The Art Purist Slumming in Low Capitalist Constructs

As a kid I wanted to be Janet Jackson.

I played the cassette of her Control album until the tape broke, choreographing routines, imaging the day I would enjoy her fame/fortune and say (with her conviction)…“Now I’m all grown up!”

Well, you can imagine my joy when (at nine years old) my dad put me in the car, drove through crazy traffic from Pasadena to Hollywood, and pulled up in front of the Dupree Dance Academy.

“What? I actually get to train as a dancer.”

My joy was exponentially heightened when he told me…

“This is the same dance studio that trained Janet Jackson.”

“AHHHHH!!!!” (Imagine a nine year old girl screaming and jumping around in a 1982 lime green Volkswagen Rabbit with mismatch paint…aka “Hoopty”)

My journey to commercial stardom had begun. I was going to be the next Janet Jackson! (Or at least Paula Abdul…J-Lo wasn’t even a Fly Girl yet and Beyoncé was probably at some elementary school in Texas wearing out her Control cassette tape.)

You can imagine my surprise when the first class that my dad signed me up for was Ballet.

“What? I don’t want to be a Ballet dancer. I want to take something funky…like Jazz.” (They didn’t have Hip Hop classes yet…that was still considered street dance).

He told me I had to get the fundamentals first and started me on a very different journey than I’d expected. This education in the “high” art of dance gave me an appreciation for the value and integrity of “high” art forms; which was reinforced by my training at LA County High School for the Arts, Alvin Ailey and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

In my teen and college years, I went to museums and experimental art performances; read Shakespeare; got into Brecht plays; fell in love with folk performance, contact improvisation, and political poetry; went to Nuyorican’s Poets Café (NYC), 5^th Street Dicks (LA), and Lincoln Center(NYC). My favorite female singer went from Janet Jackson to Nina Simone. I actually enjoyed watching Japanese Butoh dance, reading Federico García Lorca plays, seeing The Last Poets perform, learning about the work of Jackson Pollack, and having transcendent experiences in Pat Hall-Smith’s Afro-Haitian dance class. I actually dreamed of training at the Moscow Art Theatre and wanted my 21^st birthday to take place at a Roy Ayers concert singing, “everybody loves the sunshine.”

Art became spiritual, political, cathartic, beautiful, important, and tragic.

Even the underground hip hop scene I was part of had a “purist” ideal. We were the real hip hop, the conscious hip hop, the anti-gangsta and the anti-bling. It was all about KRS-1, Tribe Called Quest, De La Sol, X-Clan, Pharcyde, Dead Prez, Souls of Mischief, Saul Williams, Fugees, Freestyle Fellowship, Erykah Badu, Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli), Abstract, Digable Planets, Hieroglyphics, Zulu Nation, Queen Latifah, Organized Konfusion, BoogieMonsters, Arrested Development and The Roots; while honoring the originals like Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc, Rock Steady Crew, Sugar Hill Gang, and Ghetto Original.

Admittedly, I got a little fanatical and elitist. In my view, commercial artists were prostituting the art form for the meaningless dollar…even Broadway musicals were selling out. I made a clear distinction between artists and entertainers; and I was an artist, a purist…and financially broke.

Mind you, I still choreographed my little Janet-Jackson-like moves to bass filled beats; they just had to have some political or spiritual statement behind them before I deemed them “worthy.” (I even created some socio-political statement in my head to feel good about taking the STOMP gig.) I had dreams of world-wide recognition for my art and a healthy livelihood sustained by ticket sales; I just rejected capitalist constructs like “marketing,” distrusted “business people,” and hated pushing my headshot. I guess I thought my work would be so awe-inspiring that people would magically be drawn to the performance venue and give money, without my having to sully the work by asking for it.

Wow, was I confused and arrogant.

After trying to build an art career and run a theatre company, I learned the value of capitalist constructs like marketing. I realized that even “pure” art needs strategic marketing to have reach and impact in the world; especially to sustain it for any length of time.

Marketing is a neutral set of tools that can be used ethically (or unethically) to generate demand for your art. Just because some people use the tool to scam people out of their money (or out of their “enlightenment”) doesn’t mean you have to reject the tool. In fact, when marketing is used to generate demand for something like “Live Earth” or “Pangea Day,” one could argue that we all benefit.

