Theatre Design & Technology - Oct 1966 - 24

activity has broadened the audience. Thus, the patrons of
the local theatre may be also the patrons of the local
dance company. Most significant in this area has been the
growth of the community arts council movement - the
banding together in communities of a variety of cultural
groups to work for the common good.
These councils very often have been able to hire a single
administrator concerned with the problems of all its member groups and have been able to amalgamate their resources. Thus, councils enter into joint advertising contracts or united fund drives for the arts to bring the entire
community arts scene under one roof and appeal as an
entity to the public. This is far superior to the situation
where six or seven different arts organizations all have
separate fund drives, and all compete for the support of
the community.
With the growing program and rising budget of most arts
organizations, we have had also, a general broadening of
the categories of support for the arts. Since organizations
have had to reach out and attract supporters from many
areas, they have had to devote themselves to understanding the entire community complex; to know the sociological process involved. This has led to increased support
from many areas, some virtually untapped in the past.
One of the more important of those areas is business,
which I will discuss in greater detail later.
Another development, which has had a somewhat dubious
effect on cultural growth, has been the public relations
halo imposed on the arts. Many people never before interested in the cultural scene have suddenly recognized that
the arts have economic significance and they have been
quick to rush in and attempt to tap the "goldmine" suddenly looming before their eyes.
I can remember about four years ago when Arts Management published one of the first articles on the so-called
"cultural building boom," based on a survey we initiated.
Suddenly we were descended upon by hordes of people
we had never seen - management consultants, fund-raising
firms, architects, etc.
They said, in effect, "We didn't realize that this much
building is going on. There is something here. Can you
please let us see the results of your survey? Can we see
what building is going on and where, because it is important to our development to know what is going on."
Thus, predictably, the hucksters and entrepreneurs thrust
themselves into the cultural picture. Increased exposure
for the arts came when the Rockefeller Report was published last year, and culture basked in the public limelight
for the first time.
The most widely discussed development, however, is
government in the arts, at all levels, from the National
Endowment on the Arts, to state arts councils with their
growing budgets, to county governments and down to
municipal governments. Although it is still too early to
assess the full ramifications of government involvement in
the arts, we have seen already, that along with the benefits of government support, certain problems have arisen,
especially in the area of programming.
This then, is generally the kind of picture we have today
of where the arts stand. Cultural organizations have greater budgets than ever before and correspondingly, greater
administrative problems. As one administrator said, "The
arts must compete in the fiscal market-place." This, of
course, is very true today.
We have looked at the affirmative side, but there is a
negative side to the coin also. With the kind of quantita-

tive approach to the arts we have had a building rush, a
building boom - building for building's sake. One might even
say that there is an "edifice complex" today.
One of the most vivid recollections I have is of the administrator of a small cultural organization in New York
City. He said, "I want to build a $2,000,000 center.
Saratoga, New York, has less people than we do and, if
they are going to have that kind of budget, why can't
we?" This is the sort of illogical thinking that threatens
to cloud the arts scene.
You might remember the San Francisco bond issue to create a cultural center. It was very interesting to read the
reports following the defeat of that Bill, because one of
its leading proponents stated, "It is a shame that with
building going on apace elsewhere, San Francisco cannot
have a center of its own."
Well, it has been this kind of feeling,
ousy - "Someone else is doing it, why
has become increasingly evident. I think
inherent in this kind of approach to the
with the coming years.

this kind of jealcan't we l " - that
that the problems
arts will broaden

What is the coming picture, at the beginning of what may
become the "time of the troubles l " What are we going
to see?
Let us take theatre first. It has been predicted that the
number of resident professional theatres will double within
five years. In ten years they may even double again.
In the arts council field, there are now something like
250 community arts councils in America. Four years ago,
there were only fifty of them, so this is a fantastic
growth. State arts councils are emerging also. With the
inevitable dollar sign of the National Endowment dangling
before them, you may be sure there will be 50 state arts
councils soon. What they will do, is something else, of
course.
Well, with all this happening, with a boom, at least
quantitatively, there will be a growing need for a more
sophisticated and better trained arts administrator, the person who manages all these activities.
What is arts administration? Is it a profession yet l Although the field has grown historically, it has not, as
yet, achieved professional status, although it is reaching
toward it. The administrators, those who will face the
problems I have been talking about and will continue to
discuss, have reached their present positions in a variety
of ways. Administrators have come from the performing
ranks, from united fund drives, from fund raising, from
the health and welfare field, from universities. In most
instances, however, they have not had specific training
in arts administration prior to entering the field. Now, at
last, we are beginning to develop a professional approach
to the training of arts administrators.
A number of colleges have started arts administration proorams. East Carolina College, for example, is starting a
full program in arts administration at the graduate level
this fall.
Also, we have had the Federal Government entering into
this picture. The Office of Education sent a consultant
around the country for nine months trying to develop an
approach to the training of administrators. T'he National
Endowment for the Arts, is devoting time and money to
the problem.
What this means, is a growing professionalization of the
field. What this may mean in the future, is a rising pay
scale for administrators and many more top level jobs

I USITT I THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

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