The Value of Sharing: Social Engagement

You know you are SUPPOSED to market your arts organization with Social Media, but the messages are confusing. What will work to reach your audience? Who shares what? Where?

No one is better placed to answer these questions than the people behind the "Share This" applet, that is most used to link social networking applications (for example post a link from a blog post to Twitter). Their articles and charts are invaluable in deciding which applications you should be focusing on in disseminating your message.

The Value of Sharing: Social Engagement

Posted using ShareThis

Arts Vote Toronto says, "I am an Artist and I Vote!"

If you are a Toronto artist, work for an arts organization or you directly or indirectly have business ties with artists & cultural attractions in Toronto (marketers, web designers, printers, hotels & restaurants etc.) then you'll want to assure that you know which candidates in the upcoming Toronto elections understand the importance of the arts to the quality of life in Toronto and to the tourist economy.

Sign up at Arts Vote today to keep in the picture.

Arts Vote launch rally. 5 pm Tues. Nov. 17 @ the Urbanspace Art Gallery, 401 Richmond

Tafelmusik launches "Sing-a-long Messiah Contest" on YouTube

The folks at Tafelmusik succeed year after year not only with great music (they are among the best that Toronto has to offer) but also with the novel ways that they come up with to connect the music of the past with what is happening here and now in our world. They have achieved this through collaborations with new composers; placing their work in the context of festivals of art like the Metamorphosis festival that draws from new and old works; and now with a fun contest that is powered by the popularity of YouTube and karaoke. Great marketing ideas like this should be celebrated. What makes this one great is that it isn't just about getting bums in the seats for Tafelmusik's Messiah this season (not that selling tickets isn't important) but we are all tired and burned out by clever marketing that is just about "buy, buy, consume, consume". This campaign is qualitatively different: it is about getting people singing and involved in the arts. That's important at so many different levels.

If you love to sing and aren't shy check out Tafelmusik's website for all the information on the contest.

Peter Stoll, clarinet, Nov. 5 @ noon, free lunchtime concert

If you are going to be anywhere near the University of Toronto, 's Faculty of Music building (just south of the Royal Ontario Museum, behind the old planetarium) you might like to catch what promises to be a lively concert with one of Toronto's most versatile and active clarinetest.

Peter writes in his email of today, "A quick email just for those in the T.O. area who might be interested, this Thursday November 5, I'm playing a free recital at UofT's Faculty of Music, the Edward Johnson Building, in Walter Hall, noon-1pm. Fun stuff, some classical, some jazz, some klezmer, 3 different sizes of clarinets, hope you can make it!"

By the way, Peter has a new website. If you are a music-lover in Toronto, you'll want to bookmark it.

Protesting Cuts to the Diversity in Music Program--Oct. 26 @ 6 pm

Cutting The Album
Monday October 26 2009
6PM - 8PM
CBC Front Street to Nathan Phillips Square

Hello Friends,

Heritage Minister, James Moore recently announced that 1.3 million
dollars from the Canada Music Fund’s annual budget would be
redirected away from the Canada Council. This has resulted in the
cancellation of the CCA’s Music Diversity Program, which, for the
past 20 years, has provided integral support for recording and
marketing to artists who are on the forefront of forging new,
innovative, and distinctly Canadian culture.

We've decided that a parade was in order. We will be meeting at CBC,
250 Front Street, on Monday October 26th at 6pm. Below you'll find
our routing. The parade will be interspersed with speeches at various
strategic locations. The parade will culminate at Nathan Phillips
Square, where Christine Duncan's Element Choir will perform and no
doubt create a stir.

The goal of this parade is to create awareness in our wake among the
public. We'll be soliciting the press and hope to get a lot of
coverage. Some of us will have clipboards in hand to offer the
general public a chance to sign our petition, and others will be
handing out pertinent literature.

All the while, our drummers and horn players will be propelling us
along the streets in a free-form New Orleans style funeral
procession. Bring your pots and pans, bells and other noise makers to
join in the fun. Bring your cameras too, we'd like to send the
Heritage Minister some photos of our event. Bring your thermoses to
stay warm, too!

At the end of the parade, before the Elements go on, Andrew Cash will
give a little talk on behalf of Charlie Angus' office, who are
currently leading an inquiry with the Heritage Committee. We then
invite you to present Andrew with your letters that he can deliver to
the committee in Ottawa, as well mix cds that you can make comprised
of music that was made with the assistance of the sound recording grant.

- We still need more clipboard volunteers and people to hand out flyers
- Please contact me if you plan on bringing drums and horns
- Write your letters and make your mix tapes that will be delivered
to the committee!!
- If we have already been in contact with you about speaking, please
write back to confirm your interest.

Here's the route:

6:00 meet at CBC
6:15 process on John to Roy Thompson Hall (speech)
6:40 King to Peter to Queen - Lush on Queen (speech)
7:05 Queen to Yonge to Dundas (speeches)
7:25 Dundas to Bay to Queen to Nathan Phillips Square
7:40 Speech and Element Choir
post-parade hot chocolate at a meeting place TBD

Looking for a great holiday theatre experience for students?

If you are in travelling distance of Toronto you won't want to miss this great event!

Puppetmongers @ the Tarragon Extra Space
7 School Shows only
December 15 through 18, 2009
10 am and 1:30 pm

History and fun are integrated in this imaginative retelling of the classic fairy tale. Puppetmongers reset the story in 1834, just as “Muddy” York is to be renamed Toronto, and Ella is expected to cater to every whim of her just-off-the-boat-from-England stepmother and sisters. With a little magic and some imaginative special effects she does get herself to the Ball, and to the satisfying conclusion of the tale. The play is ingeniously staged with a traditional marionette theatre that transforms, as the story unfolds, into scenes evoking the wilderness, pioneer life and early Canadian society.

This is a Cinderella that Canadian children can call their own!

Single Tickets: $8.00

Book the whole theatre of 100 seats for $700

more info at: http://www.puppetmongers.com

Abousfian Abdelrazik Speaks in Toronto

Forwarded from TASC

Delist and Desist!
Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture.
Abousfian Abdelrazik Speaks in Toronto
With an Introduction by Dr. Sherene Razack

Thursday, October 8, 2009, 7:15 pm
Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street (just west of St. George, south of
College)
Free.

Abousfian Abdelrazik is a Canadian citizen who was detained, interrogated, and tortured in Sudan with the complicity of our own government (see http://peoplescommission.org/en/abdelrazik/ for further background). Indeed, the Federal Court of Canada found earlier this
year that spy agency CSIS was complicit in his detention.

His six-year saga of trying to come home to his loved ones (including a year-plus stay in a small corner of the Canadian embassy in Khartoum) was blocked at every stage by a variety of levels of the Canadian government, including CSIS and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Never charged, he was beaten, threatened and tortured during two periods of detention. Abdelrazik was interrogated by CSIS officials, and separately by Sudanese and French intelligence agents and the FBI. The Canadian embassy was instructed by the Canadian government that: "Mission staff should not accompany Abdelrazik to his interview with
the FBI."

Released and cleared of all suspicion by Sudan in 2006, and then by the RCMP and CSIS in late 2007, his many attempts to return home to Montreal were repeatedly blocked.

The grass roots efforts of hundreds of people across Canada led to a historic court order that forced the Canadian government to allow Abdelrazik to come home. He was finally reunited with his family in June of this year. Yet his struggle continues.

