Good News for Arts Administrators

I’m finally catching up on some of my American Theatre magazine reading. Theatre Facts, the magazine’s annual report on the economic state of American theaters, is in the November 2008 issue. Lots of interesting, positive information (especially because it’s an economic study on the state of theaters before the economic recession started), but here is one section that I thought might be interesting to all of us:

The largest spending category, of course, relates not to buildings, but to people: At Trend Theatres, payroll accounted for more than 53 percent of total expenses in 2007, with administrative salaries representing the largest share. Over five years, average administrative payroll edged up 12 percent in inflation-adjusted figures, while artistic pay sank 3 percent. As noted in the last two issues of Theatre Facts, theatres are increasingly allocating resources to administrative pay, in response to increasing demands of fundraising, marketing and technology needs in a competitive marketplace. There’s no one-size-fits-al rule for the administrative/artistic ratio, of course: A glance at this year’s Profiled Theaters data reminds us that payroll patterns tend to differ according to budget size. Group 1, 2 and 3 theatres [theaters with smaller budgets] devote a greater portion of their funds to artistic staff than to administrators, for instance, whereas for larger theaters, it’s the reverse (Wren 43).

My guess is that this increase in administrative spending is happening across other areas of the arts, too. Some good information for a group of people graduating and looking for jobs in this field.

This might indicate something else that we will have to pay attention to. While I know we all want to make a living in this field, I know we also don’t want the artistic staff to be underpaid; one reason I want to become an arts administrator is so I can assist artistic staff with getting paid as they deserve to be paid. As we start to become decision makers in arts organizations, we will have to closely watch this balance of artistic pay to administrative pay.

To view the full 33 page Theatre Facts 2007 report, click here.

Adventures in Interning: Housing (NYC Edition)

It is the weekend of housing-related posts, apparently, as this is what I have to update on, as well.

After some quick shopping on Craigslist the weekend before finals, I found a few options for housing in New York City for the term of my internship with Roundabout. The only issue? People of course want to meet prospective subletters before agreeing to sharing a living space. So this weekend I planned a lightning-fast tip to the city to meet possible roommates and view the living quarters.

Luckily, I found a great room in a lovely brownstone in Buskwick (Brooklyn) on the family side of the neighborhood (as opposed to the as-yet ungentrified Knickerbocker section), with a performance artist/part-time artist assistant roommate. It's a big relief after a semester of anxiety to have so much falling into place. Now, off to finish my last practicum report so I can send it and my internship contract to Susan! Hope everyone is well and enjoying the holiday season!

Sarah's first week at Sundance - Park City, UT

(I took this photo of the Gateway, where the Box Office I work in is located - if you click on the photo, it blows up, and you can make out the Sundance window clings on the front door.)

I'll kick us off with job news...

I have a full-time seasonal job (not an internship, but not a permanent job either, exactly) at Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. I arrived Sunday night, Dec 14, and I'll be here through the end of January. The actual festival happens Jan 15-25. My position is "Assistant Coordinator, Box Office Park CIty."

It's been a good first week. I started up at Sundance Institute on Monday with new employee orientation - we met the director of operations, Sarah Pearce, and lots of middle-level directors, but not Geoffry Gilmore, the artistic director, or Robert Redford, the president. A lot of the programming planning happens in the Los Angeles office (where they screen all the films and decide what makes it into the festival), and the operations planning happens here in Park City. It's a good work culture - it's casual dress and they have a dog policy where people bring in their doggies to work. But everyone is high energy, it's not like "laid-back-out-west." I learned Sally Field and Kenneth Cole are on our Board of Directors. Kenneth donates all the staff and volunteer uniform vests and coats each year.

