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Performing and Visual Arts Systems
Part A: main characteristics of performing arts system, what they are, their peculiarities, the main challenges for management. Also, an overview of the contemporary Italian system. Examples of different institutions and management of festivals. Exam: Oral exams on readings and case studies (70%) 12 of December: individual project for an event to be pitched to the class and then to be submitted through blackboard (in PDF – the draft of the leaflet) value of 30%.
- What is it? We ideate an event (like a festival or another event) that includes (not necessarily exclusive) audiovisual languages. Create an event overview and a little paper (500 words) where the details of the project are explained. Such as: Why do you want to organize your event? The mission, motivation What are the main elements? Who is your target audience? When do you schedule it and why? Where do you imagine locating the event? Relationship with the territory?
- For the oral presentation in class: you must imagine to be a cultural organization (organization, association, etc) and you have to image the people you are speaking to (assign a role: a potential funder, sponsor, partner. This presentation has to do with your ability to convince someone to take part in the project, not specifically on the reasons why you do that (which will be developed in the BB text). No more than 5 minutes. Materials:
- Slides
- Italian theatre today (Canziani)
- Performance and Intangible cultural heritage (Taylor) pp. 91 – 104
- Choose 2 readings on the list What is a pitch? A short persuasive introduction to a person, a product, or an idea. Use of videos and photos. Personal engagement with the issue. Present the problem/issue first and then our solution/project. End with an “invitation” to join. Work much on persuasion, ideas, and emotions but still it’s important to be aware of the financial plan behind the project (it’s not so central for our project). It’s important to be very concise.
Lesson 1 – What are performing arts? Peculiar features and overview of the Italian system Performing arts are a form of art in which artists use their voices or bodies, often in relation to other objects, to convey artistic expression. They include several disciplines, each performed in front of a live audience. Theatre, music, dance and object manipulation, and other kinds of performances are present in all human cultures. There is a process of interaction. In every human culture, human beings feel the urgence to express themselves through their bodies in front of other people. It’s part of human nature. Visual arts and performing arts are two different things, even though sometimes they might intertwine. Visual arts are when the artist use paint, canvas or other materials to create physical or static art objects. Languages nowadays however get more and more mixed. Performance is an inclusive term: it is a term that has many different meanings. Performance studies is an academic field that uses performance as a lens and a tool to study the world. These studies can examine performances, that can be either artistic or cultural. Artistic performances are marked and understood as art (ex. Theater, poetry) while cultural performances include events that happen in everyday life (rituals, ceremonies, rituals associated to social roles). You can study all the aspects of life through performance. Performing arts are a sub-field of ICC , the Cultural and Creative Industry. The term “cultural industry” dates back to the 40s of the last century, while the term “creative industry” was introduced in the 90s. Cultural and Creative Industries are those industries that are based on cultural values, individual creativity. Performing arts are those arts which involve public performance. A performance is unique because of the real-time interaction. The performing arts are a subset of live entertainment: but the line between the art and other forms of entertainment is blurry. What is the difference between art and non-art? The tendency is the fact that art must be recognized as such by different actors in the art world. There must be some sort of market recognition: that is why so many artists are only recognized as artists after many years or even after death. Three characteristics have been identified that distinguish art from other forms of entertainment: Deeper audience impact – art aims to do more than just entertain, amuse, make people enjoy themselves. It aims at educating, inspiring, enrich, challenge. Entertainment usually aims at pleasing the audience while art wants to “change” its audience. Obviously, it might happen that sometimes works that were born to entertain will end up being considered as art. Longer shelf life – artistic works gain a life of their own that is independent from its creators and performers. For example, Shakespeare’s works still speak to the 21st^ audience in translations and adaptations in ballet, theater, and film.
