Author: Jeffri, Joan

Publication Year: 1979

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Off Off Broadway, small dance companies, cooperative galleries - all are characterized by their small, family-like structures and highly committed members. The Emerging Arts looks at the milieu in which these groups exist ... what traditions they grow out of...how they were founded... and the development patterns they follow.

Abstract:

Off Off Broadway, small dance companies, cooperative galleries - all are characterized by their small, family-like structures and highly committed members. The Emerging Arts looks at the milieu in which these groups exist ... what traditions they grow out of...how they were founded... and the development patterns they follow.

Jeffri begins by describing the relationship of artists to their work and to each other. She then documents the changes that must take place as the group moves from relative obscurity to the structured, departmentalized, recognized, and expensive arts operation of the establishment. The outside influences that pressure for change - unions, funding sources and audiences - are also discussed.

Based on personal interviews with over 50 artists, managers, funders, and arts service personnel, as well as published materials, the book is a handbook of development strategies to bridge the gap between alternative and establishment arts groups. Jeffri suggests ways alternative groups can learn from and help each other and presents management techniques and organizational structures to help alternative arts groups cope with a changing environment. (jacket)

CONTENTS
Preface.

1. From obscurity to recognition - The small companies - Theatre, dance, the visual
    arts.

2. Off Off Broadway theatre - The cost of growing up:
         Beginnings.
         The choice to work Off Off Broadway.
         Professional versus amateur.
         Toward the establishment - The Broadway transfer.
         The need for management.
         A case study in growth - The Circle Repertory Company.
         Funding mechanisms and resource sharing.
         The death of Off Off Broadway?

3. Small dance companies - A movement in transition:
         Background.
         Defining a company.
         The artistic manager.
         Professionalism and the union.
         Companies at home.
         Planning and funding.
         On the road - Dance touring and beyond.
         Television dance.
         Current management alternatives - Clusters, cooperatives, umbrellas.
         Twyla Tharp and Dancers - A study in responsibility.
         Toward maturity.

4. Alternative movements in the visual arts: 
         Cooperative galleries:
              Tenth street days - The American beginnings.
              Up against the establishment.
              Profit and not-for-profit incorporation and federal tax exemption.
              The service organization.
              Exchanges and assimilation.
              Hybrids - A case in point.
         Alternative spaces - A phenomenon of the 1970s:
              More hybrids.
              Arts service organizations.
              Entry point organizations.
              Museums.
              Antimuseums [anti-museums].
              Media centers.
              Alternatives without walls.
         Institutionalizing the alternatives.

5. Funding the arts for tomorrow:
         The not-for-profit price.
         Toward a dialogue for change.
         False issues.
         Survival tactics.
         The high cost of borrowing.
         Subsidy through employment.
         Other kinds of government support.
         The profit/not-for-profit mix.

6. Management alternatives for the future:
         Measuring management.
         Artistic control.
         Money for management.
         Management training.
         Research and documentation.
         Training successors.
         Creating models.
         What is it we are trying to save?

Bibliography.
Chapter notes.
Index.
About the author.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Performing Arts Organizations, Organizational Planning