In previous posts, we discussed the importance of market research/analysis and a little about its mechanics. So, let’s assume you already have an objective understanding of who relates to your work and a sense of market factors that might inform your strategy (e.g. price sensitivity, geographic locations your target market frequents, key satisfiers/dissatisfiers, etc.).

What’s next?

Now, it’s time to actually design your marketing strategy. Marketing plans have four major components:

1) PRODUCT - What is your creative offering? Is it high quality? Is it innovative? Is it relevant? Is it virtuosic? Is it cathartic? Is it fun? Is it passionate? How can it improve? No matter what kind of artist you are, you better create something that someone (other than you) finds valuable. Remember, your creative offering goes further than just the art piece or performance. You also have to look at the “packaging” as part of the creative offering.

For example, I know a video installation artist that sells limited editions of his videos on DVD for $1,500 per copy. That’s a lot of money for a DVD. How would the collector feel if he received the DVD in an already used manila envelope (no DVD cover) with scratched out writing and a broken metal clasp? Not happy I’m sure. That’s why the artist packages the DVD in a high quality leather bound case, creates DVD labels that are works of art themselves, includes a water-color painting of a still from the video and a highly-designed certificate of authentication on archival paper, signed by the artist.

2) PLACE: Where will you present your work?

Distribution – What delivery channels will you use to get your art to your audience? A theatre? The street? YouTube? Public radio? A gallery, festival, or fair? A record store or iTunes?

Visibility - Is the work visible to your targeted market? For example, if you believe under-aged teens will be your best audience, then you should probably avoid a casino tour strategy.

Distribution Channel Operations - How is your work being delivered in the distribution channel? What are the ticketing operations? How easy is it for people to park at your event? Are the seats really uncomfortable? Do you have sign language interpreters or audio-description for the hearing and sight impaired? Does your audience have to own certain technology to view your work, like high-speed internet? What time are you presenting? (11pm on a Sunday may not be ideal for the senior market)

3) PRICE: How will you price your work?

This is probably one of the most critical aspects of your marketing strategy and should be based on a good understanding of your target market’s buying behavior, economic power, and values; as well as the price points of your direct and indirect competitors. A potential audience member or art purchaser has a limited amount of discretionary income and a lot of places to spend it. They are looking for the most value for that money.

What value do you offer? Entertainment? Emotional comfort? Prestige? Some cool factor? A catharsis? Energy release? Rebellion? Intellectual challenge? Group inclusion? Or just a good place to impress a date?

Where else can they get that value? The museum? The commercial movie theatre? The bar? Some social networking event? The amusement park? The club? The spa? An interior decorator? The book store?

You have to figure out what price will make them come to you over their other options.

“I know…I’ll just be cheaper than those other options?”

That’s not necessarily a good idea. Sometimes the demand driver is a premium price point, as it signals high quality and offers the ticket or art purchaser a certain level of prestige. You really need to know your market.

4) PROMOTION – the standard promotional mix includes:

· Advertising- Any paid presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Examples: Print ads, radio, television, billboard, direct mail, brochures and catalogs, signs, in-store displays, posters, motion pictures, Web pages, banner ads, and emails.

· Personal Selling - A process of helping and persuading one or more prospects to purchase a good or service or to act on any idea through the use of an oral presentation. Examples: Sales presentations, sales meetings, sales training and incentive programs for intermediary salespeople, samples, and telemarketing. Can be face-to-face or via telephone.

· Promotions- Incentives designed to stimulate the purchase or sale of a product, usually in the short term. Examples: Coupons, sweepstakes, contests, product samples, rebates, tie-ins, self-liquidating premiums, trade shows, trade-ins, and exhibitions.

· Public relations - Paid intimate stimulation of supply for a product, service, or business unit by planting significant news about it or a favorable presentation of it in the media.Examples: Newspaper and magazine articles/reports, TVs and radio presentations, charitable contributions, speeches, issue advertising, and seminars.

· Direct Marketing is often listed as the fifth part of the marketing mix.

· Sponsorship is sometimes added as a sixth aspect.

Source: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Promotional_mix

Although not implicit in these descriptions, there is great value in word-of-mouth and viral marketing. These channels are low-cost and high value, because people trust each other more than the person or organization selling the work.

