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.
1 comment:
Thanks Steve for leaving this - I've actually thought back on this somewhat while sending out job aps. Also, my boss at the IU Art Museum explained that there is hope when applying for a University theatre/museum position. Often University departments cannot gain back a salaried position for years if they don't hire an individual. Meaning that even in an economic time like now they would not cut jobs because the larger University could not guarantee when that salaried position would return to the theatre/museum.
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