repertory theater, where we have the resident company that proposes the same performance. Touring companies or production might be theaters that have different performances that present one or more productions while touring around)
- Governance (public or private institutions)
- Aim (commercial, non for profit: the revenues are used/reinvested to pursue our objective and they are not given to the company)
- Dimensions
- Functions: productions, distribution, education, conservation Anomalies of the performing arts The main anomaly/deviation from the standard is the fact that we deal with events and not products. Events are unique and have a special way to be repeatable, “peculiar” repeatability. On the one side, there is the problem of the “Baumol Disease” and the mastering the probable and managing the “unpredictable”. The Baumol disease is the fact that this field cannot increase productivity while other fields in the market can increase productivity through technology, labor skill and better management. But in the performing arts, the labor is the output and there is really no way to increase the output per hour. Live performance cannot match the record of productivity growth achieved by the economy as a whole. How to face this situation? By raising the price of the tickets, but this would result in a lower quantity demanded. Another choice would be the “artistic deficit” in order to reduce prices and economize through choices in repertory and production process, like to choose a smaller cast, reduce rehearsal time. Also, necessity to demand for public subsidies. Main sources of funding for entertainment business: Self-financing: ticket office, shows sale, products sale, rights, publishing, merchandising, rentals (by renting your venue), advertising Public funding: government, regions, local authorities, mountain communities, ASL, other public institutions Private funding: sponsorships, liberal donations Supranational funding: supranational funding for example by the European Community, UNESCO, embassies, and international organizations. In this case it’s important to be able to apply for these grants. Should the government subsidize the arts? Almost all countries affirm the need for the promotion of cultural activity and entertainment as a fundamental component for the development of citizens and communities and for the definition of national identities. For example, there is a Declaration from the G20 that tries to underline the importance of fostering this, or even the Italian constitution. Still, in practice, this is not so good: especially in Italy, not a lot of money is spent on culture. In the cultural field, there are some intrinsic problems. As we said, the Baumol disease: technological process does not change the productivity of the live performance. However, if we look at the wider set of organizations producing for example classic music, productivity has been increased.
Some activities that are very niche are able to become successful because they are able to create a “convincing” project, of high quality, not mainstream. For example, in the Richard Foreman case, where he created an experimental theater in NYC. His audiences were filledd with many loyal patrons that came show after show, and many other were attracted to his scandalous content. Still, his work was always of the highest quality. So even if the audience never exceeded the modest capacity of the theater and even though his work was not for everyone, he sustained a sustainable enterprise. Other issues in managing performing arts In the case of performing arts, we might have difficulties in managing something as highly unpredictable. “If you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail” but still many things can go wrong in this sort of activities. For example, brain freeze for actors, unplanned audience participation or malfunctioning stage equipment. Still, this risk of problems is what makes live performances so exciting. One must be ready to face challenges but still they are what makes it exciting. Performing arts are characterized by a high incidence of fixed costs, complex productive process, and high uncertain demand. Also high use of labor or human capital (skills, talents) that are no so easy to manage. Also, a balance is needed between the business factor and the artistic elements of this process. The nature itself of the performing arts is of repetitive permanent or semi-permanent functional activities to produce products of services This is why in this field, project management works better than a hierarchical model. Project management is characterized by an adaptive, creative and flexible integrative behavior based on non-permanence and spontaneity. In Italy The theatrical organization in Italy more than in other countries preserves some ancient structures and uses: traditions and customs that come from afar still characterize the ways of doing theater. There is not a strong “national theater”: it is still based on a differentiation between regions with cultural and linguistic differences because Italy is a rather new nation. Also, there is a tradition of “itinerant” theater. For centuries, the theater was considered as a commercial activity that was not considered to be important for the state to regulate. This only started to happen with Fascism where there was a renewed interest in the regulation of the state to detail the activity of theaters. At that point, the idea of economic support by the state remained. After second world war, the need to promote cultural activity is confirmed as a fundamental component to the formation of individual citizens. In 1947, the Teatro Piccolo di Milano was the first teatro stabile in Italy. FUS (Fondo Unico dello Spettacolo) was founded in 1985 where the State grants each year funds. Recently, there have been some changes. In 2014, a Decree gave new shape to the criteria for the assignment of these funds. Then, in 2022, a decree provided delegation to the Government to reform, revision and organize the current regulations in the sectors of theater, music, and other performing arts. Public intervention in Italy FUS is not the only way to support the sector, there are other direct and indirect actions. For example, the art bonus, the PNR. Also the MIBACT provides grants for live entertainment