His name remains on the United Nations 1267 list. This list imposes a travel ban and complete asset freeze on listed individuals. Canadian regulations implementing the 1267 list prohibit anyone from providing Abdelrazik with any material aid - including salary, loans of any
amount, food or clothing. This makes it impossible for him to live a normal life.

Abdelrazik was not told that he was being placed on the list, was not told why he was on the list, and was given no opportunity to defend himself. As Federal Court Judge Russel Zinn said in his ruling forcing the government to let Abdelrazik return, "There is nothing in the (1267) listing or de-listing procedure that recognizes the principles of natural justice or that provides for basic procedural fairness."

No one has been held responsible for the grave injustices and terrible violence he has suffered.

As Abdelrazik undertakes the challenge of recovering a life of dignity for himself and his family, Mr. Abdelrazik is coming to Toronto as part of a national speaking tour so that he can meet his supporters and share his story in person. It is his hope to be "delisted" from the UN list, and to see true accountability at the federal government level.

Mr. Abdelrazik's horrific experience is part of a broader Canadian pattern of involvement in torture, and his talk on October 8 kicks off a speakers series that will focus on other cases of Canadian complicity in the most brutal human rights abuses imaginable. Watch for future
speaking events featuring Abdullah Almalki (http://www.abdullahalmalki.com/), individuals subject to secret trial security certificates, a focus on Canadian involvement in the U.S.-based School of the Assassins, Benamar Benatta (http://benamarbenatta.com/), and more.

(Dr. Sherene Razack is a professor, Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. She is also the author of the remarkable Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims From Western Law and Politics as well as
Dark Threats and White Knights: The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping and the New Imperialism)

Organized by Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture and Christian Peacemaker Teams Canada, endorsed by the Centre for Integrated Anti-Racism Studies (CIARS) at OISE.

Sponsored nationally by Project Fly Home, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Council of Canadians, Council on American-Islamic Relations - Canada (CAIRCAN), International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), and the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA).

If you cannot make it to the Toronto event, Mr. Abdelrazik is speaking in many other parts of Canada. See his schedule at http://peoplescommission.org/en/abdelrazik/events.php

For further information: tasc@web.ca, (416) 651-5800 ext. 1

Rogers Communications television advertisement promotes ageism

"My name is Mary, and I've just discovered the Internet, but I know it is the future" said the gray haired woman on a recent Rogers Communications television advertisement.

As an age contempory of "Mary"'s I wanted to scream and throw a cellphone at the screen... but luckily my cellphone service is Bell.

But let's think about the premise of this advertisement. Unless "Mary" has been living under a rock for the past couple of decades, she has likely been using computers for most if not all of her working life. If, like me, she is a veteran of the punch card, DOS and early word-processing programs, she likely can run rings around some younger people in understanding her computer and getting it to do what she needs.

I know that there was once a time when I thought of computers as being "the future". That was in the 1960's when I was an elementary school student and we had an opportunity to learn some simple programming using computer punch cards, prior to the silicon chip, or later in university when, as a theatre student I got to play around with some of the earlier Moog synthesizers and made some early experiments in computer-generated video art with a Sony portapak.

I'm an artsey, not a computer whiz kid but computers have come into mainstream aspects of my life since the 1980's. I learned my first wordprocessing program on a Commodore 64 and in 1985 I was hired in an office job that required me to create a simple database for a YWCA branch in a new program called Q & A. I taught myself DOS, in order to write the batch files needed to sort the data, and became the office "computer expert" by being one step ahead of the rest of the staff in computer knowledge.

In the 1990's it was easy for those of us that had used older wordprocessing programs like Easy Script or Wordstar to learn html as the codes for centering, emboldening, tables, etc. were exactly like those we had learn to format text for print output. I took to website design like a duck to water, creating sites for volunteer organizations, family, and work projects for my various arts and non-profit employers. Mail lists and e-newsletter creation have been a part of the arts marketing strategy in all of my organizations for about 12 years.

These days I'm an avid user of social media, a blogger, and coordinate a cutting edge arts series in virtual reality. In my various management positions I have trained many entry staff members to use computer software on the job. I can attest to the fact that being able to text friends or Twitter a photo does not mean that the employee will be able to generate mail merges, use accounting software, has the basics of desktop publishing, can navigate a spreadsheet, or can print a simple mailing label.

Obviously, the Rogers ad struck a very sour note with me but in all seriousness, the advertisement is seriously out-of-step with reality and does a real disservice to the many working men and women with up to date job skills but who struggle with the type of age prejudice evident in the Rogers advertisement. On what basis did Rogers think that a late 50's woman would be credible as someone "just discovering the internet"? Would they make the same supposition about a visible minority member and not expect a backlash?

I hope that all of the women my age let Rogers know what they think about their recent media campaign. For a company that has had some very clever advertising, this one is just dumb.

Bad fences make bad neighbours

Toronto Public Space Committee
Organizing Meeting for De-fencing project
Tonight, Aug. 4 @ Trinity Bellwoods Park
7 pm (at the painted dog)

chain link fence.

a self-imposed rusty barrier between neighbours.

properties surrounded by chain link look more like jailyards than homes.

fences create feelings of isolation and detachment.

by taking them down, we encourage a process of community building.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

De-Fencing is good exercise, lots of fun and opens up our neighbourhoods! Join us for our first Volunteer Meeting of the year! We need help to get this project off the ground in '09.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Other good things happening in the park on the same day:

BEFORE: 3pm to 7pm - Trinity Bellwoods Farmers' Market at Crawford & Dundas.

AFTER: Weekly Drum Circle in the pit.

Aradia @ Grano Aug. 7 2009

Have you heard Toronto's other early music orchestra? I have and they are great. Here's a neat invitation from them.

Enjoy Toronto's Award Winning Italian Cusine at GRANO resturant while listening the ARADIA Ensemble.

ARADIA ensemble at grano
2035 yonge street, toronto
Concerto Italiano
Friday August 7

6.30 aperitivi all'aperto
7.30 concerto
8.30 optional dinner with wine with the
musicians

$ 20.00 (suggested donation) for L'orto del popolo / The People's Garden; a project of The Stop Community Food Centre at Wychwood Barns to celebrate the cultural/social significance of the backyard garden in all communities

$ 50.00 above plus dinner with wine

RSVP 416 440 1986 or rdm@grano.ca

Good deeds with denim

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported a new twist on casual Fridays. Some corporations are tying the right to wear jeans on Friday to a small contribution to an employee selected charity.

Great idea!

A Barbie Opera for the 21st Century

I love the zany minds at Toca Loca, not to mention their prodigious talent. Perhaps it is only because I am so active in Second Life that I draw parallels between the Barbie dolls of their upcoming "marionette opera" production and the Barbie doll-like avatars that are so prevalent in the current Metaverse.

Just as the press release for Toca Loca's upcoming production states, there can be a dark side to the beautiful perfection and cheerleader smiles of avatars. The cruel side of human nature seems to feel free to be expressed at a safe remove from the real.

*******************
XXX Live Nude Girls

Phone:	4165047529
Email:	toca@tocaloca.com

August 6th 4:30pm
August 8th 8:30pm
August 10th 6:30pm
August 12th 10:30pm
August 15th 6:30pm
August 16th 12:30pm

A Barbie Opera for the 21st Century!
Though partly inspired by the marionette operas of Mozart and Haydn, Jennifer Walshe’s XXX Live Nude Girls will never be seen at the Four Seasons Centre. Her gritty, lo-fi score drives this exposé into the shiny plastic world of Barbie.