Most of the staff works out of three small buildings that make up the Institute offices. I, however, work downtown in the Box Office most of the time. The BO is in The Gateway Center, a small indoor mall, right off Main Street. I work with 3 other girls, all just a few years older than I am. I really like all of them. One is our boss, and then there's the three of us Assistant Coordinators, and in a couple weeks, there will be about 24 ticketing agents who actually sell the tickets, who we will train and supervise. It's been pretty slow for us this week - the IT team is bustling to get the software working, but until they do, we can't work on the ticketing system very easily.

I was renting out a space in a condo about 10 miles north of Park City, but it became clear very quickly I was going to need to move. The lady was a little insane, and I was too far away to catch the bus into town, so after I got a ride home from work, I couldn't go out in the evenings. So I quickly went about making new arrangements - I found space in an international house just steps away from work. I moved in 2 days later. It's more expensive, and I share a TINY unit in a big house with 6 other people, but the location is amazing - I just walk across the street to work in the morning, and just a block to downtown. And my flatmates are from Moldova (a small country between Czechoslovakia and Russia) and they boisterously invite me to drink wine with them in the evenings, so that is fun. Two girls from Australia are moving into the bunkbed in my room today, so I will have some roommates.

Things are off to a good start. I'll keep you all updated. I am getting Thursday/Friday off for Christmas, so I'm flying to Omaha, Nebraska, to spend the long weekend with my family. Hope you all have good holidays, too.

All my best,
Sarah

saroffman@gmail.com

Strangers

For the past few months, Sarah and I have been chuckling over an interesting comment Dr. Rushton (the most quotable man I know) said once in passing. At the time he was giving tips on public speaking engagements, but the last phrase was the most memorable, "Jokes aren't funny from strangers." Up to this point, this has just been an insightful and witty comment that I have only taken at surface value, but yesterday, as I presented what I thought was a quite humorous while still informative powerpoint presentation for Prof. Facos's Women in Art History course I found that instead of uproarious laughter, my powerpoint was met with blank stares. My fellow art history students somehow did not understand why I placed an off-the-wall phrase on my chronology slide. Thinking back to Doug Booher's last classes, it seemed the slightest goofy clip-art could have the whole class rolling in the aisles. Something about knowing the people making the jokes makes them so much funnier. Anyway, this little snafu got me thinking about that comment from Dr. Rushton. There seems to be a deeper truth to that than I initially assumed. And as we all go off to our new jobs and internships, we are all at a place where we are all strangers again. Not strangers to each other, but strangers to our new colleagues, where ever we maybe.

The lesson we can all learn here I think is if you feel at any point in the first few weeks of your new position like you must tell your new coworker a great story about your pet laying on the floor in a funny position or how your left leg is a little longer than your right, it is important to remember, jokes aren't funny from strangers.

Twisted holiday lyrics

One of my creative co-workers supplied these lyrics for your entertainment this holiday season. Enjoy!

Sympathy for Santa (or Devil Santa)
m. van vooren
To the tune of Sympathy for the Devil
by Jagger and Richards

Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of bells and sleighs
I come round this time every year
Bringing toys so kids can play

I was round when Rudolph
Had his moment of doubt and shame
I made damn sure his nose was lit
Before I let him lead my sleigh

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s troubling you
Is the nature of my game

(back –up singers begin repeating “Ho Ho---Ho Ho”)

I was there when Snoopy
Caught Charlie Brown and the little red haired girl
I told Linus who told Woodstock
Who told Lucy and the feathers flew

So if you meet me have some courtesy
Leave some cookies and some milk
Use all your well-hung mistletoe
Or your presents will number nil!

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name
But what’s troubling you
Is the nature of my game

class photo

Blog Launch

This was Michelle's brilliant idea - to keep a correspondence blog we could all contribute to. So I set it up, and we proposed to Clare we launch it at the end-of-the-year party. When we told Rushton about it, his response was:
"Not sure what's involved in a blog launch...do you do a countdown and then with great fanfare hit "view blog"? If so, count me in."
So that is what we will do.
I will miss you all. Please write here often.
-- Sarah