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Limiting Beliefs
I have just spent a busy few weeks leading workshops, in Austin and in Philadelphia. We focused on audience development, mission statements, and “irresistible” proposals.
As always, the workshops were filled with intelligent, articulate, forward-thinking artists.
They reminded me again that artists across the disciplines — from film to dance, theatre to printmaking, music to photography — are eager to bring the arts into the twenty-first century.
They want to leave the old paradigms behind, for the simple reason that they’re not working anymore.
The way we live has changed, and continues to change, and the arts need to keep connected to those cultural shifts in demographics, behavior, and tastes. What we used to know about marketing, for example, or audiences, or organizational development, may no longer pertain.
The danger is not that our beliefs are outdated; the danger is that they are limiting.
Outdated assumptions, incomplete knowledge, or tunnel vision limit the scope of possibilities we can envision. They limit the choices we can make. They limit the impact we can make.
They limit your ability to reach your artistic goals.
Here are the top three limiting beliefs that workshop participants were brave enough to acknowledge, and reconsider:
- Artists are lone geniuses
Once upon a time it may have been feasible for a painter to successfully retreat to his [sic] garret. Once upon a time it may have been feasible for Martha Graham to successfully build an entire dance company around herself. But the twenty-first century isn’t about individual pioneers. It’s about networks. (Consider the iconic achievement of eBay and craigslist). And the art world is no different. Choreographers and directors, for example, understand the treacherous seduction of “vanity plate” organizations: that the institution may begin to overburden and overshadow the art. More and more, I meet young dancemakers who are opting to form a choreographic collective rather than an eponymous company. They want administrative dexterity, and they understand that strength doesn’t have to come from an organization that is large and solid. There is also the tensile strength that comes from the relational forces of a network.
- Real art isn’t fun
Once upon a time, it was “Art” with a capital “A,” befitting the gravitas of the enterprise. Art was Art, and entertainment was entertainment, and never the twain were to meet. But the twenty-first century has given lie to the distinction between high and low. Today the two discourses have found each other, and brought out the best in each other. Art can be fun. What’s more, our audiences can enjoy themselves!
- Column inches equal ticket/art sales
Once upon a time, getting press was the holy grail of the marketing campaign. If only the local daily would tout our upcoming production, then the audiences would come. That may well still hold true for a narrow range of demographics, and a narrow range of artforms, but for the majority of artists, newspapers column inches do not translate into audiences. For one thing, not all audience segments get their arts information from the newspaper. (Think young people, think web.) For another thing, today’s savvy audiences want a much more direct and intimate relationship with you than they can get through an article. They want to feel the love. In the twenty-first world of customized customer relationships, we in the arts need to pay more attention, and more respect, to our audiences.
I’m curious — tell me what you’re doing to overcome limiting beliefs.
All best,
Ann
May 2005