Lesson 3:
Festivals and cases
The cultural project: some ideas on its management Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria. A project is a temporary endeavor design to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end, undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. It should achieve all the goals in the given constraints. Advantages Temporality Focuses on one objective Mixed operation and managerial activities Efficiency of formal and informal communication at its inside Less bureaucracy Interaction between different culture and professional skills (we need very different types of skills that need to focus on the same clear objective) Every cultural project is a complex system involving a series of players who take part in staging it: from the curator, the designer, the fundraiser. It’s not always so easy to make different skilled people work together because they might have different ways to work. For example, artists who are more creative and have a very specific idea, might not apply well deadlines. While the managers have a clearer picture of what to do, but they might limit the creativity of the artist, etc. Interaction in project management is fundamental but even more difficult. The first step for project management is the conception (having the idea). Usually there is a primary need behind the creation of a project: it can be an artistic, productive, programmatic, public policy need. Artistic need: the idea comes from the artist, like a choreography or a composer. They compose a productive structure (they can choose a project of theater, festival, company, local authority) to create the performance they want to create. You can create a project by focusing first on a general idea, to develop afterwards or a more detailed project with info about budget and cast/collaborators. Productive need: for certain established theaters, for example, they have to produce something to start each season. You have already a stage, a specific time (a season) and a budget but you need to produce.
Programming need: for example, in the case of Festivals, where the producers “present” performances rather than producing them. In this case, we don’t have a budget to produce the performance but to present it. They usually have a when and a where but they need to find the productions already realized and ask the productions to come to the festival. Public policy need: for example, according to the “European Parliament Report of 2016” CCIs have an intrinsic dual value because they play a key role in the preservation and promotion of European culture, strengthen the sense of belonging to the European and cultural identity, contribute to transmit knowledge and values, and safeguard the tangible and intangible European heritage for current and future generations. But still, they create social cohesion through a contribution to the EU economy in terms of employment, investment, growth. Initiating the project: understand the stakeholders in the industry. Fornitori, comunità locali, soci e membri, client utilizzatori, organi di informazione e critici, finanziatori, decisori politici, etc. Also, a SWOT analysis should be done. Paper from “The Cycle: a practical approach” The field of the arts has a lot to learn from sports especially for what concerns the idea of involving the fanbase, marketing, and in the production of a compelling product. The cycle in the sports is this one: good marketing will generate revenue that teams can spend for better players who can improve the chances for the team to win. Better teams are easier to market and attract the attention so that more revenue will arrive, which will go towards getting better players, and so on.
Organizational structure: it is the formal system of tasks and authority relationships that controls how people coordinate. There are different lines of responsibility. Revenue structure: main sources come from public funding, private and tickets (box office). Then, in 2021, after the pandemic, majority came from public funds and very little from the box office. Rates of distribution of FUS Italian opera is the biggest beneficiary of public funds, but in terms of size of number of spectators it is way more little. Fondazione Lirico-sinfoniche receive 50% of funds but they have a quarter of the spectators. Marketing for the performing arts: They need fundraising, communication, audience development (even for a very historical theater like La Scala, you need to focus on attracting new audiences to remain relevant even for future generations), international audiences. The educational aim There are two concepts:
- The education “in” theater: CCIs can transmit heritage and linguistic diversity, transmit knowledge. Theater has this intrinsic function and can foster education by itself. Not specific.