Viral marketing is a self-replicating process that distributes your message/work (via video, interactive flash game, advergames, eBooks, images, text messages, etc.) through virtual social networks. This is a fairly new marketing channel that can be very effective for artists and arts organizations, as it can be low-cost and high impact/reach. The key is identifying individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and creating viral messages that appeal to this segment of the population. Some successful campaigns include:

· Free Hug Campaign video (45.5 million hits over 2.5 years)

· Where in the Hell is Matt? Video (40.7 million hits over 7 months)

· Frozen Grand Central video (15,423,783 million hits over a year)

· “Yes We Can” video (19 million hits over a year),

· Ron Clarke Academy (6.2 million hits over 3 months),

· “The Girl Effect” campaign (444, 382 hits in 8 months )

** Hits calculated from adding up views on multiple YouTube postings of same content**

The new marketing channels emerging from the age of social technology are key to the emergence of the new D.I.Y. artist environment. To address the needs of artists and arts managers in the D.I.Y. environment, Fractured Atlas is about to launch the new and improved Fractured U. - an online training center that helps artists understand arts entrepreneurship, small business, and organizational development. Fractured U. will provide critical skills for navigating the business of art; access to some of the top experts in the field; and opportunities for sharing knowledge and forging collaborations with peers.

For more information on Fractured U. or the Professional Development Program, please contact me at kamalsinclair@gmail.com.

(Originally published on FracturedAtlas.org May 16, 2009)

Empowered by Scrap

Artists are natural entrepreneurs. In general, they are innovative, enthusiastic, hard-working, highly intelligent, and resourceful. That last attribute is the subject of this post…resourcefulness.

Entrepreneurs come up with a great idea, then go out and find the resources or develop the capabilities to “make it happen.” Or, they look at what they already have available and find creative ways to use those resources/capabilities for some profitable end.

Let’s translate that into making art.

Fictitious Examples:

Idea > Resource - DIY Dancer falls asleep one night and dreams up a very innovative, but very expensive ballet. He wakes and decides it is paramount that he sees this ballet realized on stage. The only issue is he is broke, struggles to pay his rent as a coffee shop guy, has no prestigious experience or training, and just moved to a new city. He spends five years developing relevant resources and capabilities (e.g. experience working with ballet companies, training at a top notch school, building a strong network in the dance world, and finding accessible capital through grants) before he even sees the work-in-progress version of the ballet on stage.

Resources>Idea - DIY Sculptor says, “Okay, I would love to work in bronze ($3.00 per pound), but it is so expensive. Wood is cheap, but its a little too cheap for the type of sculpture I want to do. Stone is cool, but somewhat expensive ($2.25 per pound) and Isuck at carving stone. What do I have at my disposal? (Aha moment) Disposal! That’s it. I live in a pretty industrial area. What kind of metal is disposed of by these companies? ”

DIY Sculptor does a little research and finds that there are three manufactures that work with metal in her city. She asks the factory managers about their left over scrap metal. She doesn’t find anything too inspiring at the first two plants, but the third…bingo! Custom Tools Inc. melts metal and pours it into molds to make custom tools. As a consequence, they often spill liquid metal on the ground, which hardens in these amazing smooth, puddle-like shapes. They either discard the spilt metal or bulk-sell it for $.10 per pound. DIY Sculptor asks if she can come once a week and choose from the spilt metal before they sell or discard it, for the same price. The manager says, “H*ll, what do I care” (Resource). In art school, DIY Sculptor learned how to chemically alter the color of metal, chisel design, and solder (Capability). She starts to combine this found resource and her metal working capabilities to create some really interesting, creative and striking sculptures.

Great! What resources and capabilities does she have available to:

· make an important social statement with this work;

· get some visibility in the art world;

· and attract buyers and curators?

Well, after playing with the placement of the sculptures, she finds they are best displayed on the ground. They almost look like stepping-stones when laid out. Interestingly, they also look like still puddles, almost like hardened water. She meditates on stepping-stones and puddles for a long while, when she remembers her poet friend in college, who often referenced his family’s experience as captives of a Japanese internment camp in the 1940’s. Her friend said there were stepping-stones that led into the camp that symbolized the path to captivity for his family, and that his mother cried the first time she walked on those stepping-stones as a small child.

DIY Sculptor finds her old poet friend on FaceBook and guess what? The Poet’s mother is now the head of the Japanese Cultural Center of Northern California, which has over 13,000 sq feet of space right in the heart of San Francisco (one of the best visual arts communities in the country). They get in touch and talk about collaborating on an installation called, “Stepping-Stones of Tears.” They decide to lay a regular stepping stone path down in the Center’s garden, then have the path turn into the spilt metal stepping stones with a part of a poem carved into each piece, illustrating his mother’s tears on the steps as she entered years of internment.

