Michael Kaiser on the Future of the Arts in America

Dear Friends of NMPAS!

I wanted to post a link to this article because it addresses something that all of us who love live music think about frequently: What is the future of the performing arts?

In “Curtains: The Future of the Arts in America,” Michael Kaiser, former Director of the Kennedy Center, says a few things that I’d like to emphasize. This material comes from an article by Jordan Levin of the Miami Herald. The link to the complete Miami Herald article by Jordan Levin is posted at the bottom of this excerpted text:

“His method, based on building an engaged and happy ‘family’ of board members, donors, audiences and community through a combination of creative, high quality programming and intense marketing and outreach, has become a kind of standard operating system for the arts.”

“If I’m a local theater or ballet or opera company and I’m going to compete with this online presence [which is previously defined in the article] then I had better be doing work that’s really interesting and special and has something really unique,” he [Kaiser] says. “Or I will be viewed as a poor, expensive competitor to what I can get online.”

The solutions Kaiser offers largely come from his DeVos [Institute] toolkit; doing high quality, innovative programming, with a laser focus on building your community and brand.”

And, finally, he says that it’s not the argument that the arts are good for society that will win people over: “But good performances do. Excitement, word of mouth, people going ‘wow,’ that’s something to see.”

The Mission and Vision of New Mexico Performing Arts Society, as well as audience, artist and community responses to our programs, very much resonate with Michael Kaiser’s vision for the future of arts organizations like ours.

There is lots of new information about the 2017-2018 NMPAS season on our new website. We invite you to visit us at: www.nmpas.org

Warm regards,

Linda Marianiello

Link to the complete article: www.miamiherald.com/opinion/issues-ideas/article17415302.html