Beyond Richard Florida: A Cultural Sector of Our Own, cont.	3/3

I've gone through many a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis with arts groups, and the most difficult part of the exercise comes with the question of external opportunities and threats. What I've found is that arts organizations in general don't much look beyond their own borders, or even beyond their immediate situations. As a result, they are unable to identify, let alone deal with, those environmental factors that their existence may come to depend upon. If a musical ensemble does not take note of the trend toward home-based entertainment, if a painter renting loft space does not pay attention to the direction of the real estate market, if none of them understand the effects they'll feel if the area's biggest employer pulls out of town, then they are operating blindly, fated to worry about imminent demise instead of ever being able to plan for development.

In order to grow, we need to look not just up, but down the road as well, toward the inevitable cycles of the economy, the real estate market, material costs, political administrations, etc. Can we build the adaptive capacity to engage productively with emerging opportunities and challenges? I wonder, what plans does the sector have for the day when we succeed in making our case for the full funding of the arts? If we are eager to grow, then what is our plan for doing so? In that scenario, I daresay, we will find ourselves in an even more fraught situation.

I do not suggest that we become fortune-tellers, but that we become forward-thinking in our analyses and decision-making. And that our plans be predicated on the basis of emerging conditions rather than past practices.

5. The cultural sector needs interpretive advocates

During the "culture wars," the cultural sector was unable to muster forth much hard data to counter accusations of our irrelevance, ineffectiveness, and inaccessibility. Since then, unsurprisingly, there has been a noticeable spike in the number of published research studies. My office floor is littered with piles of research reports, meeting reports, convening reports, initiative reports, funding reports, economic impact reports, and the list continues. They come from foundations, think tanks, academic journals, governmental agencies, service organizations, advocacy groups, scholarly organizations, consulting firms, and the like. The result is a welcome (if chaotic) increase in information. But has our influence expanded apace?

Information is necessary–but not sufficient–to spread a meaningful and memorable message about arts and culture. It's not enough to publish reports. They are written by insiders for insiders, in a discursive style and format that only an insider could love. What we are missing is the interpretive advocate who brings these reports to life, and brings them to the people they are meant to ultimately inform and influence. Who renders them useful. The function of this role in any sector is to translate, interpret, and deliver expert information into user-friendly terms. This function serves to track patterns in the data, make sense of it, and explain what it is about. An interpretive advocate offers meaningful commentary and compelling stories. She explains what is at stake, creates a human context, and provides a vision of the future. Without interpretation, those piles of research reports just continue to collect dustballs.

This kind of thought leader compels attention and credibility from public and policymakers alike. S/he is comfortable speaking to artists and politicians, academics and journalists. Ben Cameron, the charismatic and ubiquitous executive director of the Theatre Communications Group, is our best example. He commands the data, he explains what it's about, and he convinces you that it's important. Bill Ivey is quickly emerging as another high-profile interpretive advocate for the sector, in his most recent appointment as director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University.

But two is not enough. With a full complement of interpretive advocates spreading our message, we can transform research data into public opinion and new policy. Fully humanized and framed by compelling vision, our numbers will become meaningful, and convincing. The only question is, how do we develop career paths and media outlets for these interpretive advocates? How do we invent our own Richard Floridas?

Ann Daly is a consultant, educator, speaker and author specializing in the arts and creative professions. She is on faculty in the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin.

© 2005 Ann Daly