The Cycle: A Practical Approach to Managing Arts Organizations

by Michael M. Kaiser, Brett E. Egan

Overview

In the third book of his popular trilogy on creating and sustaining arts organizations, Michael Kaiser reveals the hidden engine that powers consistent success. According to Kaiser, successful arts organizations pursue strong programmatic marketing campaigns that compel people to buy tickets, enroll in classes, and so on—in short, to participate in the organization’s programs. Additionally, they create exciting activities that draw people to the organization as a whole. This institutional marketing creates a sense of enthusiasm that attracts donors, board members, and volunteers. Kaiser calls this group of external supporters the family. When this hidden engine is humming, staff, board, and audience members, artists, and donors feel confidence in the future. Resources are reinvested in more and better art, which is marketed aggressively; as a result, the “family” continues to grow, providing even more resources. This self-reinforcing cycle underlies the activities of all healthy arts organizations, and the theory behind it can be used as a diagnostic tool to reveal—and remedy—the problems of troubled ones. This book addresses each element of the cycle in the hope that more arts organizations around the globe—from orchestras, theaters, museums, opera companies, and classical and modern dance organizations to service organizations and other not-for-profit cultural institutions—will be able to sustain remarkable creativity, pay the bills, and have fun doing so!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611684001
Publisher:	Brandeis University Press
Publication date:	09/03/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

MICHAEL M. KAISER is president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and author of The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations and Leading Roles: 50 Questions Every Arts Board Should Ask. BRETT E. EGAN, director of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center, leads training, planning, and consulting initiatives in the United States and abroad.

Table of Contents

Authors’ Note • Introduction • Programming: It Is All about the Art • Programmatic Marketing: Putting Butts in Seats • Institutional Marketing: Image Is Everything • Building the Base: It’s All in the Family • Assembling a Productive Board: The Head of the Family • Generating Revenue: Earning Rent from the Cycle • Controlling Expenses: Not Glamorous, but Essential • Implementing the Cycle: The Cycle Worksheet • When the Cycle Breaks • The Cycle and Strategic Planning • Epilogue • Acknowledgments

What People are Saying About This

Dennis Scholl

“Michael Kaiser has done it again: The Cycle is a road map for arts organizations that want to connect their mission to their financial success. The book takes you through a step-by-step process that allows your artistic strengths to be leveraged into financial resources.”

Editorial Reviews

Writing with Egan, director of the Devos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center president Kaiser (The Art of the Turnaround) synthesizes the most important best practices for nonprofit arts organizations. Hoping to reach small organizations, Kaiser has created a concise handbook for achieving success. The third in Kaiser’s trilogy on managing arts organizations, this volume is prescriptive, straightforward, and realistic: “Institutional marketing events and activities must be laid out periodically over a period of months and years. Small or mid-sized nonprofits should have something of note happening every quarter, while large organizations must have something major every month.” Even arts managers with expertise in board development or institutional marketing can appreciate a book that gathers these topics together in one package. Kaiser calls his holistic method for the management of arts organizations “the cycle: every activity—programming, programmatic and institutional marketing, developing relationships with important constituents, and even controlling costs—feeds into a beneficial cycle that increases the impact of the institution.” Kaiser has worked with the Kennedy Center, the Royal Opera House, American Ballet Theatre, and Alvin Ailey and uses anecdotes from his experience with all of these organizations to strengthen his arguments. How­ever, his advice can be applied to other types of nonprofits as well. 11 illus. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

The third in Kaiser’s trilogy on managing arts organizations, this volume is prescriptive, straightforward, and realistic.”—Publishers Weekly


“The next best things to having Michael Kaiser, ‘the turnaround king,’ in one’s office, may just be having a copy of The Cycle: A Practical Approach to Managing Arts Organizations  on one’s bookshelf. This third book in a trilogy affords palpable arts-managerial advice that takes on a different life with each read.”—American Journal of Arts Management


“Michael Kaiser has written an invaluable guide to managing arts organizations for success and sustainable growth. His clear insights are accompanied by a deliberate approach and simple tools specifically designed to help small and midsize arts organizations tackle what can otherwise feel like complicated and overwhelming tasks. Loaded with ‘aha moments,’ The Cycle should be read and reread as an ongoing resource that can be shared with colleagues.” —Anita Contini, Bloomberg Philanthropies

From the Publisher