#TBT Moving (In) Day

As someone who works in the arts, I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate that over the past 18 years, I’ve only had two moves; one of which was to a new location in the same city.

Today marks move number three and, fortunately, it’s another intra-city move. Knock on wood, everything will unfold as planned but sometimes, moves are anything but controlled.

Case in point, and the subject of today’s #TBT, is the Nashville Symphony when they were forced out of their home in 2010 due to disastrous flooding.

Not only did we cover the venue’s construction over 2005-2007 but we examined how the orchestra dealt with displacement during reconstruction. In and of itself, it serves as a wonderful benchmark for other groups to draw on for inspiration should they find themselves in similar circumstances.

Doing Their Jobs In Nashville

Nashville Symphony to Perform Free Public Concert

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.

Related Posts