Releasing the real potential of arts organisations

"Most people want to work with people they like and respect, in organisations with a purpose they care about, and within a culture that enables and acknowledges their personal contribution." – The Congruence Framework.

Tony Chamberlain, Principal Consultant at PQ Associates and experienced arts industry executive, recently published a book on the concept of congruence, which outlines a new framework to help organisations develop their own capacity and also enrich the society they work in.

Is Your Arts Organisation Healthy?

Recently I was engaged by a local government authority to undertake a review of the business model for one of their arts venues. It was a great opportunity to do a bit of a health check and see how things were tracking.

All too often, we don’t have time to stop and critically assess how things are going, even when we feel that things might be drifting off course a little. There’s often barely enough time to keep on top of day to day operations, so it can be hard to schedule in that time for longer term planning and evaluation.

Collaboration in the Arts - The Top Five Reasons

This weeks guest blog post comes courtesy of Paul Kooperman, accomplished writer and CEO of Tasmania's Festival of Voices. 

Arts activity is on the rise: more artists, more practitioners, more festivals, more organisations, venues and infrastructures and, as a result, more funding and resources are required to sustain the enormous amount of activity around the country. Everything from music festivals to multicultural festivals to ARI’s (Artist Run Initiatives) or CRI’s (Community Regional Initiatives) to Pop Up shops, performances and spaces in places where you least expect it (and may not want it).

Tips on Theatre Touring

Today I spent the day in a room with 130 other people interested in theatre touring, at the 2013 Victorian Theatre Touring Workshop. Present were venue managers, artists, producers, writers, theatre companies, support agencies and managers. What a fascinating conversation!

A chance to talk about touring

I was very pleased a couple of weeks ago to receive notification of the 2013 Victorian Touring Workshop, being organised by Regional Arts Victoria, Theatre Network Victoria and the Victorian Association of Performing Arts Centres. As the topics of programming, marketing and touring are three of my key interests, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about all these things with other people in the industry.

Can I really sell that many tickets?

Following my post last week on budgeting I’ve been thinking about the concept of forecasting ticket sales, and how you can realistically project ticketing revenue for performances.  And that means not setting the target low so you can achieve it easily, or setting high revenue targets so they look good on paper (but are really unrealistic).

The notion of forecasting sales is common across all businesses, but in the performing arts there can be a large number of variables which make forecasting ticket sales a complex area. These can include (but certainly not limited to):

When is a shoestring budget really too short?

Small, tiny and in some cases non-existent budgets are all too common working in the arts. Over the years I have worked on lots of projects where there has been such a small budget that I have had to beg and borrow as much as I can to actually get things off the ground. And, as any artist knows, having constraints means you have to be creative, and that’s what makes great art!