Produced by Toca Loca and directed by Graham Cozzubbo in conjuction with the Summerworks Festival, XXX dispels the stereotype of boys making war while girls host garden parties. Truth is, when playing with Barbies, cruel abuses are often closer to the rule than the exception. Sometimes the sweet girls just ain’t that sweet.

Starring Patricia O'Callaghan, Christine Duncan, Ginette Mohr and Kate Fenton.

The Company
Graham Cozzubbo - Stage Director
Gregory Oh - Music Director
Jennifer Walshe - Composer
Lina Marquez - Costume Design
Yesim Tosuner - Graphic Design
Daryl Banks - Photographer
Ginette Mohr - Puppets
Kate Fenton - Puppets
Christine Duncan - Vocals
Patricia O'Callaghan - Vocals
Max Christie - Clarinets
Mary-Katherine Finch - Cello
John Lettieri - Accordion
Steve Ward - Trombone
Derick Greenly - Video/Tech
Callan Burgess - Video

Blog: xxxlivenudegirls.blogspot.com
Tickets: artsboxoffice.ca
Festival Info: summerworks.ca

Warning: Crude Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexual Violence and Doll Nudity. This show is not suitable for children.

Will technology provide the means to a renewal of participatory democracy?

Forwarding on a press release that I got in my email today about an interesting presentation in virtual reality. I have been thinking a lot lately about the almost religious fervor people have for social media and their belief that it is going to change the world. There are some powerful communication tools out there. One only needs to look at tweets (twitter posts) with the hashtag #iranelection to see how ineffective shutting down news is these days when anyone with a cellphone, a blackberry, or a laptop can get news out. That's the encouraging news.

On the discouraging front, this past week my husband asked his online group of teachers. (These are all practicing teachers already engaged in teaching our kids) to use a wiki to do some collaborative writing for a group projects. He set up the wiki in the very user-friendly Wikispaces platform. All four of the project groups rebelled. They found using a wiki too complicated and no one had "trained" them on this tool. Sigh. I wondered aloud if they needed someone to train them on the use of a pencil since wiki's are almost as common a writing tool in our current era.

But that is the dilemma. We have these great tools but only the technologically literate are truly using them. While I intend to write more on this, here's the information on this Monday's talk. It's worth dropping into Second Life for.

Beth Noveck talks about Wiki Government in Second Life on July 20th!

Please join a Second Life simulcast, from the Markle Foundation, of Beth Simone Noveck, now the deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House responsible for Open Government, presenting her new book, WIKI GOVERNMENT: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A, in which participants from both Second Life and in person can ask questions of the author.

In the digital age our lives are constantly being transformed by the way in which we connect and collaborate with one another, affecting the way we make decisions - on a personal level, an institutional level, and a national level. Drawing on her expertise, and more directly her experience in creating Peer-to-Patent, the federal government's first social networking initiative, Ms. Noveck's Wiki Government insightfully demonstrates how technology, along with citizen participation, can help the government become more open and effective at solving the complex social and economic problems we face today.

The event will begin at 12:00pm EST/9:00am PST on Monday, July 20, 2009 and will take place in Second Life on MacArthur Island (click here to teleport http://slurl.com/secondlife/Foundations/109/231/34).

-----------------------------------------------

Further information

WIKI GOVERNMENT: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful

In the digital age our lives are constantly being transformed by the way in which we connect and collaborate with one another, affecting the way we make decisions - on a personal level, an institutional level, and a national level.

Beth Simone Noveck's book provides a coherent and compelling "new vision of governance in the digital age - collaborative democracy - government with the people."

Drawing on her expertise, and more directly her experience in creating Peer-to-Patent, the federal government's first social networking initiative, Ms. Noveck's Wiki Government insightfully demonstrates how technology, along with citizen participation, can help the government become more open and effective at solving the complex social and economic problems we face today.

About the Author:

Beth Simone Noveck is the United States deputy chief technology officer for open government and leads President Obama's Open Government Initiative. Based at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, she is an expert on technology and institutional innovation. Previously, Noveck directed the Institute for Information Law & Policy and the Democracy Design Workshop at New York Law School. She is founder of the "Do Tank," and the State of Play Conferences, and launched the first of its kind Peer-to-Patent Community Patent Review project in collaboration with the United States Patent and Trade Office. As a professor of Law at New York Law School, she has taught in the areas of intellectual property, innovation, and constitutional law, as well as courses on electronic democracy and electronic government.

To read more, please go to http://www.nyls.edu/faculty/faculty_profiles/beth_simone_noveck.

Will more public engagment or more electronic media be the future of the arts

While recently the Met was reported to be contemplating replacing its' summer programming with filmed performances shown on the big screen, the public was more engaged in filming and tweeting about the 30 public pianos that the city of London had placed on the streets.

“They’re out there to get people talking to one another and to claim ownership and activate the public space,” said the creator of the project, Luke Jerram, an artist who lives in Bristol.

Using obvious search terms in Twitter I found no one chatting in the public commons about the possibility of the Met replacing summer opera with its big screen version. It would seem that news was a big snore, while by contrast I immediately found 140 recent tweets on London's street pianos. Does this simply mean that in a day of social media viral news that anything you can capture on your cellphone, digitally broadcast to blogs, YouTube, and tweet about is going to have the edge?

Or does it mean something more important about our culture's relationship to art at this moment in history?

I think the signs are there that people want to take back art from the star system, from corporate control, big record systems, film studios and corporations. From the popularity of shows like American Idol to the rise of YouTube videos to the "do-it-yourself" atmosphere of the Arts in the virtual world of Second Life, more people are spending their entertainment hours watching the little guy and more people are engaging in making art instead of being passive observers.

Toronto Bubble Battle July 11 @ 3 pm

Never has a Smart Mob had so much fun as blowing Bubbles at the annual Bubble Battle organized by the street art group NewMindSpace. The people who brought you the Union Station pillow fight, street car parties, and city wide Capture the Flag games are sending out the news by email, facebook and cellphone to be at King and University tomorrow at 3 pm .... and bring your bubble gear!

Here are my own snaps from 2007

Alain Trudel reaches out to young Canadian composers

I have thought for a long time that Alain Trudel is one of Canada's greatest musical assets. He can conduct, he can sure play trombone, and he has great programming ideas. Isn't it great that he also is concerned about the future of Canadian music? I just had to post this newsrelease that just came into my inbox.

The Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (TSYO) and TSYO Conductor Alain Trudel announce two opportunities for young Canadian musicians. Composers aged 30 or younger can submit their orchestral composition to the TSYO Open Call for Canadian Works, and musicians between the age of 12 and 22 can apply to audition for the 2009.2010 Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra season.

TSYO Conductor Alain Trudel started the TSYO Open Call for Canadian Work as an opportunity for young composers to have their work performed by a full orchestra. “Winning this competition invites young composers to take the next step with their work,” says Alain Trudel. “Hearing your composition with full orchestration brings the work to life and allows the winner to receive feedback from professional conductors and coaches.”

The deadline to submit compositions to the TSYO Open Call for Canadian Works is September 18, 2009. For details on how to apply, visit http://www.tso.ca/season/youth/youth19.cfm

The Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra is also now accepting applications for the 2009.2010 season. Musicians aged 12-22 are invited to apply to this high level training programme using the application form at http://www.tso.ca/season/youth/youth06.cfm. Application forms are due by August 7, 2009. Juried auditions for the TSYO 2009.2010 season will be held on September 11-13, 2009. The TSYO selection jury includes Alain Trudel (TSYO conductor) and TSO musicians Keith Atkinson (TSYO Woodwind Coach), Harcus Hennigar (TSYO Brass Coach), Young-Dae Park (TSYO Violin Coach), Daniel Blackman (TSYO Viola Coach) David Hetherington (TSYO Cello Coach), Paul Rogers (TSYO Double Bass Coach) and David Kent (TSYO Percussion Coach).

