Analysis of Community Arts Management - Report Example

Community Arts Management Student’s Name Professor Subject University/Institution 18th March, 2012. Table of Contents Community Arts Management 3 Introduction 3 Challenges 3 Financial constraints 4 Changing Demographics 5 Technological Advances 7 Shifts in culture 8 Global Culture Consumer 9 Competition faced by community arts organizations from commercial leisure options 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Community Arts Management Introduction Community Arts Management is an interdisciplinary which blends artistic aspects with managerial aspects and therefore set to give necessary practices and theories that are of value to people who practice arts careers in the community. Community Arts Management aims at promoting the multi faceted aspect of arts in the community and thus it is in line with the ever growing field of arts for instance, theatres are becoming more and more complex in the global world in a bid to incorporate diversity, dance groups are also becoming complex among others like art centers and music organizations that continue to crop up every now and then in the society. In this regard too, the business of arts in most cases is run for non – profit basis and such an organization requires management practices for instance staff management, marketing the organization, managing the budgetary issues of the organization, fundraising in important events, development of projects that are to continue keeping the arts organization at the top of other arts organizations in the community and compete with other commercial leisure organizations, evaluation of performance of the arts organization, public and board relations among others (Zukin, 1989). Challenges Challenges that face community arts management can be classified into internal or external challenges, that is the internal challenges are the challenges that are within the control of the management team and hence the management of the arts organization can do something to improve or avoid the challenges for instance financials of the arts organization, the board of directors, the organization’s ethics among other examples. External challenges on the other hand refer to the factors that face the community arts management and the management has no control over for instance, political factors, cultural influences, technological advances and the ever changing face of technology are just but a mention of a few external challenges. For the overall delivery of the paper as to the challenges that are facing community arts management, the approach that will be used in the paper is whereby both the internal and external factors challenging the community arts management are to be discussed consecutively for the difficultly in separating them due to their congruence in forming the challenges impacting on community arts management. Financial constraints To begin with, most community arts organizations are started by the community and therefore run on stringent budgets. These arts management organization therefore have issues whenever new technologies crop up for their stringent budgets do not allow them to expand at a faster rate and cater for changes. If forecasted for the next five years, the technology that is there today will be different and hence these community arts organizations would be expected to update or improve their technologies and hence a challenge for the management of a community arts organization that is run by the community with no external funding (Zukin, 1989). Community arts management need to realize that there is a pool of young clients who can be tapped to the community arts organization through incorporating technology in the marketing strategies of the community arts organizations. For instance, if social media sites like face book and twitter are used in marketing community arts organizations, then the pool of youngsters would be drawn into the community arts program. This is therefore a threat to community arts managers for it is apparent that in the next five years, community arts organizations that would not have incorporated modern technology would be at the risk of being faced out by modern community arts organizations. Another issue then emerges as to the ease with which community arts managers can simply switch to new technologies as modern technologies emerge overnight? This is a looming time bomb for many community managers are unaware of how to solve the dilemma. Changing Demographics In general, societies all over the world are changing in their demography and also in their ethnic component and this is having a negative influence on community arts management marketing strategies for rarely can the management assume that their target consumer is from a particular culture. Taking an example of a society that has changed and continues to change in its ethnic make – up over time is the Asian – Australian multi cultural composition. With the world’s population projected to increase, the need for community arts management to continually respond to the needs of this heterogeneous society becomes ubiquitous. Multi cultural societies presents a challenge more so to community arts managers in that the heterogeneous society needs are variant in terms of their consumption of artistic tastes and hence a challenge to the management when marketing the community arts organization. On the positive side but also a challenge, is how the community arts management can use the heterogeneity in the societies to the advantage of community arts organizations for instance the Asian – Australian society to form a background for international marketing for the community arts organizations. When taken into consideration, the basis of understanding the international community in the context of artistic work is the principle that such heterogeneity in society can also be used to study the international market but community arts management boards responds slowly to such opportunities and hence a challenge (Bergonzi & Julia, 1996). Technological Advances The technological world is changing at a faster rate than even the community arts organization can barely catch up with. These changes in technology continue to change the lifestyle of people with no indication that the technological advances are to slow down in the next five years. The impact of technological changes, inventions and innovations is that the youth are the ones who are continuously being carried away and quickly adopting to the new technology. Devises like iPods, MP3s, computer and video games are shifting the focus of the young generation from being consumers of arts products to consumers of the new technological innovations and inventions. Technological advances are changing the way the entertainment market is operating to the extent that many of the technological advancements are providing cultural experiences, the culture experience of generation Y; the digital culture generation. Generation Y has more information on how to gain culture experiences from digital equipment like video cameras if not curate own experiences from artistic technological advancements (Anderson, 2006). Due to the availability of internet and other technologies, arts consumers also have a wide range of entertainment sources from which to choose from. The consumer is more than ever informed on where to spend the amount he or she allocates to entertainment. It is therefore a challenge for community arts management to facilitate cultural consumption in the society to the extent that the technological advances can be used