The Poet’s mother is all for it and offers to fund the project as part of the Center’s Day of Remembrance activities, which draws very influential and wealthy members of the Japanese community .

This installation received excellent coverage in the San Francisco media, commanded the attention of some key art critics, and drew in some curious curators. At the end of the exhibit, a wealthy family purchased the work and donated it to the Center for permanent installation.

In this fictitious example, DIY Sculptor took a resourced-based view of her career, combined the resources and capabilities actually available in order to create competencies that gave her a distinct advantage in a niche art market.

How do you take a resource-based view of your situation?

Step 1: Identify your available resources and capabilities.

Brainstorm a list of physical things, places, skills, processes, attributes, information, knowledge, networks, people, and funds you have available to you right now. Again, this does not mean in your possession or in your skill set, but accessible to you in some way.

For Example - DIY Sculptor has skills in metal working, negotiation, and design; access to cheap scrap metal; the $.10 per pound in funds to purchase the metal; a computer; the internet; a FaceBook account; and a skilled poet friend with a mother in a key position at a cultural center.

Step 2: Identify how you can combine these resources and capabilities in a way that creates competencies.

List all the ways you are (or can be) competent at what you do, when combining your resources and capabilities.

For example – The DIY Sculptor is competent at making spilt metal art, making aesthetically pleasing design; making critical creative associations with socio-political relevancy, and maintaining valuable friendships.

Step 3: Identify your core competence.

Out of all these competencies, which is your core competency? The one that:

· provides a benefit to those who experience your work;

· is not easily imitated by other artists;

· and can be leveraged in all your work.

For example – DIY Sculptor’s work was good and her metal working skills were competent, but her core competency was her ability to make creative associations with socio-political relevancy. She demonstrated this when he saw the utility in the spilt metal as both a stepping-stone and puddle, with representation of an emotional story of injustice that still requires advocacy, healing, and awareness. This competency was a benefit to her audience. Also, it is not easily imitated by other artists, because she has already been “branded” in the art world as the artist that does spilt metal installations on socio-political issues in niche cultural/political communities. Any other artist doing this work would appear to be a copy-cat, which is unattractive in the art world. Finally, she can leverage this competency in future installations.

Step 4: Determine if this core competency is an advantage in your industry.

Are you more valuable to your audience, patron, or buyer because you are less expensive? Do you have some cost saver that will allow you to make money, even when charging less then other artists? Or, is your work so unique, innovative, or dynamic that no other artist can command interest in the same way? Or, is your work so tailored to the needs of a particular segment of the art (or performing arts) market that no one else but you is meeting those needs so precisely?

Step 5: Determine how you will obtain and integrate new resources and capabilities.

Once you begin to leverage you current set of resources and capabilities, you will gain access to new ones. You will also have to be pro-active in developing new skills and finding new assets.

For example – DIY Sculptor now has a “name” to leverage in the art world. However, that value will fade fast if she doesn’t build on it in a timely manner. Also, she now has more capital due to the sell of the installation. How will she leverage that to advance her career? Will she move to bronze? Will she buy more spilt metal for a high volume of similar installations? Will she learn to write poetry so she can do new installations, even when her poet friend is unavailable? Will she network with other poets to increase the range of poetry supply for her work? Will she see if some of her new contacts can help her partner with a “name” poet like John Ashbery or Saul Williams?

Although, I am not advocating the reigning in of your big dreams and large visions (especially since I always shoot for the stars; hoping to land on the moon), but I am offering another approach to unleashing your creativity and launching your career. It can be exciting to take stock of what you actually have available to you, it may surprise you. Sometimes we can be so busy thinking about what we don’t have, that we fail to see the value in what we do have. For artists, who often express frustration in their lack of resources, this can be very empowering.

So, stop waiting on things to come, mine those gems already buried in your backyard and make something beautiful…today!

(Originally published on FracturedAtlas.org April 5, 2009)

Finding Solid Ground

Over the last seven months we’ve discussed many topics, such as: the emergence of artistic entrepreneurship in the new economy; the importance of demanding fair value for your creative contributions to society; tools of empowerment (e.g. clarity, action); the importance of strategic business planning in the arts; the merits of analysis (industry, market, and competitive); finding a blue ocean strategy; and owning your professional identity.