- Theater in education: in a more specific way, as a field of application. “Applied theater practice” specifically applied to foster education. This has been practiced in England since the 60s. Teatro sociale or applied theater Applied Theatre is a broad umbrella term, developed in the 1990s to describe « a wide range of participatory, socially engaged, often politically inspired, non-traditional theatre practices » usually conducted in spaces not designed for theatre, with and for populations that would not typically constitute mainstream audiences. «Practices existing (some rather reluctantly) under the umbrella of applied theatre might include: community theatre, community performance, theatre for social change, popular theatre, interventionist theatre, drama in education, theatre for integrated rural development, participatory performance practices, process drama/theatre, prison theatre, theatre in health/education, theatre for development, theatre for conflict resolution/reconciliation, reminiscence theatre and so on». (Tim Prentki – Sheila Preston, Introduction to TP, SP eds. The Applied Theatre Reader , Routledge, London and New York, 2009, p. 9). «The theatre is applied because it is taken out from the conventional mainstream theatre house into various settings in communities where many members have no real experience in theatre form. The theatre becomes a medium for action, for reflection but, most important, for transformation – a theatre in which new modes of being can be encountered and new possibilities for humankind can be imagined» (S. Taylor, Applied Theatre: Creating Transformative Encounters in the Community , Heinemann, Portsmouth 2003, p. xxx) Project Caravan Next
European project based on audience involvement: it involves local communities on the theme of European challenges. 16 different countries: objective is audience development, citizens become actors of the artistic project. They tried to implement many different strategies: people do not only attend but also participated even in a very simple way (going into the street with a parade asking for a fruit from people in the streets).
Lesson 4:
How to manage a festival (Alessandra Vinanti)
Managing an International Theater Festival: it can be in a specific place, intensely in a specific time. After the second world war, the Edinburg Theater Festival was created, then that of Avignon, then the Spoleto national festival. For example, a plausible festival could be “Milan in Motion” in March 2023: you choose a name and a logo, you choose a date (for example march is perfect because there are no holidays). In a festival you have a: ì
- Presenter/organizzatore: he puts the money to organize it
- Producers: you invite companies that produce things, you invite productions made by other companies. In the contract there are these two names: we, the presenters, make a contract with you, producer.
- Venue: it is important to choose the right venue for the right production, not every production can be presented in any venue. For example, you must check the size of the theater, the way the stage is constructed. You have to check which venues are possible and how much they cost to rent.
- Budget: you need to put together the money, look for private or public funds, or technical sponsorisation, Main departments: Production and organization: travel, transportation of the production and artists, setting up of the equipment, set, etc. Administration: creation of a box office for selling tickets (obviously, if you have already a theater) Communication: marketing department Production and organization What? Which companies How? How many people do we need to organize these festivals, set costume lights and videos. Scheduling the event: you must book in advance Making agreements with the production: specification about the production, the author, direct, number of people involved and all the technical aspects. how many dressing rooms, etc.
Lesson 5:
Events and Festival
Over the past decades, cultural events and the festival format have been among the most successful trends in the performing arts. Events encompass a wide variety of themes and formats, from music festivals to sport competitions and trade exhibitions. Five questions to ask and answer before any attempt at an event: Why: what is the compelling reason, the meaning behind the production. If you do not know why you’re doing something, better not to do it. Who: who is the target market. In the “who”, we include stakeholders, participants, event management team and of course the audience. What: this determines the even product or the broad parameters of what the event will be (ex. A launch, festival, carnival, award ceremony, or a fair). When Where Four design principles Scale: matching the scale of the event to the venue, the audience shall clearly see and understand what is being presented. Shape: simple, clean lines. Remove distraction and clutter, ensuring clear sight lines for every seat. Focus: ensuring that the audience is focused on what you want, booking techniques from theater and film direction to force the attention of the public on a specific location Timing : accurate timing throughout the event. Event design needs to incorporate local social, cultural and environmental conditions when scheduling activities. Definition of Festival and its connection to Time It was originated as a specific time that is perceived as different from ordinary time. It is a sacred or profane time of celebration, marked by special observances. It can be the annual celebration of a person or something. The primary function of a festival is to announce culture, renew periodically the livestream of a community by creating a new energy, and give sanction to its institutions.
