These descriptions are taken from the book:
Fundamentals of Local Arts Management, Editors: Craig Dreeszen and Pam
Korza, Copyright 1998. Published by the
Arts Extension Service and funded
in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
USED WITH
PERMISSION.
Advocacy: The more integrated the arts become in the life of a community, the more important advocacy becomes to the work of arts organizations. Artists and arts organizations are affected by many public finance and public policy issues such as arts funding, education, freedom of expression, zoning, community revitalization and nonprofit laws. The legislative system relies on decision makers becoming informed on issues. Getting to the right people with facts and information about who will be affected, how they will be affected, and who cares can influence opinions, attitudes, decisions and votes.
Audience Development & Building Participation in the Arts: Audience development goes beyond increasing attendance. It occurs when new groups of people are attracted to a program or organization and develop an interest, connection or commitment. Learning how to broaden, deepen or diversify your audience involves identifying clear target groups and basing your tactics on good information about those groups. It requires an organization to establish a process for continuous assessment and feedback throughout, and at the conclusion of, your audience building project.
Board Development: Board service is not an innate skill; board members must learn what they are expected to do and how to do it. It is impossible to successfully prescribe generic board development solutions that will work for each board at each stage of its development. Instead, we can offer a framework to help you examine what works and what could be improved for your board.
Festival Planning: Even the smallest festival will surprise you with the vast volume of details to be coordinated in the areas of site and logistics. But the first step in creating an arts festival is to examine your reasons for doing it. Successful festivals operate from a clear purpose or mission. Assessing your community’s needs, interests, and artistic resources can help you define your festival’s mission.
Financial Management: Good financial management can provide vital support to arts programs and important evidence of organizational stability to funding sources. Keeping accurate, up-to-date financial records guarantees that you will be ready any time those records are requested by the IRS, donors, loan officers, or members. Those records are proof that the organization has upheld its fiscal responsibility.
Fundraising: To raise funds, you need time, money, power and passion from your board and other volunteer leadership. Before you can establish how much you are going to raise, you have to determine not only how much you need but also how much your arts organization is capable of raising. To determine your fundraising capability, begin by evaluating your organization’s internal resources and its access to outside funding sources.
Grantwriting: There are a number of important steps to writing successful grants. Before you even begin writing you need to do research in order to identify appropriate funding sources. Potential funders all have different requirements and standards for awarding grants. You need to make sure your organization’s activities are a good match with the potential funder. You must also be prepared to follow all of the technical specifications a funder requires in their applications. And it is essential that you be able to effectively communicate your project’s objectives, your proposed plan of action and a fiscally sound budget for your activities.
Marketing & Promotion: Marketing is communication. It is a means of telling the public who you are, what you do, and how they can be involved. Many people equate marketing with selling a product. While the promotion of specific programs and services is the most visible aspect of an organization’s marketing efforts, marketing is more than selling. It includes a full range of communication activities.
Organizational Development: Building a strong organization involves more than hiring a staff person; more than getting grants and raising money; even more than having a great Board of Directors. A strong organization is built on mission, vision and values. A strong organization constantly evaluates the impact their proposed activities will have for their constituents and their capacity to achieve their stated goals.
Program Development: Every program you choose to offer should reflect why you exist and whom you serve. Each organization needs a structure for conceiving, planning, implementing and evaluating programs that will successfully meet the needs of artists and the community, and advance the arts themselves.
Strategic Planning is a process by means of which an organization articulates what it may accomplish in the future, what needs it hopes to meet, and how it plans to do so. Planning helps an organization to identify who it should serve with what programs.
Technology Planning can include anything from a comprehensive look at how an organization manages and communicates information, to re-visioning its web presence. In volatile times, intelligent planning maximizes the benefits of technology investment and helps to avoid pitfalls.
Volunteers constitute a key resource for arts organizations. In a field where economic pressures make the flexible use of people and skills a must, volunteers can provide essential services at all levels from staff to board to one-time helper. To recruit increasingly selective volunteers, organizations must "sell" themselves. It is essential to plan ahead of time what you want and can offer. This means developing a serious, well-planned volunteer program.
Business Planning. Your art is your business. Look at where your business is now and PLAN on where you want it to go. Explore the resources you have and the resources you need. Identify your product(s) and your markets. Create sales strategies and improve your marketing skills. Get a handle on your recordkeeping, pricing and profits.
Product Evaluation and Development. Assessing your work and its marketability is key to your development as an artist. A consultancy can help you with this. Price yourself and your work. Improve your promotional materials. Learn more about booth design to boost sales. And refine your school program(s) to address Kentucky’s academic expectations and core content.
Kentucky Arts Council
500 Mero
Street
21st Floor, Capital Plaza Tower
Frankfort, KY
40601
502-564-3757
Toll Free: 888-833-2787
FAX:
502-564-2839
Page Updated: 10/15/2007