To learn more about the TSYO, please visit http://www.tso.ca/season/youth/youth02.cfm

Michael Kaiser's "The Art of the Turnaround"

Yesterday I was reading a post by Jodi Schoenbrun Carter on Michael Kaiser's "Arts in Crisis" program that is a follow-up to his book, "The Art of the Turnaround". I agree one-hundred percent with the sentiment that Kaiser has great ideas, but they are hardly original ideas to most experienced arts managers. You'd be hard-pressed to find any who didn't agree with him, hadn't advocated his main principals to their Boards and hadn't gone away shaking their heads in dismay as Boards failed to listen.

Kaiser says that the quality of art matters, be bold, be brave be revolutionary. Know your Mission and stay on Mission, and spend the money it takes to do it right and market it correctly. You cannot save your way to financial health. He says that the arts are remarkably efficiently run and do not have a spending problem, the arts instead have a revenue problem. Nor can arts organizations win by compromising the art by trying to vie with popular entertainment biz by watering down their season with pop and shlock. Any pickup at the box office will be equalled by loss of donations and funder support.

It makes me tired --as it did Jodi-- to hear this touted as new advice. The question in my mind is, "why does arts management common-sense so often fail to be implemented?" And the answer, I believe, is that there is a flaw in a structure which gives governance of our cultural assets to mostly untrained groups of volunteers, with little or no oversight or accountability. I have seen Boards do amazing things from time to time--saving and revitalizing arts organizations. But too often competent arts managers stagger and fail under the weight of dysfunctional boards that-- while perhaps composed of well-educated and competent individuals-- cannot seem as a group to acquire the knowledge or retain the organizational memory to plan well for their organization's success, or to carry good plans forward into future years of implementation.

If public funds were invested in building a bridge, and the bridge collapsed, people would ask questions, folks would be held accountable, fault would be found and those at fault would pay real costs. I wonder why we are prepared to invest dollars in arts organizations (and non-profits in general) and yet feel we don't have the right to hold Boards accountable?

Canadian Corporations vow to continue charitable support

The big news in the recently released Trends report on philanthropic giving from Ketchum Canada, is that Canadian corporations intend to hold the line on their charitable giving this year. For the past 20 years, Canadian corporate giving as a share of profits has been slightly on the increase. Each year Canadian corporations have put more actual dollars into philanthropic giving and also dug deeper into their pockets. This year they going to have to dig much deeper just to keep the dollar amount at the same level in the companies surveyed in the quarterly report.

Many companies suggested that their multi-year commitments meant that they had an inability to do much to respond to new requests for funding. At the same time companies report many more new requests coming across their desks as charities feel the pinch.

Austere times have meant a shift in priorities for corporations. Galas are going to find it more difficult to sell corporate tables as company heads find it difficult to justify thousands for black tie dinners when they are laying off staff and the charitable needs of healthcare, housing and poverty relief are in the news daily. Many charities are responding with changing their fundraising events or radically scaling them back.

Arts, culture and sports will be the losers as corporations continue to migrate funding to education, healthcare, and community programs.

Accountability is a key word in corporate funding these days. Corporations are selecting priority areas for their charitable dollars and now more than ever, projects seeking funding need to demonstrate how their activities are a fit with corporate goals. Reporting back to the funders on the reach of their corporate dollars--while always an important step in fundraising--is not an absolute requirement for ever being funded again by the corporation.

The 7 tips for non-profits in tough times is well worth reading this small quarterly.

Free Music Garden Concerts start June 28

One of the greatest things about Toronto is all the free live music and art around the city. If you are living on a tight budget, you can still enjoy the "roses" without forgoing your daily "bread". The free concerts in the Yo Yo Ma inspired Music Garden in the City's Harbourfront area is one of the nicest of these events.

At just an hour long in the family-friendly times of Thursdays at 7 pm and Sundays at 4 pm, these concerts are a great opportunity for parents to introduce younger people to serious music. They are not too long and it is an easy thing to take a fussy younger one away for a walk and return awhile later for another taste. Don't forget the sunhats and sunscreen as this is a location near the water and very open to the sunny skies.

This year the line-up is a mixture of traditional chamber music, early music, and small ensemble worldbeat music.

Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston opens the 2009 Season Sunday June 28 at 4 pm. Click here for details for the rest of the season.

Grantwriting Basics -- Grantwriting 101

There's a lot about writing grant applications that crosses international borders and disciplines. I have written successful grant applications since about 1985 for projects as disparate as women's fitness programs, community centre building upgrades, the establishment of a foodbank, the founding of a community music school, building improvements for a Black History museum, a Jewish children's theatre production, an outdoor opera festival, a science-fiction themed audience outreach series surrounding a new opera festival, new music commissioning, outdoor music/theatre in the Ontario northwoods, and scores of more conventional arts projects.

Since the bulk of my grantwriting has been in the Canadian arts--where I have to assume a type of applicant and type of funder--that will be the basis of my examples.

Corporate fundraising uses some of these same techniques but as it is substantially a different process than grantwriting, it will not be explicitly covered in this article. Corporate foundations, on the other hand are foundations and should be handled as a part of your foundation campaign.

IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL FUNDERS

Know your government funders and programs: If you are an arts or non-profit management professional, you likely already know the major funders for your program activities. In the arts at the national level you will be researching programs primarily from Canada Council and Heritage Canada. (From time to time other departments offer programs for foreign travel, international marketing of arts events.) Provincially, you will be looking at provincial arts councils and tourism programs that are available to support marketing for cultural events. Municipally or regionally, you will be looking at the programs of civic, regional, or county arts councils and regional/local tourism initiatives. Don't be afraid to call the Officers administering the programs to ask what programs fit your activities. Book a meeting with them if you are a new grantwriter, or new to the discipline, organization or geographic area. You may learn about programs that fit your planned activities that you didn't spot on the website, or in the literature. Establishing a good relationship with your Grants Officer is a really important first step in grantwriting for an organization.

Subscription databases: If you can afford them and you don't have a good list of funder contacts in your organizational records, you may want to subscribe to one of the subscription databases that are out there. They are expensive but it will only take one additional foundation grant that you would not have received to pay for the Bigonline database or Foundation Search Canada . Even one year of a subscription database will help you build your list of funders to the point where you may not need this resource in future years if cost is an issue. Note that these resources are not without some errors. I have found that where my organization has had an active relationship with a foundation, I have often had more accurate information regarding contacts, programs or even contact information changes. Building and maintaining your own contact list geared to your own program relationships/fits is irreplaceable.

Public tax information of charitable foundations: Okay, you can't afford an online database but you don't have much of a list of past donors in your organization. In fact the most recent foundation files are dated 1999? Sigh. I have so been there and done that. My commisserations!

Here is a real tip. Foundations are in themselves charities. As such they have to file a charitable information return with Canada Revenue. And that return is available to you free ONLINE. You can search the name of any foundation you are interested in, or search on a search term like "Foundation", or by city, to net yourself a list to browse through. You can open up the information to see who is on the Foundation's board and which organizations they have given to in the year of the return.

See below a screen shot of a search on all private foundations in Ontario sorted by city. All those with icons of returns on the right have accessible returns.

