I just returned from a trip to Bucharest, Romania. To say it was a whirlwind is a bit of an understatement – I was in the country for about 36 hours, most of which was spent sleeping!
I have been traveling across the globe over the past five years to encourage Ministries of Culture to spend more time and money on training arts administrators. Romania, like most countries, has enjoyed a high level of government funding for the arts. As a result, Romania has numerous important arts organizations – orchestras, ballet companies, symphonies and museums – of very high quality. I attended a special concert honoring the former King and Queen on their 60th wedding anniversary; the playing was exemplary.
But like most countries, the Romanian government recognizes that it, alone, cannot fund the needs of all the country’s artists.
In my meetings with the Ministers of Culture and Finance, and with leaders of many arts organizations, I discussed the American approach to arts funding: we rely much more heavily on earned income at the box office and on private donations.
While we might envy those who get much higher government subsidies, there is a price tag – one becomes so reliant on that single donor that when subsidies fall, as they are in many countries around the world, one is left without a method for filling in the gap.
I have been teaching arts management around the world for these past five years to help arts leaders learn how to fill the gap with private fundraising, better marketing, board development and planning. Just last month I taught in Prague and had 370 eager students from six central European countries. The desire to learn is immense.
A corollary benefit of this work is the goodwill it builds for America. The Kennedy Center does not charge for any of our teaching abroad. We fund this work entirely through private donations. Lending our expertise in this manner has become an important cultural diplomacy tool – aided by the tremendous press we receive in Bucharest, Prague and every country in which we teach.
The challenge is to find a way to keep up with all of our students and to provide additional training. This web site is one element in our follow-up strategy. So is our Kennedy Center Institute and our new International Fellows program we will initiate next month.
My goal is to create a web of trained role models who can lead arts management training in their own countries.
As of this entry, I have taught arts leaders from 60 nations – and Romania is next up!