughout the organization and community. Scale and structure and
commitment will grow out of this dialogue with constituents.

Conclusion

The 50,000 professional not-for-profit arts organizations throughout our country, some of
which have been in existence for a century, are not to be taken lightly. Their contribution
to cultural life is varied, rich, enormous and valuable. Many are financially stable and
with growing audiences. But many are not, and will likely go out of existence in the next
several years.

Change is coming to the not-for-profit arts landscape. It is impossible to predict the

extent of the change or its consequences. In light of the modern American pattern of
change and innovation in the entertainment industry, it seems likely that a new arts
 29

paradigm will not completely displace the old one but will simply modify it, or become
another cultural option. Movies didn’t put theater out of business; television didn’t put
movies out of business. But new communications technology has affected industries,
business models and social structures in a profound way.

We would be foolish and short-sighted to ignore the evidence of change all around us and
exclude new forms of expressiveness and community in the name of protecting
traditional arts disciplines that those of us over a certain age who love the arts have come
to consider as almost holy.

I believe it is our responsibility to seize this rich, new opportunity to reintegrate the arts
into the daily lives of many more of our citizens with the aid of a new conceptual
framework.

Author:
Wiley Hausam

Consultant:
Jerry Yoshitomi

Special Thanks: Susie Farr, Alan Brown

Acknowledgements:
Andy Warhol, Arthur Danto, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Maxine Greene, Wayne Baker,
Alan Brown, Steven Tepper, Bill Ivey, Diane Ragsdale, Ken Foster, and Richard
Schechner.

Research and findings of The Wallace Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts,
and The Adult Arts Learning Project

Wiley Hausam is the executive director of The Performing Arts Center at Purchase
College, Purchase, New York. He has worked in the commercial and not-for-profit arts
in the U.S. for more than thirty years – in opera, theater, musical theater, dance, music
and television – as an artist’s representative, a producer, a presenter, an editor and a
teacher.