Buried deep within the return you will find a list of the projects and organizations funded by the foundation and the amount of each grant. This, together with the listed mission of the foundation, will give you a strong indication about whether this foundation is a fit for your programs and also what level your ask should be at for a program such as yours.


Finally access the foundation contact information of those foundations who fit and add that contact and any other information about website, deadlines, application forms and process to your grantwriting calendar.

Search public and foundation funders of projects like yours: You know who your competition is, who your colleagues are in the community and in neighbouring communities, and a little skill with online search engines and you are able to come up with some unique search terms that will generate a list of programs and services like your own. When you see a pattern of funding projects like your own, pull out all the stops to track that foundation or charitable giving program down. These are key funders with high probability of success.

Don't forget local family foundations: Sometimes we overlook family foundations in our neighbourhoods who may not have a discernible pattern of giving to projects like our own. That is because their giving is focused on all quality of life projects IN OUR BACKYARD. They give a little bit to fitness, some to amateur sport and some to education. If we are looking for "arts funding", we may never find them. However as the local symphony or community arts organization in their community of interest, we fit solidly within the mandate of their foundation and they want to support us! Don't deny them the chance to give us their money.

PREPARING ORGANIZATIONAL AND PROJECT PROFILES: Annually when your next season is well advanced in planning and before the first major operational grants are due, it is a good practice to update Organizational and Project profiles. This main document will be used in the following ways:

1. As is for press-release backgrounders, potential board members, foundation appeals to foundations that lack a set process, as backgrounders to foundation appeals with more targeted content in the main application.
   
2. Tweaked for foundation appeals where the emphasis is on an aspect of the program, expanding some sections, condensing or omitting irrelevant content
3. As fodder to cut and paste into relevant sections of government grant applications and into the application forms for those increasing numbers of foundations that have a formal application process.
   

Your organizational profile document will be about 4 to 7 pages long and will include the following, organized into sections and illustrated with photos, charts and graphs as needed:

1. Mission, Incorporation date and charitable number--if you have a briefer version of your Mission, you may want to use it here.
   
2. Brief history of the organization (updated, brief, and engaging)--focus on accomplishments, programs, community impact, staying away from tedious details that are of internal archival interest only. Quotes are great!
3. Artistic or Leadership statement--Put a photo of your conductor or theatre artistic director beside their own words on what is exciting and valuable about your upcoming program. Don't under-estimate the ability of Artistic Leaders to frame the importance of their work. If they won't write something for you, give them a phone call, write down what they said and send it to them for approval. It will help you as a grantwriter. You may be looking at a season that looks like a hodge-podge. You have no "hook" to hang your thoughts on, but when the Artistic Director tells you the season is a "dialogue between the conventional and the new, the audience's taste and the pressure for artistic innovation"... wow... you are off and running with and angle for your prose.
4. Main Program Description--Describe your artistic season or core programs. While you might start with brochure content here, don't stop there. You want to think always from the standpoint of impact. What are the benefits to the community, artists, the art form, ties to education or multiculturalism in your program? How is this program a stretch for your organization, or the artists in your orchestra?
5. Community Outreach/Education and/or Adjunct Programs--separately describe your audience development and outreach programs. Start with and update the descriptions of annual and recurring programs. Next add what is special and unique about this years programs and share details of one-time programs. Illustrate your content with examples and photos from last year's successful programs. Include participant's quotes. Their words are always going to include more weight than yours, no matter how hot-shot you think you are as a grantwriter!

6. Organization--Who are the key players? Brief bios of artistic leadership and management here. Organizational challenges and triumphs. Any major projects in the coming year. (A Board List will accompany where appropriate).
   
7. Financial Position of the Company--If you have a debt, here's where you explain it. If you have a surplus, here's where you explain why it is needed and why it can't be used for operating. Do you need to save to repair the roof next year, or are you on a cycle with a festival every two years? This is only a good news over-view, you'll need a detailed explanation for funders if you have serious explaining to do. (You'll attach financial statements where needed).

PROJECT PAGES:

1. In addition to your main project description prepare single sheets for specific adjunct and optional projects. Are you going to have two composers visit schools next year? Prepare a "Composers in the Classroom" page. Are you going to have musicians from your orchestra give workshops? Prepare a "Young performers workshops" page. Are amateur ensembles going to play before your concerts? Prepare a "Community Overtures" page.
   
2. Update or create project pages from the former years projects. If you had a successful collaboration with a youth choir last season, do a one-sheeter on it.
3. Try to keep your project titles consistent as that will allow you to send three sheets on "Young Artist Spotlight" that detail past and planned activities. Although the activities may have slightly different aspects, the one linking idea--in this example, young artists on the stage--will allow you to build a case for this stream of activity within your organization.
   

These one sheeters will be used for:

1. Targetted foundation and corporate appeals
2. Reports to donors on prior projects funded
3. Fodder for larger applications
4. To add to or tweak applications to foundations where added emphasis is needed to match the funder's priorities or mission.
   

YOUR GRANTWRITING CALENDAR

1. You can use MS Outlook, a database, or a spreadsheet to construct an annual calendar for you to chart the deadlines and progress of your grantwriting.
   
2. Be sure to keep and include your accumulated knowledge arising from your past successes and failures with the funding body. Many funders ask you when you applied to them last, what for and what was the result.
   
3. As you talk to officers, look at websites, add all information into your grant calendar listing. Link to application forms and guidelines where those exist.
4. Where deadlines are given, you can enter those along with your own projections of when to schedule work on this grant. Many foundations will give vague information such as "meet before the end of each fiscal quarter". You will have to either find out the deadline or plan to have the application in well before the deadline might be anticipated to fall.
   
5. You will determine patterns in your calendar which will allow you to schedule grantwriting weeks where you will lock the doors, turn off the phones for some part of the days and focus on a series of foundation appeals or a major operating grant. In my experience, given basic knowledge and writing skill, the major determiner of a successful grant is the time invested.
   

GRANTWRITING TEAM TASKS:
"Team, what team?" you ask. I smile as I have certainly written many grant applications on my own. However, there are ways to divide up the tasks to work with one or two other staff members in assembling materials for your more major grant applications. Even if it is only you on your lonesome, it may be helpful to you to think of working on your grant applications in terms of these tasks which may be extracted and assigned.

1. Pre-read grant application forms, program guideline sheets AND final checklists, making a list of everything you will need for the grant. Please note that due to over-sight, omission or sadism, there will often be some item that you cannot get at the last minute which will only appear on one of three of these documents, usually the final checklist. If you only look at that as you prepare to mail your application, you will be up a creek without a paddle. Be sure you have defined the deadline properly: is it "postmarked by X date", "in our office before 5 pm on X date", or "in our office before midnight on X date".
   
2. Solicit, acquire and create a file of all needed external and internal documents: These can depending on the program include: financial quotes on equipment you are intending to purchase with grant funds, artistic statements from artistic leaders, signed releases from creative partners, signed Motions of the Board authorizing the application, copies of Letters of Incorporation, signed Financial Statements, work samples on CD's, copies of scores, letters from references, marketing materials, marketing plans from companies on retainer, resumes of partners, etc. You will want to chart progress on these items to avoid nasty surprises.
   
3. Create an electronic "fodder" file: On your computer network create a folder into which you throw copies of all documents likely to be of use to you during the grantwriting process. (You will delete these copies later). This will save you oodles of time in searching and opening and re-opening the same documents as you look for re-useable content. These documents will include your organizational profile, individual program sheets/descriptions. Strategic planning documents. Past grant application to the same government body. Recent grant application to other government bodies. Documents on financial planning. Statistics, budgets, and copies of marketing materials.
   
