Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1973 - 33

BOOK REVIEWS

Readers wishing to review any of the titles listed below, or
others that fall within the purview of this Journal, may
write to the Editor at 1 Hillside Road, Newark, Delaware
19711.
AVAI LABLE TITLES
The Story of Sadler's Wells Dennis Arundell
Group Theatre Brian Clark
Guide to American Scientific and Technical Directories
The Art of Light & Color Tom Douglas Jones
Resistable Theatres John Stokes
The Theatre and Drama of Greece and Rome James Butler

lishment in early 1972 of the Council of National Arts
Organizations Executives (CNAO E), the logical extension
of the USITT-initiated Presidents' Council referred to in
the book, and the formal incorporation of the Arts &
Business Council of NYC, Inc. (ABC), a unique coalition
of arts and corporate representatives.
The book is totally honest, most obviously and notably
in those sections dealing with the Business Committee for
the Arts (BCA) which Reiss limns, warts and all. I was
unable to find a cheap shot anywhere in the book, and,
filled as it is with inside anecdote, such omissions are
admirable. Reiss must have been sorely tempted.

CULTURE & COMPANY - A CRITICAL STUDY
OF AN IMPROBABLY ALLIANCE
by Alvin H. Reiss
New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1972
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:
72-728
309 pp., $8.95
On rare occasions a book comes along about which
one wants to say, "You are guilty of irresponsibility if
you're in the arts, know about this book and don't read
it." This is such a book.
It is a history of and handbook on the immediate past,
dynam ic present and potential futu re of the arts and the
increasingly pluralistic and political contexts in which
they find themselves. For, while the main thrust of the
book deals with the rationales, strategies and tactics for
the improbable alliance of the business community and
the arts world, it appropriately devotes considerable space
to the roles of federal and state governmental agencies,
as well as a few appropriate national service organizations.
It is not a "how-to" book. Reiss acknowledges at the
beginning the complexity of the problem, and does not
pretend that universal formulae can be drawn up and
applied. At the start he thoroughly prepares the reader on
the state of the arts in the United States from the mid-40's
to the present (1971), and then chronicles, by anecdote
or by case study, a substantial number of examples of
attempts to secure new sources of support for arts organizations, a few of them unsuccessfu I. Reiss obviously believes in learning through negative experience as well.

In the main, the book is optimistic, perhaps too much
so. Reiss and I have differed publicly on the present state
of arts administration, for instance, which Reiss seems to
defend on the basis of quantity of effort rather than
quality of effort; a sin of which Alvin Toffler's much
earlier The Culture Consumers was equally guilty. I
mention Toffler here because, in addition to his writing
the preface for Culture & Company, he and/or The
Culture Consumers are cited by Reiss as a critical· source
no less than seven times. I t is my contention that arts
administration, especially as practiced at the grass-roots
level, is mis-management because it is being practiced by
creative and interpretive artists at the expense of their
artistry. Put another way, self-management is mis-management. Nor has there been sufficient acknowledgement of
how the sometimes insensitive and often irresponsible
actions of volunteer boards of directors are a direct
contributor to mismanagement charges against hapless
professional staff who, too frequently, can only be as
good (or bad) as the volunteer leadership to whom they
are accountable. But perhaps this is carping.
A more important personal reservation has to do with
portions of the section on "Scale of Business Exploitation" which Reiss acronymizes to SBE. The SBE, on a
scale of I to VII, is to be used to evaluate or predetermine
an arts organization's integrity in dealing with funding
sources; from, "do you want to just shake hands on the
first date?" to, "do you want to have carnal relations the
first time out, and, if so, you know what that makes
you?" It's an effective tool and using SBE Scale I (hand-

In this respect the book is really a variation of Dante's
contention, "show me your friends, and I'll tell you what
you are", in that Reiss is saying, "here is your potential
circle of friends (company) and here are some of the ways
in which you can go about cultivating them to your
mutual advantage".

absorption in the book. I was distressed because, elsewhere in the book, Reiss rightly makes much of the

just right. It could not have come out earlier, nor could
it have waited. Consequently, the realization of two
pertinent phenomena of which Reiss is proud progenitor

growing and critical role of incipient non-establishment
arts grou ps. Indeed, early on in the Iife of the Arts &
Business Council, Reiss was one of a number of business
and arts representatives who insisted that one of ABC's
principal preoccupations must be with non-establishment

did not make the publishing deadline; they are: the estab-

arts groups in the New York area. This didn't square with

The timing of the book's publication (Spring '72) was

shaking but no more), Reiss cites and attempts to document United Arts Funds as the with-all and end-all. It
was the one passage that disrupted my otherwise total

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

FEBRUARY. 1973

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