Blaine, Missouri Knew What “Nonprofit Arts Organization” Means. Do You?

If you watched “Waiting for Guffman” and decided that community theatre is a joke, you missed the point. Corky St. Clair may have unwittingly saved the nonprofit arts industry.

If you’re a nonprofit arts leader—any discipline—then you have probably seen Christopher Guest’s terrific 1996 “mockumentary,” Waiting for Guffman. If you believe that anything that happened in 1996 is irrelevant to your life right now, you have no business running a nonprofit arts organization. The arts essentially contextualize life’s issues for an audience; issues must be seen in the context of history, even as long ago as *gasp* 1996.

The movie, simultaneously a love letter to and a sendup of American community theatre, tells the story of the creation of Red, White, and Blaine!, a theatre piece intended to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the fictional city of Blaine, Missouri. “the standard against which all other sesquicentennials...that's the 150...will be judged.” The play-within-the-movie, directed by the city’s own Corky St. Clair (leader of the Blaine Community Players), stars members of the community of Blaine, including a married pair of travel agents, a Dairy Queen employee, a retired taxidermist, a mechanic, and a dentist. The cast, who improvised most of the film, is comprised of some of the most agile, crazy minds in the industry. Again, if you have not seen it yet, do so. It is brilliant on so many layers—funny, warm, uneasy, and even a little suspenseful.

If you have seen it, I urge you to see it again, but this time noting this question throughout your viewing:

Does the work of the Blaine Community Players have more impact as a nonprofit activity than most nonprofit arts organizations in America are producing right now?

The cast of Red, White, and Blaine! is white, as are the citizens of the town. The cast has its own racial and ethnic bigotries. The director has one foot firmly planted in the closet. The “actors” are eccentric, to say the least. Like any well-crafted comedy — think All in the Family or The Book of Mormon — there are plenty of over-the-top characterizations meant to lampoon. The fact that the movie is filled with earnest, well-meaning, lily-white dunderheads is intentional. Those things are material to the comedy. Waiting for Guffman is a commercial story meant to sell tickets. But its storyline depicts Red, White, and Blaine! as an example of true nonprofit art.

What the imagined citizens of Blaine, Missouri get out of the production is much more valuable to them than seeing an excellent professional production of the latest Broadway hit, symphony, or ballet. Because the witnessing of a subjectively beautiful, excellent work of art is no different if the producer of said art is a nonprofit or a for-profit, the visual experience cannot be construed as anything but a transactional experience. Ticket dollars for entertainment.

Intent is everything.

Does your nonprofit arts organization intend to provide the community with tools to develop new, useful skills? Or just to watch and listen?

Is your work intended to be beautiful? Or does it markedly, measurably, quantifiably make the community better?

Does your mission intend to celebrate your own excellence or the impact your audiences receive?

And what about your audiences? Do you intend to ask them to donate after you’ve asked them to buy tickets? In that case, aren’t they the user? And isn’t that the naked description of elitism?

Or do your audiences attend to support their community, and by “community,” I mean the actual members of the physical community in which they live?

In other words, are the intentions of the amateur nonprofit production more impactful, and at the same time more popular to a community whose neighbors and friends are represented?

Watch the movie. It’s available on most streams (Amazon Prime, YouTube, Redbox, etc.) as a $4 rental. After seeing it with all these ideas in mind, let me know what you think.

= = = = = = = = = =

I’ve been encouraged by the quality of your comments over the last several months—especially with the last series for nonprofit arts boards. My next task is to take these last 100+ columns and feather the ideas into a book. Paper, ink, the whole shooting match. I’ll be taking some time over the next few weeks to work on that project. In the meantime, I’ll be putting some “best of” columns up for review (if you’ve never read them, they’re new to you!). If you need to get in touch with me over a burning question, please email me at [email protected] and I’ll get back to you quickly. Or visit the website: https://501c3.guru to book an appointment or get alternative ways of reaching me. In the meantime, stay cool, don’t get COVID (I finally got it in June—I don’t recommend it), and as the song says, “See you in September.”

= = = = = = = = = =

Based in Kirkland, Washington, Alan Harrison is a writer and speaker specializing in nonprofit organizations, strategy, and life politics. His columns appear regularly in major publications and right here on LinkedIn. Contact him directly at [email protected].

If you like what you read, consider buying him a quick cup of coffee. Just click on the cup above.

And please read through past stories on our newsletter by clicking here. If you'd like to contribute your writing toward a better nonprofit arts environment, one that actually leans toward the nonprofit first, feel free to submit an article by sending it to [email protected].

Alan is always looking for good opportunities to write and consult for nonprofits that need a hand. And, of course, that elusive Perfect Opportunity?.