Will Hope Impact Cultural Confidence?

The latest Cultural Confidence update indicates attitudes surrounding the current economic situation as well as the economic outlook among cultural institutions are once again beginning to slide. For the first time since polling began, none of the respondents believe the current economic condition at their organization is good. At the same time, the outlook toward economic conditions at the end of the season remained mostly unchanged…

Will Hope Impact Cultural Confidence?
Does hope impact your cultural confidence?

It will be interesting to see if the new administration’s inaugural message of hope and self reliance will impact the economic outlook for cultural institutions. By several accounts, President Obama’s inaugural address generated a great deal of feelings so it is important to measure the impact of his message on cultural confidence levels. As a result, take a moment and cast your vote for the current polling cycle: VOTE NOW.


About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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