TECHNICALLY, we were standing on American soil, and it looked as if everyone present had gone the extra mile to play by American rules. What sounded like a warning in the invitation that late arrivals would have to wait till break time, was wellheeded. As such, there was no African time.All, but a few incurable latecomers had arrived the venue for registration and other formalities. Some of the fine trappings of American diplomacy were obvious to the observant eye. Politely, and with smiles playing around their lips, the security guards on duty took away visitors phones and other gadgets, and they meticulously placed number tags on each of the gadgets.Participants soon filed in for the session to begin, and when it got underway, everything, from the introduction to the opening remarks of the resource person, looked so well choreographed for maximum effect. Of course, that was one irritating exception to the impeccable organization: there was power outage, something that was due to no fault of the Americans. PRESIDENT of the Kennedy Centre, Michael Kaiser, as part of a five country African tour was in Lagos to speak on successful arts management. Immediately he began speaking, it was clear that the general principles, he expounded on how to build successful arts management organisations resonated with his audience of mainly arts managers.While noting that he was coming to Nigeria, but not Africa, for the first time, Kaiser described the country as a beautiful place brimming with a lot of talented people. He said his passion is to work with people around the world in ensuring that the management of the arts is well done to engrave the works of artistes and arts managers in the minds of their communities.But Kaiser declared that it very difficult to be successful in the arts; why is it so Insisting that the session had to be interactive, rather than being a monologue, the Kennedy Centre helmsman invited members of his audience to provide reasons.Members of the audience provided quick responses, which dwelt on the nature of art itself, and the peculiar challenges of running art organisations in a Nigerian environment. One respondent volunteered that people take the arts for granted because they feel there is no big deal about the output from the arts because they are always with us.In her own contribution, acclaimed international actress, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett reflected that the unquantifiable nature of arts makes it difficult to measure success or failure.Kaiser narrated that the current difficulties in achieving success in the arts was not always the case historically. The current realities, he averred, were precipitated by a failure of people in the arts to do enough to get their communities behind what they do. He added that in the for profit world, it is easier to measure success. But in the not for profit world, to which arts belong success remained much more hazy in the eyes of those viewing it.So in the arts, we have to be clear how we are going to measure success. We have to distinguish ourselvesWhen I say I run an arts centre, people tell me oh thats okay, but what is your real job What that shows is that we have not done enough in marketing and explaining what we do.He talked about the fast growing new economy, and the need for the arts to begin to take cognizance of the demands for creative outputs in the new economy.For those still hoping on government funding, goodwill and initiatives to help the arts, Kaiser had news that is somewhat sad. He pointed out that the big culture countries of France, Germany and even Britain were massively engaged in spending cuts, and reduced support for the arts.Others in the audience talked about the difficulty in managing creative personnel. Here, Kaiser called for a paradigm shift in artiste-manager relations from one that thinks of the artiste as a naughty child, and the manager as an angry parent, to one in which there would be a win-win relationship for both sides. For this to be achieved, the artiste must feel loved, so as to take greater risks in the execution of his art, while the manager must constantly plan ahead to meet what is sometimes deemed as the impossible demands of the artiste for self expression. A good number of those demands could be met if arts managers dream big, plan well ahead of time and carry the artiste along.Above all however, Kaiser warned that the biggest mistake that can be made in the arts is to do a bad work. The foundation for successful arts management, he declared, is in doing great art.He side - stepped the aspect of programmatic marketing, which involves direct reach out to targets, through handbills, flyers, and selling of tickets. Rather, he focused more on institutional marketing, which was defined as the kind of marketing that makes people have a burning desire to be part of an art organisation. The logic of this is that when great art meets with institutional marketing, it results in the creation of a family, which would be made up of people, and organisations who feel and believe that they are a part of the organisation.My goal for my organisation is that it should have the biggest and happiest family in the world. When it is so, I get more money. That process starts with good art; the key to good arts management is good art. The key to good funding is good art plus building a strong happy family. THE three components of artistic planning, institutional marketing and fund raising were dwelt on, in another round of elucidation that followed. To demonstrate how the absence of planning is negatively affecting arts management, what seemed more like an aerobics session got underway as Kaiser instructed all his listeners to raise their hands.He called on those who plan their art events one year in advance to keep their hands raised; a few hands had dropped, suggesting that such people had no plans beyond a few months. When he called for those who plan two years in advance to keep their hands raised, more hands had come down. As the resource person kept on upping the ante in the number of years arts manager plan in advance, more hands kept dropping. Only one was left raised by the time Kaiser asked for those who planned five years in advance.The lesson from this revealing aerobics session was the benefit of long-term planning. Kaiser gave an example of an Arab Art Festival organised by the Kennedy Centre, which he said would open in a few weeks time. He told his astonished audience that he had spent five years planning for the festival. He emphasised that with such long-term planning, it was much more easier to achieve set targets, in terms of raising funds, and realising big dreams.I plan my art five years in advance; planning makes your art better. Long term planning would also help in the area of fund raising because good fund raising is about building a relationship, and cultivating people, and this takes time.According to him, by planning for the years ahead, the arts manager gets the space required to get his target audience to become familiar with what they would eventually see. Conversely, planning art events within a few months would make everything that is being done look the same, and in the end, very boring. Once the family is bored, it looks elsewhere for something fresh and exciting.TO achieve the kind of art that would keep the family that had been built by the art organisation happy, the arts manager must necessarily dream big.Arts is about dreaming, and arts organisations should dream big, said the Kennedy Centre head. But it was observed that the logic of constantly dreaming big, would necessarily translate into bigger budgets for the arts organisation. Kaiser, however, replied that dreaming big does not necessarily translate to incurring huge costs. He argued that big ideas do not necessarily become big budgets.He expressed the view that there is more money out there for arts organisations than they were getting. These resources would come flowing in if organisations do great art, dream big, and plan ahead. He gave an example of Palestine, a turbulent country, which nonetheless still witnesses big arts events.In the area of fund raising, Kaiser called on arts manager to remember that nobody owes them a donation, as such; they should approach their donors with humility, and tact. Other rules for fund raising as provided include, the need to implement a marketing plan before raising funds, ensuring that letters soliciting for funds are not sent to people and organisations that have never been met before, and the importance of cultivating donors before approaching them. Finally, arts managers were reminded that fund raising is not begging; it was described as a two way street, in which the donor, and the arts manager complement each other, by adding value to each others operations. As such, Kaiser advised that before soliciting for support, art managers must understand the goals, strategies, aspirations and philosophies of their donors so that they (arts managers) can incorporate how they intend to help their donors achieve these objectives. So, instead of forcing a particular programme on a donor for instance, the arts manager, it was canvassed, should be armed with a menu of programmes from which a donor can make a choice reflecting its own outlook and aspirations.
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