4. Fill in grant cover sheet (get signatures done well in advance).
5. Create separate documents for your main prose sections for the application.
6. Cut and Paste--Use your current organizational profile and any other relevant content in your fodder file. Do a rough cut and paste of the material into the program sections where it best fits and might be helpful. Do not worry at this point about duplication. You are merely positioning the material for convenient accessibility.
   
7. Statistics and Budget pages: Do these as fully as possible before starting on the prose. You can cut the time you spend on editing prose a lot more easily than truncating the time on stats sheets and Budgets. Trends evidenced in these sheets will help frame the prose.
   
8. Write and edit. Self-explanatory as this seems, determine well in advance who the lead writer is and who gets to say, "this is done". Arguments on these points seem to happen frequently in mid-sized to larger organizations and make a tense process much worse.
9. Proofread.
10. Make the required number of copies and prepare as required
11. Checklist of everything submitted
12. Copy to file.
13. Cover letter
14. Mail, courier or hand-deliver. Nothing quite compares with the festive atmosphere in the line-up at the last post-office open in a major city on the deadline of a major grant. It is a time to meet old colleagues and catch up with the news from last year. But really, we'd much prefer to have been home at 5 pm rather than be in a post office at 10 minutes to 10 pm.

WRITING TIPS

1. Make a plan: List everything you want to tell the funder in brief points.
   
2. Make it easy for them to give you the money by using their language. In addition to the application forms and guidelines that shape your writing, be sure to take time to read annual reports, strategic planning and online copy from your potential funding body. As you read, highlight (or electronically extract if possible) the prose in their documents that resonate powerfully with what you do or are proposing. Put this in your "fodder" file. Organizing your argument under sub-headings that echo their goals and priorities, using their language makes it easy for funders to see where your activities and plans fit their funding priorities. I worked with one great grantwriter who called this, "finding the money words".
   
3. Tell your positive story first. Find several key points in each section that are strong positives. Put them upfront and in strong brief language. Use quotes from stakeholders, partners and leaders to enliven and add credibility.
   
4. Address negatives briefly and honestly - move quickly to your positive plans (the only exception to this is applications for organizational effectiveness projects where you are making a case for the needs of your org.)
   
5. Keep to length guidelines: Find out how flexible your funding body is in length guidelines. If they have some flexibility, don't abuse them. Sometimes copy from one question might be adapted and moved to another question that allows for a more lengthy response.
6. Have you hit all your high notes? Look back at your list from No. 1. In your edits and moving blocks of copy around have you failed to tell some of your positive stories? See where you can fit those missed notes back in.

If you follow all these steps you will maximize your success with funders. Remember that the funders want to give you the money but you have to show them why and how your activities are the best place that they can invest in order to achieve their goals.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

• Be honest: Any dishonesty or misrepresentation in your application will assure you have a very short relationship with the funder, so you want to be sure that you'll deliver on everything you have outlined. Fudging on postage dates is mail fraud, unfair to your colleagues and creates a nasty, unethical climate in organizations where leaders coerce staff into going along with submitting applications days after deadline with an old postage meter label. Expose this where it occurs. If extensions are needed due to dire circumstances, often there is a way to submit a barebones application with additional material coming as updates.
  
• Don't forget to file your reports. A part of successful grantwriting is filing reports as required. Since you are reporting on last year's activities anyway, send reports even to those funders that don't require them.
• Recognize your funders: assure that funders have the logo recognition and thanks that meets or exceeds the funder's expectations. Forgetting the Canada Council logo on your program book today, means you will not want to send that program to them with your next application, no matter how good it looks. When logos and thanks are part of your development team plan, meeting your final requirements and giving courteous acknowledgement is assured
  

Music on the High Seas August 5

Enjoy your very own classical music concert in the most beautiful of settings...

Join us for an intimate evening with members of the 2009 orchestra on board Kajama, Toronto's only tall ship.

This is an opportunity to see and hear the remarkable talent of Canada's future musical greats.

You will be treated to:

• A private performance by members of the NYOC
• A meet and greet session with NYOC students and conductor Alain Trudel
• A leisurely sail through the scenic Toronto Islands and Harbourfront
• A gourmet dinner and drinks
• A silent auction

Call now to reserve your ticket!

August 5th, 2009
6:00pm - 9:30 pm, Toronto Harbourfront
Tickets $200 (Tax receipts issued for the maximum allowable amount)
Contact: Maggie Fairs
T: (416) 532-4470 ext. 233 E: mfairs@nyoc.org

International Drawing Day June 6

You know you want to do it.

You know you really want to do it.


Do what?

Draw of course!

So on Saturday June 6, International Drawing Day stop everything pick up a pencil, a pen, a paintbrush, a chalk, a burnt stick if you have to, and just draw something. Everyone has an artist inside longing to bust out of the prisons that most of us put that aspect of self in these days. Art is for everyone. Take back your right to create stick figures, cartoons or whatever your artist inside is capable of rendering.

Zen and the art of organizational maintenance

I think it was David Parsons, the Music Officer at the Ontario Arts Council who said to me that while he used to think of arts organizations as going through processes of recovery that would end in a stable state that would remain indefinitely, he now believed that most arts organizations were constantly going through cycles of invention and re-invention if they did not wish to devolve and die.

I agree. Arts organizations that depend upon their founding energy and original creative mission as the only continuing energy in their engine will eventually meet the law of entropy and run down, engine sputtering and eventually failing.

What makes for a resilient arts organization that can recover from challenges and find new momentum?

I think of organizations as having some similarities to mechanical engines. They are propelled by the forces of varying numbers of cylinders and work at peak performance when all cylinders are firing with equal force. They can limp along when one weakens, if the opposite/complimentary cylinder is strong. Certain configurations of failures cause the engine to seize up and fail dramatically, while others just cause slow oil leaks that take years to grind the engine to a halt. In no small part I am drawing my analogy from the classic, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" , a book that talks about how the attention to the small details of systems, ensure that the whole runs trouble-free.

What propels a healthy arts organization?

1. Artistic Vision/Leadership--a compelling artistic vision from artist(s) that is at the centre of everything the organization does. The heart of the organization.
2. A community that is connected to and responsive to the artistic vision, supporting it as audience, donors and through word of mouth
3. A Board of Directors that is engaged through buy-in to the artistic and educational vision of the artistic leadership and provides the direction and resources to realize that vision.
4. Management-volunteer or paid that reports to the Board of Directors and carried forward their strategic plan in partnership with artists and community board members
5. Staff & volunteers as needed who are selected for the best fit with strategic goals within the living organism of your arts organization.

ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP: It all has to start with the Art.

Artistic Visioning is not something that gets done when the organization has some down time, or as a make-work project funded by OAC's COMPASS program or Canada Council's Flying Squad (as is too often the attitude in organizations already in trouble). If there isn't an Artistic reason for your organization to exist, then quit, get out of the way, give up, fold, you are wasting the audience's time and scarce resources. There are scores of artists and artists collectives out there filled with creative projects crying out for funding so, "I don't know, we've been presenting concerts for 37 years so we are just trying to keep on doing what we've done for those years" just isn't going to be a compelling battle cry for anyone. If you are parched with thirst for real art, go back to the well, consult with arts visionaries and re-connect with an inspiration to carry you forward again. If your artistic leadership is not inspiring your musicians, your actors, your company, then you have a problem. You are not going to solve that problem by band-aid solutions (programming committees, artistic guidelines, etc.) although those things might help in the short-term. You need to find out what the obstacles (if any) are to the artistic process, help the leader(s) re-charge their batteries, and be prepared to replace the vision or abandon the organization. There is no point to an arts organization without an artistic voice. Does this mean you must be professional? Absolutely not. An arts organization can have at its core a mission to empower and present local amateurs, artistic creation of children and youth.

