Up Malaise-y River: Nonprofit Arts Leaders, Have You Already Forgotten 2020?

This was the lead story in ARTnews at the time of this writing:

Onassis Family to Sell Winston Churchill Painting at Auction

Paintings by Churchill have generated attention at auction in recent months.

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In American Theatre, a publication of Theatre Communications Group:

‘You Could Be King’

When it comes to Shakespeare and Western classics, questions of legacy and belonging get raised when Black men take the stage—and the answers are increasingly clear and powerful.

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In Dance Magazine:

Jamar Roberts' Astonishing Dancing Is Matched by His Mesmerizing Choreography

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In Opera News, which is published by, but does “not represent the views of the Metropolitan Opera Guild or the Metropolitan Opera”:

The Grateful Heart

Soprano Ana María Martínez wants her artistry to illuminate the world.

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In fluffy, earnest, and intellectually vapid pieces, four of the most influential nonprofit arts publications in the US have chosen to devote their cover story to a Greek shipping magnate selling a painting of the British prime minister during WWII; a Black actor playing King Lear (you should read the comment…shameful); a Black dancer dancing; and a Latina soprano who wants to sing all over the world. Respectively.

The progress is glacial, but not in the dangerously newsworthy alarm of an Antarctic glacier calving, creating the largest iceberg in the world. The “Black actor in a Shakespeare play” has been written/argued/defended to death – not that it isn’t still an issue with white Shakespearean “experts” that believe that the Bard’s plays should be performed in the “traditional” manner (“turtlenecks, tights, and pumpkin pants,” as a longtime artistic director of an award-winning US Shakespeare company once told me). If the act of a Black man playing King Lear is a legitimate news story, then we have surely not traveled very far on the road to impact, have we?

The Onassis family’s sale of a Churchill painting is neither interesting nor relevant to today’s artists. Did nothing happen in the last 2 years to change the direction of the fine arts?

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The major stories of 2020 and 2021 are still happening and yet the nonprofit arts world continues to tell stories of its own importance. Instead of talking about companies that are fundamentally changing the way business is done so as to positively affect those who do not have access or simply cannot afford the available impact, we are only privy to stories either about the financial demise of the industry or that vague, totally inappropriate discussion about how the arts continue, golly gosh, no matter what.

It has not yet dawned on many of the advocates for the arts that “FUND US!” is not the greatest strategy. It lacks reason. Or rather, it lacks a reason. It raises the obvious question, “WHY?”

And the answer to “WHY?” can never be any of the following, because they have proven to be really bad answers that (a) have no measurable accuracy, (b) are specious arguments, or (c) are simply not true:

“Because the arts nurture the soul.” (a)

“Because the arts provide jobs.” (b)

“Because the arts provide a positive economic impact to other businesses.” (b)

“Because the arts have proven to raise test scores.” (a*)

“Because the arts reflect our collective culture.” (b)

“Because the arts unite us.” (c)

*After school music programs, in general, have proven to raise test scores in students, but your arts organization finds a way to measure the test scores of your students. There is no way to accurately include the general argument for any individual arts organization, including yours. Just because traffic signals generally improve traffic safety, it doesn’t mean that a particular traffic signal is absolutely improving traffic safety at its specific location.

Instead of trumpeting change, the nonprofit arts community has been trumpeting, well, trumpeting. And singing. And dancing. And acting. And sculpting. The message has been received loud and clear from your community – the arts serve the artists.

Imagine if McDonald’s used the nonprofit arts sector as a model. Instead of a mission statement that reads…

It would likelier read…

If you do not understand the power of the McDonald’s mission (see their website) vis-à-vis the self-indulgence of the nonprofit-arts-inspired mission and image, then you have no business running an arts nonprofit. Please. Quit. Now. Your ignorance hurts the rest of the industry.

For those whose business is not the arts, here’s the skinny: the first image focuses on the impact of McDonald’s mission for its customers. The second focuses on its product. Simple as that.

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And yet, malaise continues to kill innovation in an industry that considers itself the most “creative” of all industries. Malaise before COVID-19 ever existed was inexcusable, but malaise now will render (and in some ways, already has rendered) the industry impotent. And perhaps irrelevant.

Will the progress intended by the social justice effort – a drive intended to catalyze organizations into rocket-thrusted equity for artists, audiences, and donors alike – fail among arts organizations because so many white people within the arts community would prefer to set it aside?

Maybe. Often, progress is incremental. Often, progress is undercut. Or unwelcome. Which is why you see so many arts organizations leaning in to their donors rather than their mission. Do you really believe it’s better to placate a racist millionaire than to live up to those DEI manifestos you hastily wrote? Or do you believe the time has come to jettison those people from your organization’s orbit?

Arts leaders shouldn’t have to feel that they need to take a shower after every board meeting. You know, to rinse off the hypocrisy.

Looking at lineups of plays, concerts, and operas scheduled, you wouldn’t know that there even was a social justice movement. You might not even know there was a pandemic.

A quick search came up with these announcements from major players in the national arts market. A progressive theater has 6 plays on its summer calendar – only one mentions a person of color. A symphony orchestra whose musical director is “committed to the exploration of American music” has put out a season that is overwhelmingly white, with a few token, er, topical musical adventures by POC scheduled for 2-3 days apiece. An opera company has planned 3 operas (2 classic and 1 contemporary) – none having anything to do with the experience of POC.

These are real examples (not the photo, but the list of arts organizations), but it’s useless to shame them into equity. Chances are, the artists are being held hostage by the thought process that leads to survival by whatever means necessary (put that squarely on the shoulders of the board), not by doing what’s right. Or, likelier, they’re just tired of the whole “social justice thing” and want to go back to work.

Lots of people want to go to work. But a large group people doesn’t want to go back to the whitewashing of the arts. Please don’t yawn that back into existence.

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Based in Kirkland, Washington, Alan Harrison has written over 100 columns which have appeared on LinkedIn, The Nonprofit Times, The Clyde Fitch Report, ArtsJournal, Daily Kos, and more. Email him directly - [email protected].