The ritual who opens the festival is one of valorization that modifies the usual and daily function and meaning of time and space. There has been a “Festivalization” in the recent years: now there are so many festivals. There are many causes, depending both on supply and demand factors. From the supply side, there has been an hyperproduction and internationalization of the arts, it is linked to tourist development (can also raise problems to issue of sustainability, but also creating a sort of homogeneity with other performances all over the world, losing the peculiar characteristics of the country and the connection to the local people where the festival takes place), and civic repositioning. From the demand side , there is a demand for serious leisure (however, this demand is not growing so steadily now. Still, talking about the history of demand, this factor was very important), lifestyle sampling, socialization needs, desire for creative and authentic experiences by some market segments (people are asking for experiences any more than any other thing, we should think about what experiences we want to offer). Festivals are emblematic for the contradictions of the contemporary cultural life. Festivals have different functions: they can be cultural/artistic, touristic or professional. Their outcomes can be socio-cultural, political, touristic and economic, physical and environmental. Obviously, these outcomes can be either positive and negative (for example, they have a good effect on tourism but might pose a danger to the environment – we must balance outcomes). The social impact of festivals are not very easy to assess because they are things that take time to develop: among positive impacts, increased standards of living, sustain social cohesion, new facilities, etc. Negative impacts like more crime and the idea of commoditization when communities activities are altered to meet the needs and expectations of tourists. The stakeholders vary from event to event and might include: event organizers, employees and volunteers. Suppliers, service and contract providers. Local council and municipal emergency services. Media, Host community, sponsors, participants. when you imagine your pitch, it’s not fundamental you pitch it to someone who will give you the funds, but also to another type of stakeholder. Festival D’Avignon It is the oldest festival in Europe: it was founded in 1947 by Jean Villar after the second world war during a “post-war optimism”. The festival spends 70% of money to program, producing and co- producing and then 30% for technical facilities and operating of venues. The resources come 60% from public subsidies, 31% is its own revenues and then the festival has established a long-term relationship with sponsors. Edinburgh Festival Fringe It does not produce performances but only provides artists guidance and resources to “tell their story”. Other examples: Santarcangelo dei Teatri (10 days: https://www.santarcangelofestival.com), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (3 weeks: https://kfda.be) it is an international festival with the support of both (French and Flemish) Ministries of Culture. eadings
H6 – the longer the mayor’s tenure, the lower an opera house’s propensity to innovate: when they are appointed, mayors must serve as board chairs and representatives of opera houses. When they are new, they are more willing to include contemporary repertoires because they might want to differentiate themselves from their predecessors and give an innovative image. However, as time goes by, politicians become more interested in achieving consensus and popularity to be re-elected so that they try to reinforce current audience’s tastes. √ Characteristics of the local community (openness to risk) H7 – the greater the local community’s openness to risk, the higher an opera house’s propensity to adopt modern and contemporary programming strategies: for example the presence of many start-ups in an area reflects an overall openness to risk. Artistic directors living in this area will be more likely to pursue innovation. X H8 – in communities open to risk, the higher the % of opera house’s revenues coming by private sources, the higher the opera house’s propensity to innovate: this is because in these communities the private donors do business open to risk and will prompt opera houses to do the same. For example, these donors might decide to donate to associate their brand with creativity and to enhance their image as someone who supports development of the art. X H9 – in communities open to risk, the higher the opera house’s occupancy rate, the higher its propensity to innovate: this is because in this type of community people are more progressive and therefore they are more open to novelty. They can accept the risk of not fully understanding new performances and are open to a change in tastes. √ Testing the hypotheses Dependent variable: propensity to adopt modern and contemporary programming strategies. It is calculated by dividing tot. of modern and contemporary perfomances runs by the natura logarithm of the theatre’s annual income. Independent variables: decisions in programming is based on occupancy rate in year t- (based on average attendance, occupancy per opera), local community openness to risk in year t-1 (based on the number of new firms in a given area), subscriber base in year t- (total number of subscribers), national and government funds in year t (share of revenues coming from them), private grants in year t, length of a mayor’s tenure in year t-1 (how many years the mayor was in office). Control variables: total number of programmed runs (program size), size of the city (population), wealth of local area (GDP per capita), the demand for performing arts (monthly expenditure on it), length of artistic directors’ tenure. Results of the study: They analyzed 30 Italian operas from 2006 to 2011: including Lyrics Symphonic Foundations and Teatri di Tradizione. The study seems to confirm the assumptions in H1, H3, H5, H6, H9. Hypotheses not supported by the study: H2, H4, H7, H8. To sum up, when opera houses rely heavily on audience they are less inclined to stage contemporary operas but this effect is positively moderated by particular characteristics of the community where the theater is located: if it is populated by risk-taking individuals, then the audience will support the theater’s propensity to program innovative operas. Another element is that public funding, either national and local, doesn’t stimulate innovation. This might be because grants are allocated on the basis of production costs, which encourages opera houses to stage works that are not small (like usually contemporary ones).