When do you know when there is a problem in Artistic Leadership?

• Do reasonably informed stakeholders give radically different answers to the question, "What is X arts organization about?
  
• Do Board members frequently feel that the organization has lost focus, is on the wrong track artistically (because so many discordant visions co-exist)?
• Is programming more often reactive to fundraising, marketing, educational programming rather than being a starting point for those processes.
• Do marketing and fundraising staff often have difficulty in constructing clear, convincing descriptions of artistic programming for brochures and grantwriting
• When Artistic Statements are written for grants & brochures: Do they vary wildly from year to year? Are they so generic that they say nothing about the artistic priorities of the organization?
• Is Artistic vision identified as a problem by major funding bodies?
• Are peer organizations reluctant to collaborate with you because they view your Artistic Leadership as problematic or lacking in vision?
• When you perform formal or informal exit interviews with departing contributing artists/musicians or staff, is lack of artistic vision a recurring theme?

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: Art has a purpose and that purpose is how it is transformative in the lives and culture of our practicing artists and the community that the arts organization serves. Finding the balance between artistic vision, serving the community and working transformative magic within the community is the ongoing role of community engagement that the arts organization must undertake as a constant. Communities change constantly and so arts organizations must change also in order to serve new constituency and/or move programs and services to areas craving their programming. A mentor of mine was fond of saying "if people don't want to come, you can't stop them".

Think of two scenarios for a family that has recently arrived in a community. In the first the family gets a brochure for a subscription series to the local orchestra. One child has had an orchestra ensemble visit their school and brought home a study guide. The family saw the orchestra playing in the park during the summer, and mom attended a program at the library on music appreciation led by the orchestra's artistic director. In the second scenario, the family gets a brochure out of the blue and has never heard of the orchestra. Which brochure will go straight in the re-cycle bin and which one will get a second look?

In two organizations that I worked in during times of economic problems for (respectively) an orchestra and an opera company, their communities were alarmed and outraged at any thought that the organizations would fail. Individuals, corporations, area businesses and civic politicians helped to find ways to restore the organizations to financial health. It is interesting to note that neither communities were terribly wealthy nor noted for culture. But in yet another organization I served in, the organization had decided to pare its programming down to cut all community outreach, made an alienating name change, and disenfranchised community participation ... all in the same year. Recovery of community trust was a huge challenge for that organization despite its existence in a privileged community.

ENGAGED BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Without #1 Clear Artistic Vision and #2 Community Engagement, an organization will find it difficult to recruit and motivate a volunteer board.

Boards typically go through a development cycle as organizations grow. Take the example of a community theatre. At first the Board does everything from hanging lights, sewing costumes, selling tickets and holding fundraisers. As staff is hired to take care of production and ticket sales, the Board becomes more engaged in fundraising and community liaison. As the organization is able to afford professional grantwriting and fund-development staff, the Board role will shift to stewardship and making connections to major sponsors and donors for staff to follow-up on.

Board Executive and Nominating Committees have to set clear expectations of Board Members and recruit appropriately. When Board Members expect to be part of a "doer" Board and find that the expectation is mainly fundraising and oversight, they may feel sidelined. When Board Members expect to set policy and direction only and join the Board of a small arts organization, they may be surprised or even offended to be asked to roll up their sleeves and help with the nitty gritty. It is important that Board Members understand that their role is to help fund resources, find resources for the artistic work of the organization and work in ways that support the artistic mission of the organization. I have seen Board Members who behaved as though the arts organization was there to provide opera singers for their private parties, buy services from their clients, and that staff should shelve all artistic production work to assist Board Members with the running of gala balls or golf tournaments. While we all have to work together in arts organizations to raise funds, pulling staffing from accomplishing the core Mission, in order to facillitate Board fundraising initiatives cannibalizes artistic resources and is not sustainable.

MANAGEMENT: The role of the arts manager is to take the artistic program and the resources supplied by Board & funders and to implement the program objectives. Through expert knowledge of the industry, the manager employs best practices, allocating resources as carefully as possible to achieve optimum results.

The manager that is both under-resourced and without a clear and well-ariticulated artistic mission & strong community connections is unlikely to be able to achieve good results. If the organization also is burdened with an unfocused, non-contributing Board, the manager alone will not have the power to turn the engine of the organization single-handedly. In order to write grants, appeal to foundations or seek sponsorships, the manager will need a compelling story to tell about artistic & community arts education plans and the support that exists in the community, demonstrated by results, photos, endorsements. She or he needs the community connections of an engaged Board to gain new funding and connect with local industrial and business leaders. If there is a lack of money for marketing artistic programs, the manager will need the Board's community connection and legwork to promote artistic programs through grassroots initiatives.

Arts managers are there because they really love the arts and they have a tragic tendency to burn out as they try to prop up failing arts organizations.

WHY DO ORGANIZATIONS FAIL? We always hear of arts organizations failing for lack of money, but I have yet to see an organization fail purely from lack of money. An organization that has less money than is needed to fulfill all it's programming has to be flexible enough to be responsive to the reality and scale back or make economies to live within its means and simultaneously work on seeking more funds. A healthy arts organization with a clear Mission, valued by the community, with an engaged Board and adequate staffing will survive financial setbacks.

When organizations insist on not changing despite annual deficits, money becomes an issue. When artistic mission is muddy, community connections are lost, fundraising becomes extremely difficult. When Board Members are unclear on their roles, unfocused and non-contributing and sometimes caught up in their own politics, an important driving force in the organization siezes up. When managers and staff are called upon to deliver/sell/find funds programs that have no coherence, artistic energy or community connections, it is no surprise that they fail.

Two fundraisers for two great orchestras

Viennese Ball in aid of Toronto Philharmonia this Saturday, May 9

If you like elegance, opulence and hob-nobbing with Toronto's social elite, this late-breaking news is in. Get half-price tickets to one of the most shwish balls in Toronto for half-price rush tickets (only a few remaining) @ $150. a person. Frankly the meal and the wine would cost you that much at the Royal York location for the ball, so why not also take a whirl on the dance floor to a symphony orchestra? Call 416-499-2204 before 5 pm on May 8 to reserve your tickets!

Esprit Orchestra annual fundraiser

If Viennese waltzes leave you cold, how about some hot jazz in support of Canada's pre-eminent new music orchestra?

The Joint Is Jumpin'
Music, Cash Bar, Appetizers and Silent Auction
Wednesday, May 13.09 @ 6:00PM

Reservoir Lounge, 52 Wellington Street East

Tickets: $75 Regular, $125 Patron
A tax receipt for the maximum allowable amount will be issued.

Call: 416-815-7887

Guerilla Gardening this May in Toronto

Interested in guerilla gardening? Be there Sunday at 2pm at the 519 Community Centre to make seed bombs. The event will be on the second floor. Prospective guerilla gardeners are asked to bring any seeds that you have to donate.

