Reflecting The Populations We Serve

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Originally, the plan for this week was to wrap up the thread we’ve been exploring via diversity within artistic matters by taking a deep dive into the intersection of diversity and musician complements. But where’s the fun in having your week unfold according to plan?

Adaptistration People 144Consequently, we’re going to pivot a bit by using today’s post to introduce the topic, solicit your feedback, then follow through next week.

In this context, and for the sake of clarity, the term diversity is used to indicate a degree of having a group of stakeholders being comprised of different racial elements.

Interestingly enough, we’ve been examining this issue as far back as 2004 via a series of articles that ultimately settled on a longer post about racial diversity at the board level.

But in this context, I wanted to focus on musician stakeholders.

Should musician complements reflect the racial diversity of their respective community?

If you think no, I’m curious to know why. If you think yes, what do you think that process would look like and how would you approach some of the more obvious challenges.

Take a moment to leave a comment, reach out via email or social media.

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.

View all posts by Drew McManus | Website

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