Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1966 - 26

Business can educate audiences - they can get people to
go to the theatre. Travelers Insurance in Connecticut, for
example, sponsored a series of employee lectures by a
member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Following
the series, a number of employees including some who
never attended concerts before, purchased symphony tickets.
Technical assistance can be provided to arts groupsas in the case of Bamburgers Department Store in New
Jersey.
Selling tickets - Many retail outlets have ticket oHices. I
think you are all familiar with this.
Volunteer aid in fund drives is a very important area.
Some insurance companies have retired executive programs
where they lend executives to arts organizations as fund
solicitors.
In the purchase of bulk tickets, there is an excellent
example in the experience of the Brooklyn Academy of
Music. American Girl Service, a temporary help firm, purchased 50 seats for their employees to attend a concert
there. This was a direct benefit to the company since it
provided an important service for its employees. Of
course, it is very important for the theatre to sell a big
block of tickets to a single program.
These, then, are some of the things that business can do
for the arts. One might turn around and say, "Why should
business organizations support the arts? What is in it for
them?" Well, I think there is a great deal in it for busi·
nexs. Publicity for one, like the exposure that Schlitz
received by spol1soring the Philharmonic concerts in Central
Park. It would be impossible for them to purchase, for the
$ 50,000 they put into this program, the goodwill they
engendered.
Other business benefits include identification with ex·
cellence. Many companies such as Standard Oil of New
Jersey, have cited this as a very important reason for
their participation in arts programs. Arts organizations are
also a market for goods, and not an insignificant one, as
is their constituency.
Arts tie-ins can help business in introducting new products. A furniture company commissioned an orchestra,
the National Symphony, to perform a concerto written in
honor of its 75th Anniversary.
I would not wish to cover the entire list. All I want to
suggest is that the list is far greater than one could have
imagined, and that this kind of support is very important
to community arts organizations.

try to help the arts. Labor unions recognize the importance of the arts to their members. AFL - CIO, in fact,
recently issued a statement on its study to find new ways
to relate to the arts.
Still, the best source of support for all arts organizations
remains the individual. It is important to work with various
kinds of groups, but still the bulk of support must come
from the individual.
In summation, the future of the arts in America will be
one of many successes as well as many problems. We
are going to find arts groups raiding each other for administrators before we can train all the people that we need.
We will find increased problems in the government relationship to the arts.
Also, the arts will continue to face economic hardships.
As an arts group moves from one stage of development
to the next, they will encounter new kinds of problems.
How will the arts be able to survive and flourish? I think
that all of us have a stake in the future of the arts. To
begin, each of us should attempt to develop an understanding of facets of the arts other than the ones we are
concerned with.
I think the're is a great need for administrators to understand the artistic and technical side and for technicians
to understand some of the administrative and artistic problems which are developing.
I think there is also a very strong need for personal identification by anyone involved in arts projects, both during
his participation in a project, and after it ends.
Many of us in this room have been consultants to arts
organizations. These organizations need our continued support and interest even after our formal relationship with
them terminates.
They also need our aesthetic involvement in the program
itself - the end result of our combined labor - the performance taking place on the stage. We have to attend
performances. We have to encourage other people to
attend performances. We have to expose our children to
the finest arts performances. This is the kind of total
involvement that I mean.
At times, I would say that some of us should donate our
services to a particularticular project if it is essential to
the success of the project, if the sponsoring organization cannot aHord payment, and if the project has great
merit.

The arts have developed economically. At least, the total
To insure their stability, however, these arts groups must
amount of money being spent on the arts is far greater
also begin to work with organizations at all levels of the
than ever before. This in essence has helped everyone
community. I think there is a need of stronger relationin the field, because there are more job opportunities and
ships between arts organizations and churches, for example.
more consultant opportunities. There will be even more in
I think there might be tie-ins with political organizations the future. We all have a stake in what will happen in
and political clubs which will sponsor performances and the future. I think it is a very important one.

I US ITT I THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

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