We'll be throwing the seed bombs on Thursday May 7th at 7pm. The location is yet to be determined. (Top secret for now)

If you know of any spots that could use a seed bombing please email gardeners@publicspace.ca

So your arts org is ready to hire a marketing company

There comes a time in every small, growing arts organization when the people involved realize that the busiest time for promoting their activity is also the time that they are busiest WITH the activity as they gear up for performances or art show. They can't drop everything to follow-up on marketing opportunities but they need the marketing activity to keep on schedule, no matter what production complications might be thrown their way.

Because small arts orgs' marketing needs are sporadic, they often think of shortterm contracts with a marketing company. How can they get the most out of this business relationship and avoid the horror stories that we sometimes hear when the arts meets the professional world of marketers.

Oh, you haven't heard any horror stories? Let me share a few from my own experience.

I once came into a position and found the season brochure was behind schedule. The marketing firm had been secured on a contract that was based on a monthly fee rather than product delivery. All the budget was spent and the brochure was still at rough draft stage. The copy on the brochure was almost un-edited cut and paste supplied by the arts organization with in-consistent length of artist bios & performance description, wild shifts in style and a look which was out-of-step with the organization's mission. After one try at salvaging the relationship, I canceled the contract and we were forced to pay a monetary settlement to extricate the company from a contract where we would be forced to pay for work that might not result in anything we could use.

Lesson No. 1: contract payments have to be attached to successful completion of materials by deadline.

In another larger arts organization where some of the work was outsourced to marketers, we were occasionally shocked and embarassed by advertising materials where the marketers' lack of understanding of our artistic product led them to distort copy without checking the results with artistic leadership. On one memorable occasion, the marketing firm changed the orchestra's working title for a concert "Memory and Reflection" to their preferred "Soothing Reverie". But the work featured on the program was a symphony inspired by the Holocaust, so very far from "soothing". This was a public relations disaster.

Lesson No. 2 : It has to be clear who has sign-off within your organization of marketing copy to avoid misinformation and/or public relations disasters.

Lastly, I remember an occasion when I asked an office assistant in my arts organization to do some tasks for me that day and had her break down in tears. What I didn't know was that she was trying to do a full work load assigned by me, and a full workload assigned by our marketing company. She felt like she had two bosses as the marketers phoned each day with things she needed to get for them or materials that they wanted her to mail out. Much of the work she described I had expected the marketers to do themselves, using their own support staff. We had hired a Marketing firm because we did not have the staff resources to do the work ourselves, but they were pushing the work back on us to the extent where little gain was being realized.

Lesson No. 3: "Who does what" is an important part of the conversation with your Marketing company. If your staff has to provide some of the legwork for the Marketers, firm limits and process has to be put in place.

Does it sound like Marketing firms can be more trouble than they are worth? I certainly thought that at one time, but really all of the above situations were mostly the fault of the arts organization, who failed to be clear in their expectations when contracting a marketing firm.

Hiring a part time staff member with some training or experience in arts marketing and communications to work for you in-house is a preferable choice for many arts organizations. If you have a good mailing list and are not hoping to increase marketshare dramatically, this may be the best choice for you. A staff member is more responsive to your needs and more able to provide low-cost grassroots maketing solutions. The advantage of Marketing firms (that you want to assure they will bring to the table) is that they have access to lists of contacts that might be interested in your artistic product, and their volume buys of more expensive media spots will make for more choices in advertising, eg. advertising in an expensive high distribution newspaper will become possible at half price.

Questions to ask yourself as you think about your marketing needs:

1. Do I most need a marketer or a publicist, or both?
2. Is my marketing budget sufficient to maximize the contribution of a professional marketing company by making the media buys the firm will recommend?
3. Can I articulate the look and feel that my company wants in their marketing through samples of our materials, or materials of other companies that we'd like to emulate and/or through a style sheet we've constructed?
4. Have I done my research by asking colleagues who has done their excellent marketing campaigns?
5. Have I considered who will provide sign-off on marketing materials (considering both knowledge and accessibility/availability)?
6. Have I considered who will be the point person in assisting marketing company with acquiring the materials/information they need, and distribution of print materials? How much of that person's job description/time is to be allocated to marketing liaison?

Once you have answered these questions, you are ready to book meetings with your chosen marketing firms. You will want to communicate the following when asking for a plan and quotes:

1. An outline of your need for material with due dates.
2. What you will be supplying and when it will be available (rough copy, artist bios, photos, etc.
3. What you are hoping they will do. Finish copy or just edit and format? Find and supply art or use your art? Find new markets or use your lists? Leverage ad spots?
4. Who will be point person and how much time/assistance they can give the marketers and who will have final sign off on copy.
5. Lastly communicate which part of the marketing plan/campaign you will be keeping in-house (if any). Coordination of efforts like your inhouse flyer exchange campaign will help everyone. Surprising your Marketing firm with inhouse efforts will lead to bad feelings.

With all these things communicated, the Marketing firm should be able to present you with a clear plan and costing which will reflect a solid grounding in the reality of your organizational needs and expectations.

Wanted! Musical Ensemble or Presenting Organization for Second Life Collaboration(s)

For two years I have been presenting concerts in the virtual world of Second Life developing my series of live concerts at Music Island into one of the virtual worlds' hot spots and attracting attention of both online and traditional journalists.

Now, having recently stepped down from my position as Executive Director of the Toronto Philharmonia, I would like to find ways to make my avocation part of my vocation. I am actively looking for (preferably Canadian) ensemble(s) or presenters that would be interested in partnering with me for a series of concerts/audience development activities in virtual reality.

I would see this collaboration as involving me in developing a budget and proposal and seeking funding for an artistic project we would jointly develop. I am an experienced proposal and grantwriter. I would also be able to supply the inworld expertise in streaming, coordinating the event and promotion.

One model that has occured to me would be a series of concerts in a Toronto venue that would be streamed into Second Life with streaming video from both worlds. The Toronto live audience would see the virtual performance/audience on big screen and the international virtual audience would see the Toronto audience on an inworld media viewer. There are other ideas that might fit. I see this as being of interest to local ensembles & presenters, individual musicians and also with some appeal to a venue or destination wishing to promote itself to international tourism.

You can contact me via a comment left here, or inside of Second Life by IM'ing Kate Miranda.

The purpose of the Arts

As I conclude my three years with the Toronto Philharmonia, I am led to consider again the purpose of a live performing arts organization in this time of electronic media. Why have a professional orchestra performing in our community when we can listen to such great music on CD, on our televisions or via online podcasts?

Some will say that the social experience of sharing a live performance in a great hall is, in itself a reason to support our orchestras and chamber ensembles. I agree that it is one reason. But is it enough?

If we make our musical organizations simply museums for the display of works by composers long dead and gone, we have no one to blame but ourselves when other citizens find what we are doing irrelevant to their daily lives, or who feel that what we do can easily be replaced by electronic records of performances by a very few orchestras worldwide.

An art form is alive, growing, challenging our assumptions, involving us, and provoking debate or it is dying. Performing the best of music from the past should always be a part of what an orchestra does, but if it is not also encouraging students, new musicians, community artists, collaborating with living composers, creating opportunities for its own musicians to learn, grow, explore new collaborations then it is irrelevant to the artistic life of its own community. It is my view that this is at the core of the mission of any orchestra in today's society, and not the after-thought, or add-on that so very many organizations regard the role of education and professional development.

Organizations that view contributions to music development, education and professional development as hoops they must jump through in order to succeed with funding applications are unlikely to priorize these activities. Unfortunately it is a common view. I would challenge them to put the musical life of their community at the core of their Mission and view concert presentation as but one way to contribute to that Mission.