However, political turnover and change of government provide an incentive for opera houses to engage in risk-taking behaviours: opera houses should take advantage of this. Also, a large subscriber base leads to opera houses to be less risk averse. Choice 2: Practicing Human Dignity – Ethical Lessons from Commedia dell’Arte and Theater The aim of the paper is to show how creative arts can promote human dignity and lead to conversation about values, ethics and meaning. To do so they explore Commedia dell’Arte (how its main themes are concerned with dignity) and a set of theater exercises done in executive educations and MBA courses. The creative arts can offer useful insights to management scholars especially facing improvisation, change and leadership. The paper takes one step further trying to show how theater can make organizations more human. What does dignity mean? Dignity can be used either as meaning “treating others with dignity” and “acting with dignity”: literature in this field says that dignity is connected to humanity, because treating someone with dignity means to recognize them as humans, not as a purely economic or political being. As Kant would say, to see them as ends themselves and not as mere means. People cooperate together not because of mutual interests only, but mainly because it’s the only way to lead a fully human life of dignity. Ten elements of dignity: acceptance of identity, inclusion, safety, acknowledgement, recognition, fairness, benefit of the doubt, understanding, independence, accountability. If we can figure out how to promote the idea of human dignity in organizations , encouraging leaders to see organizational members and stakeholders as capable of living lives of dignity, of being fully human, then we are more likely to build organizations that can enable us to live lives worth living. The authors argue that they can use creative arts to do so and they focus on two approaches. First case: Commedia dell’Arte It is a centuries old tradition in Italy of artists playing without a script or a formal director. Played now in Teatro Piccolo. It has other names like commedia all’improvviso o commedia alla maschera. This type of theater represents a very close form of organizing to the contemporary business organization and can be a helpful example for understanding how dignity can be built into the foundation of organizations. Elements: First, in CdA there is no formal and external theater directors, il Capo Comico is one of the Comedian acting among peers that mainly coordinates. They do not have a script; they only have a canovaccio (canvas) a short plot with no specific lines. To act, the actors have to recognize and acknowledge each other as equally human and committed. Five key traits of the Commedia dell’Arte, linked to their success worldwide, can also become important lessons for how to manage an organization: The Mask (including human dignity): the comedians play behind a mask which is linked to a well-defined character (like Arlecchino) and that determines a pre-defined characteristic. Still, each actor can bring their own creativity into the mask to provide a personal interpretation to it. This enables the mask to become alive.
person is true, you don’t try to impose your own truth. This helps to dissolve conflict in the working space. Telling a story: theater is not based on simply learning the lines by heart, but also on supporting each other by active listening, story-telling. For example there are exercises where actors are deprived of the script so that they can try to make up for it by trying to narrate the story and with other actors helping them. This is useful in the organizational culture because managers should focus on the purpose and lessons of what they do, not only on bullet points. This focuses them on action and not just on words. Human Sculptures : we do not only communicate through words but also through bodies, actors use embodiment as a part of the creation. An exercise is “human sculpture”, to create a story through a position. This puts emphasis on the role of the bodies and its importance, so that managers can see people as bodies and minds. Safety to fail: a problem in organizations is the focus we have on reputation and impression, so sometimes when faced with challenges we tend to be risk averse. An exercise to solve this are puzzle hunts where puzzles give no clear hints but each puzzle leads to the next one. This is important because it is based on teamwork and the most successful teams are those where participants feel comfortable sharing even silly ideas. This is a lesson for organizations: the ability to try out new ideas and not suffer risks to one’s reputations. Many of these exercises have been a part of the daily training of the CdA actors and are used in theater. To summarize, there are a whole host of experiential exercises from theate r that can be used to help students and executives develop skills such as self-awareness, creativity, ability to listen and share, awareness of non-verbal body language, ability to speak in public, understanding and resolution of conflicts and tensions, and being ‘‘in the moment’. They are based on the concepts of acting from and treating others with dignity.