to facilitate artistic proliferation in the society for instance through advertising artistic products on the internet and therefore provide what the consumer wants. Therefore in this era where technology is eminent, community arts management need to come to the realization that it may not be business as usual without technology. However, when addressing the issue of technology impact to community arts organizations, it is also important to note that not all the technological advances and innovations are a threat to community arts management and organization by making artistic creations obsolete, technology is also enabling artists to flourish by enabling artists to create products that are less costly through such processes like mechanization. Shifts in culture Gone are the days when culture was valued in the society/community and with this, government intervention in community arts organization has created a dynamic change to the viability of arts in the community to arts as a means through which the economic and social worth is determined. Community arts organizations embedded to non responsive cultural changes are therefore at a threat of becoming outdated or obsolete due to the changes in the consumer arts tastes (Zukin, 1989). Therefore such community arts organizations are in the risk of continuing to operate in conditions that are outdated or bypassed by time without realizing that times have changed and that also art work needs to change because it is not static and hence dynamic as change. It is also an undisputed fact to claim that the way people are valuing culture in the modern day is very different from the way people valued culture in the olden days and hence the relativity of the value of culture in substance and also in style even in the next five years. To also say that the world is a global village is also an understatement in that cultural erosion has taken place so much that it is hard to single out a particular culture as belonging to a particular society and therefore a challenge to community arts management. Questions ranges as to what community arts organizations should incorporate as their core business. Should such organizations diversify to incorporate other art work from other cultures? If that is the case then, what should be the extent of organization’s diversity? Can community arts management fully capture the tastes of every customer of the organization? Shifts in culture also bring us to the next premise that is created in community arts organization that is the challenge of imbalance. Not unless the cultural shifts facing community arts organizations corresponds with the financial gain when cultural changes are implemented in the community arts organizations, the projected revenues are to remain stagnant and thus a challenge to the community arts management. As previously stated in the introduction section that among the roles of a community arts management is the development of projects that are aimed putting a particular community arts organization in the forefront of its competitors if not at par; the financial investments and should enable the community arts organization to survive the financial hardships. Global Culture Consumer With diversification and integration of many cultures to a global culture, another challenge emerges whereby the global culture consumer has his or her own expectations of artistic products. Therefore artists and community arts management are expected to be culture responsive, technology responsive, market responsive, and high quality artistic products among other expectations of the global culture consumer. Community arts management therefore has to devise strategies that overlook the local community setting of the community arts organization to strategies that are global (Bergonzi & Julia, 1996). Competition faced by community arts organizations from commercial leisure options Commercial leisure organizations are increasingly posing a challenge to community arts organizations in that the commercial leisure organizations are after the interests of their own profits and hence are very aware of the ever changing consumer needs, tastes and preferences and hence produce what the consumer requires. On the other hand, community arts organizations remain blind to emerging trends that continue to shape and reshape arts in the modern world. While community arts organizations still continue to blame economic downfalls experienced in the world as the main reasons for the pulling away of audiences from their organizations, commercial leisure organizations competing with community arts organizations continues to show that community arts organizations are experiencing a structural change for arts environment has changed over time all over the world. Well, the competition that faces community arts management will still continue to loom even in the next five years, and hence the need for community arts organization to compete and upgrade their services in order to be at par with the commercial arts organizations. Commercial leisure organizations are flexible enough to the extent that they offer personalized cultural experiences to their consumer and therefore their consumers become loyal to their products. On the other hand, community arts organizations are non responsive to customizing their products to suit the consumer and hence they end up being overshadowed by their competitors. To overcome the challenge, community arts management has to structure community arts organizations in a way that they can capture the hyper sensitive expectations of the consumer in the global market (Bergonzi & Julia, 1996). Conclusion The major and most striking issues or challenges that community arts management faces and will continue to face even after five years are factors or challenges that there is no guarantee that they can and will remain constant; technological advances and globalization. In light of these factors, there is need for community arts management to catch up and hence respond to the changing situations in the arts industry. These changes will take different forms for instance offering education to community arts managers, administrators and marketers the education that is needed to cope with the ever increasing competition in the arts industry. Areas like training in formal management of community arts organizations for the overall effective management of arts organizations are a necessary evil in the awakening of the current Y generation that needs to take charge of the arts industry and incorporate its own touch to the industry other than relying on previous gurus in the arts industry who have little or no interest in advances for instance technology advances and the wider expectations of the global arts consumer. With these said, the challenges when effectively tackled will ensure that an overarching framework in the community arts organization that even has provision for modern changes is reached (Anderson, 2006). Hence these challenges may not actually be challenges only on the negative side but avenues through which the management of community arts organizations gets an insight as how to effectively tackle the changes that is to be experienced in the industry even in the next five years and beyond. References Anderson, C. (2006). The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Loss of More. Hyperion, New York. Bergonzi, M. & Julia, S. (1996). Effects of Arts Education on Participation in the Arts. National Endowment for the Arts. Washington, D. C. Zukin, S. (1989). Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Read More