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The Cycle

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The Cycle

A Practical Approach to Managing Arts Organizations

Brandeis University Press ,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Sports teams know how to make money and keep their fans happy. Arts organizations can do the same.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Athletic organizations understand that success depends upon presenting quality sporting events, top-notch players and exciting schedules that generate publicity, ticket sales and commercial sponsors. Former John F. Kennedy Center president Michael M. Kaiser presents the third volume of his arts organization management trilogy, this one written with arts consultant Brett E. Egan. The manual explores how large and small arts organizations can utilize the same “cycle” sports teams follow. Arts organizations can achieve comparable success by programming “surprising content,” building a “family of supporters,” and balancing revenue and expenses. As Kaiser and Egan note, the cycle’s elements interconnect, so that coverage generates some necessary repetition. getAbstract recommends this densely informative handbook of practical strategies to managers dealing with the complexities confronting arts organizations, artists and patrons.

Summary

How “the Cycle” Works

Small or large organizations dedicated to the performing or visual arts can take a lesson from the world of sports. Athletic organizations know that their fiscal success stems from presenting quality events featuring the best players they can afford in an exciting schedule of games and play-offs. They draw the publicity, sponsors and spectators they need to earn a profit and to support continual improvement. Increased attendance boosts revenues, which underwrites contracts with better players, leading to better games that attract larger audiences.

Successful arts companies offer the most-innovative, highest-quality performances and programs they can afford. That earns heightened public awareness, larger audiences, increased ticket sales and larger donations – in a parallel cycle of continual improvement. Arts organizations must understand the cyclical nature of financial success and integrate it into their management.

“Programming: It Is All About the Art”

To build sustainability, arts organizations must focus on programming. No matter its size, your institution must provide “strong, exciting, surprising” content to attract ...

About the Authors

Michael M. Kaiser was president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and is now a US State Department cultural ambassador. Brett E. Egan heads the managing and consulting team from DeVos Institute of Arts Management in projects around the world.

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