Are you overwhelmed yet?

You’re not alone.

At this point my students and clients are spinning with the magnitude of possibilities and choices available to them. It’s exciting to discover all the ways you can achieve your dreams, especially after benchmarking peers or peer organizations that have actually done it. However, it is also common to feel paralyzed by options.

Yes, you’ve finally “turned on the light” and clearly see the playing space before you. You finally have a comprehensive view of who the players are and how they collectively function, who your market is and how they behave; but you haven’t yet figured out:

“Where do I want to be in this world?

“How am I going to function in this environment?”

This is when you have to ground yourself in a process called, situational analysis.

Sound scary?

It isn’t.

Conducting a good situational analysis can actually provide comfort. I liken it to the feeling of coming off a six-month-two-city-per-week tour, unlocking the door of my Brooklyn apartment, dropping my ridiculously heavy luggage, and sighing: “Ahhhh….Home.” On tour, I was constantly moving from place to place, trying to decipher unfamiliar territory and figure out how to function.

In Brooklyn, I knew my way around, had my routines, and could execute strategies for daily operation. The situational analysis gives you that same calming sense of place and how in your industry and/or market.

So let’s begin.

Two useful tools for understanding where you exist in the world are: the SWOT Analysis and the Resource-Based View of the Firm (your career). I will discuss the SWOT analysis and leave the Resource-Based View description for a future posting.

A SWOT Analysis allows you to determine strategies for optimizing your strengths (S), compensating for your weaknesses (W), taking advantage of opportunities (O) and warding off threats (T).

Step 1: List all the opportunities and threats in your new found world.

The research and analysis on your industry, market and competition should have exposed some opportunities and threats. Sit with the information and brainstorm a list of these items.

Example: DIY Theatre Company’s market research revealed that a new IT park development is attracting professional singles to their metro-area. This demographic has a lot of discretionary

dollars to spend on entertainment, because they generally don’t have the expense of children and tend to frequent places they can meet other singles (e.g. bars, clubs).

Clearly, there is an opportunity to provide entertaining spaces to this target group. Additionally, their research exposed a 10% increase in bars and clubs in the metro-area, which the company sees as a competitive threat.

Step 2: Do an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.

Be very honest with yourself, especially about your strengths. You’d think it would be hard to see our shortcomings, but often times we are blind to our power.

Example: Improvisational sketch comedy is a key strength of DIY’s young professional actors. However, they’ve only used it for public school performances, which is their current bread and butter gig. DIY’s major weakness is a lack of space. Without a consistent venue to present work, it is difficult to build a ticket purchasing patron base.

Step 3: Create a matrix of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; then determine your strategies.

Example:

	Strengths	Weakness
Opportunities	(S) Can create hilarious sketch comedy (O) Lucrative target market - young professionals	(W) Lack of space (O) Lucrative target market - young professionals
Threats	(S) Can create hilarious sketch comedy (T) 10% increase of bars and clubs	(W) Lack of space (T) 10% increase of bars and clubs

S-O strategies - pursue opportunities that fit your strengths. For example, DIY could create edgy comedic programming that caters to young professionals.

W-O strategies - overcome your weaknesses to pursue opportunities. For example, the company could partner with a venue to present a weekly sketch comedy show, with edgy content like an interactive
dating game. They could brand the show as the premier dating event for young professionals who don’t like to dance at clubs.

S-T strategies - identify ways to optimize your strengths and reduce your vulnerability to external threats. For example, the company could partner with their potential competitor; a new bar in town. DIY would produce and promote the weekly sketch comedy show in return for all the cover charge revenue. (Leaving food and drink revenue for the bar).

W-T strategies - establish a defensive plan to prevent your weaknesses from making you susceptible to external threats. For example, the company could sign a multi-year contract with the bar to mitigate the loss
of space, and look for opportunities to buy ownership in the bar (or another bar) as net profit increases.

Of course, this is a very simple example of a situational analysis, but I hope it illustrates the value of using this tool. Additionally, I hope it provides some clarity about how to ground your self in newly discovered industry and/or market space. Ultimately, I hope you find that“Ahhhh…..home” feeling in your new found world of opportunities.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

(One caveat - find you grounding, but never stop scanning your environment and adjusting to inevitable changes; or you will struggle to remain relevant and sustainable.)

Reference: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/

(Originally published on FracturedAtlas.org March 1, 2009)