Me at The Firebird, 2005

The other day I was speaking with a friend who is going to London and I told her about Punchdrunk and their performance of The Firebird Ball in 2005, which is on my list of Top Ten Arts Experiences of All Time, made all the better by the fact that the reason I bought a ticket in the first place was somewhat obligatory. My boss’s niece was in the play and it was mostly sold out … which is why on my last night in London I found myself taking the tube to Brixton and shivering in an alley with a group of around 20 people waiting to be let into a warehouse. Those of you who haveand family in the theater know that an audience of 20 outside a warehouse is not unusual, so I had no expectations whatsoever.

posters taped to easel in dark alley ... what to expect?

This was pre-smartphone, so we actually talked to one another. Then we were let in to the warehouse, handed white masks a la Clockwork Orange, invited to roam the old factory building, and warned not to speak except at the bar. The audience was quickly separated from one another as we followed dancers through three floors and at the center of it all was singer in a red-lit cabaret-style club. There were many more people inside than there were outside. The audience could wander around to see the performance and stop back at the club whenever they wanted. The storyline was a blending of Romeo and Juliet and Stravinsky’s The Firebird. It was magical, and deservingly thrust Punchdrunk into the spotlight.

Punchdrunk creates site-specific theatrical dioramas where the audience follows actors or dancers around a large space and goes into rooms on their own to touch, feel, read and investigate. It embodies a feeling of shared cultural exploration, my magical experience in London turned out to be the sleeper hit of the season. Here in San Francisco many companies are trying to crack the nut of the interactive, highly-participatory performance/installation and also how to balance art with commerce. This quote from a Guardian article about Punchdrunk circa 2006 says it all:

“Often those kinds of gigs are soul destroying. You are up there busting a bollock and no one is taking the blindest bit of notice – they’re all too busy with the champagne. In the end it’s not meaningful and you have no control. You’re just there as part of the decorations. There’s no art in it, only money in your pocket.” —John-Paul Zaccarini

As an arts administrator, not a day goes by anymore without my hearing or reading something about art, commerce, layered participation and/or “new models.” Punchdrunk had the vision to begin practicing a form of interactive theater that has only become more in-demand over the past five years. Also, kudos to them for paying artists AND using more than 200 volunteers to create their latest installation, Sleep No More in New York City. This is their NYC debut and if you are in New York go see it.

When I worked at the O’Neill Theater Center, one of our mottos was “Risk, Fail, Risk Again”. This especially applied to our student actors, but lately I have been thinking about risk in terms of career trajectories. As an emerging leader in my 20s, so much of my life seemed caught up in the first career choices I made, that it had all the drama of this (awesome) Judy Garland classic.

Feeling trapped in a dead-end job, or not getting the job of your dreams can seem downright tragic when you work for a nonprofit. We’re not just looking for a job. We are looking for our opportunity to Transform Lives Through The Arts. Or Education. Or whatever.

But inevitably, if you are taking risks and  reaching high enough and looking for all of the experiences that emerging leaders should look for, unpredictable and wonderful and disappointing things will happen. Some of my Bay Area peers—Evelyn Orantes, Maia Rosal, Marc Vogl and Ellen Oh—will be sharing their personal experiences at “Career Trajectories—Not All Straight Arrows,” as part of Americans for the Arts’s 2009 Creative Conversations series, presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Emerging Arts Professionals. It is next Tuesday, October 13 at 7pm at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. It is $6. And, you can register in advance here.

Hope to see you there!

I’ve been thinking a lot about Yosi Sergant, and reading the debate on Jeff Chang’s blog. I’ve been thinking a lot about politics, and provincialism, and wondering if it is possible to write an interesting blog anymore if you are The Administration.

Why do we become The Administration? I say this, half-joking and half-horrified, because a grassroots leader I know is referred to that way by her staff. “The Administration” refers to just one person.

I know a lot of emerging leaders who want to be the director of an organization someday. I don’t know any who want to become “The Administration.”

Sigh … in a perfect world the Yosi Sergants would wield ongoing power and have infinite connections to serve their mission without joining the NEA. But that is a tough row to hoe. In a perfect world we’d all be making art in the service of an insurrection, by the people for the people. But in this world, we can’t even use the word insurrection without having to defend it. And the most talented insurrectionists I know are also talented at finding money and administrations to back them up.

Back to the blog–I guess I’m feeling a little doubt these days about what’s safe and what’s fair. I’m not giving up the blog. But it merits more thought.

And on “emerging leadership” … I’ll be giving a very short talk on behalf of the San Francisco Bay Area Emerging Arts Professionals as part of Friday Nights at the de Young, this Friday night. If you are wrestling with these same issues, come join us–it will be good times!

• Make better relationships with our artists so that they understand that any cuts and fees are not personal
• Make sure that we explain to all of our funders exactly what we’re doing on an regular basis.
• Make sure that our staff that’s here is committed to the work that we are doing, and not just the artistic part … everyone needs to be on board with the reality of what’s going on. 

With that in mind, Claudia La Rocco’s New York Times article about negotiations between the 92nd Street Y and choreographer Pavel Zustiak is a fascinating look behind the scenes of a contract dispute.

But a funny thing happened on the way to submitting that grant application. I started getting excited about marketing again. Specifically, the potential for breaking open a tired old myth (Full-Time Marketing Director + Hotshot Publicist=Stellar Attendance) and doing things more efficiently and effectively. I used to scour the newspaper and online listings for interesting things to see and do, but here in San Francisco, that means sifting through 435 listings on a lazy Sunday, and those are by no means comprehensive. The grassroots innovators rarely show up in the newspaper anymore, and the most compelling invitations come from artists, curators and collectives.

I get dozens of Facebook invitations each week and I’m still not sure I know a single person under forty who can entice even fifty people to an arts event where there’s not free booze. How large is the disconnect between new technology and true relationship building when it comes to arts participation? I hope the gap is narrowing, but I fear there is a schism that puts small and mid-size arts organizations at a disadvantage.

As a friend reminded me this weekend, going to the theater (or any arts event) is an adventure that requires effort and risk … and in an era of empty pockets and full schedules, the best publicist in the world can’t compete with word of mouth when it comes to filling a room. Logic would say that facts and accuracy count for more than opinion, but science is proving that wrong.

So … whether or not I attend Boot Camp, I am left with a few questions:

• Can relationship building with technology be taught? Who should do the teaching?
• How can Institutions (defined as: more formal organizations, often with more formal relationships and more liveable compensation to artists) blur the lines between marketing and art-making without sucking up all of the time + energy of artists, aka making them “jump through more hoops” just to have a show?
• What are the intergenerational  aspects of new technologies in marketing (positives and negatives)?

And, on a very micro-level … what does this all mean for my organization’s database, website, budget, et cetera?

Any answers out there? Advice, links, book/study recommendations welcomed.

“Public art can generate big revenues and beautify urban areas. Or it can anger residents. How does one measure its success?”—An article in this week’s Christian Science Monitor.