December 2008 Field Letter
Written on December 1, 2008
Dear Friends,
I want to thank member theatres who participated in our member services survey in October/November. We received an outstanding response, which will help inform us as we make plans and set priorities for the future.
November was a month of immense activity, both inside and outside of TCG, and with the holidays upon us, I hope that you will have opportunities to wind down a bit, to be with family and friends, to reflect on the year just past and to imagine what possibilities lay ahead in 2009. In early November, immediately following the election, arts leaders and a record number of trustees joined us in New York for the Fall Forum on governance. This year’s theme was Radical Shifts, Governing Ahead of the Curve. That it was timely would be an understatement. The discussions focused on the economy, managing in times of crisis, advocacy and diversity. The weekend was kicked off by ABC News political analyst, Mark Halperin, who was extremely generous with his time in discussing the outcome of the election and what’s to come in terms of Presidential appointments and the economy. During the weekend sessions, we brought together discussions on the immediacy of the current economic difficulties we face, with a longer-term focus on some of the mandates arising from the National Performing Arts Convention (advocacy, diversity and arts education). As you can guess, the balancing act we face now is about how to retrench in a tough economy, as necessary, while maintaining vitality and keeping an eye on the long term. If you were unable to attend and would like to see the transcripts of some of the sessions, they will be posted on the Fall Forum page by December 8.
With our new President-elect, there have been some important developments on the advocacy front. TCG and a group of 15 other national organizations collaborated to generate an arts policy statement for the White House transition team. It is a thorough document that makes arts related policy recommendations regarding: the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Department of Education, international cultural exchange, national service and the arts (eg: AmeriCorps), reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act (NCLB), nonprofit tax policy and oversight. It also strongly requests the appointment of a senior administrative position on cultural policy, who would oversee coordination of these disparate areas of impact and potential impact for the arts. The policy recommendations were delivered to the White House on November 21, and were received by John Podesta and Bill Ivey, the transition head for the NEA, NEH and IMLS. We expect to receive a response sometime this month, with follow-up conversations and meetings anticipated. Visit the Advocacy section of the TCG website to read the statement. We are interested in any questions or comments you might have. Also in advocacy, the White Space issue continues to percolate. For a complete and important briefing on where it stands, please see the report in this month’s TCG Bulletin.
Many of you heard the sad news that Jerry Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization, passed away on November 25 at age 84. Jerry was extremely vocal and active on the White Space issue. His energy and commitment to this cause—and many others—was formidable, and we will miss him profoundly.
Looking ahead: we are gearing up for the Baltimore National Conference! It is just six months away (June 4-6) with a two-track pre-conference series on advocacy and cultural exchange (June 2-4 in Washington). John Waters, a native Baltimorean and filmmaker, whose Hairspray and Cry-Baby were made into plays, will be our “welcome to Baltimore” keynote speaker. He will also join us for a reception at the American Visionary Art Museum, a gorgeous facility dedicated to outsider art and artists. The theme of this year’s conference is Roots. Renaissance. Revolution. and deals with generational interactions in our field: how established practitioners and emerging leaders learn from each other, how generations coexist in the workplace and how they approach art making and arts participation differently and the same. But this will also be a chance to put our heads together on where we stand as a field in these difficult times, to look at new models and ways of getting the work done. In Baltimore, we have great lower-cost hotel and dorm options, and we will also be recommending transportation options. Stay tuned in the coming months as we provide you with information on the sessions and budget friendly ways to participate.
I have been traveling. At the top of the month, I participated in a board retreat at CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore. Artistic director Irene Lewis and literary manager Gavin Witt are undertaking a strategic planning project with their board to radically reexamine and rethink their model. Also participating in this discussion was the playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah; Hartford Stage’s associate artistic director Jeremy Cohen; and Yale dramaturg Catherine Sheehy. It was exciting to see an organization take concrete action to “shake up” assumptions about how the work is organized and programmed. The conversation continues, and we’re all receiving weekly updates from Gavin. In mid November, I had the opportunity to visit Emerson College and participate with Olympia Dukakis, Lynn Cohen and Jaan Whitehead on a panel dealing with the state of theatre and the collaborative process. This is an ongoing conversation that has been underway for a few years, and in this case, included students, faculty and members of the Boston theatre community. The performing arts program at Emerson, headed up by Melia Bensussen, is quite impressive. And by the way, if you’ve been looking for Benny Sato Ambush, he is on the faculty at Emerson.
And thank you visitors to TCG: Mark Booher from PCPA Theaterfest made his annual visit to TCG and was as thoughtful and inspiring as ever. I was pleased to meet with Billy Russo and Alisa Schierman, new managing director and development director, respectively, of New York Theatre Workshop, who were full of energy and vision in taking on their new posts. Charlie Newell of the Court Theatre stopped in and reported on some of the exciting developments and long range plans for his theatre. Carey Perloff, artistic director of ACT in San Francisco, was “in the house” to record an interview for our NEA pilot radio project. And it was great to visit with Les Waters, associate artistic director of Berkeley Rep on the same day. We also had the entire TCG board in the offices for our November board meeting. This is an incredibly talented and thoughtful group of 30+ people, including both individual artists and theatre leaders from across the nation. This month, you will be receiving requests for TCG board nominations. We encourage you to submit nominations, which remain active for three years.
I know that many of you are struggling and trying to determine how best to deliver on your missions—and perhaps even how to survive—when faced with a recession that has inevitably led to some combination of funding cutbacks, audience attrition and shrinking endowments. We are working at TCG on the best ways to support the field in these times. We will be launching a snapshot survey on the field’s fiscal health in January, followed by opportunities to have group teleconferences and discussions. So please stay tuned for that and do let us know if there is anything in particular you need from us or if there are specifics of your experience that you would like to share with others in some form.
With that, I sign off and wish you a festive holiday season and a happy New Year, and my hopes that you are finding some moments of inspiration in the midst of the unpredictability and chaos that dominate the news.
Until next month, all the best,
Teresa Eyring
Executive Director