“Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving.”

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Well here’s a lovely ray of sunshine for music and culture after that dig from the latest Spider Man movie: the latest season of Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot kicks off the season with a visit to Quincy, IL where the quintet focuses their collective efforts on the high school’s music director (h/t Ceci Dadisman).

A few key elements make this a particularly endearing episode and good for classical music all around:

  1. This location is the hometown for one of the show’s stars, and hairdresser specialist, Jonathan Van Ness and the public-school music teacher, Kathy Dooley, was his high school orchestra teacher.
  2. Not only do the stars focus on the music teacher, but they use the entire episode as a platform for arts advocation, right down to finding a way to use their talents for fundraising efforts.

If you’re familiar with the program, you already know the warm-and-fuzzy quotient runs strong, but it was especially uplifting to see the show take a broader stand by encouraging increased support. They don’t shy away from explaining increased strains from ongoing budget cuts and how much time and effort arts and culture spends on fundraising.

The episode is available now for streaming on Netflix and I’m sorry that there’s no publicly available promo. But those show did post a PSA at their Facebook page encouraging followers to support arts and culture school programs. If nothing else, the episode takes an old development mantra to heart in that you have to step up and ask for the donation!

WE LOVE TEACHERS! Kathi Dooley made such a huge impact on her students we couldn’t help but think of all the incredible teachers who make lifelong impacts on their students’ lives. That’s why we’re supporting DonorsChoose.org who helps fund local arts teachers’ classrooms around the United States! Pay it forward to a new generation of teachers and students with a donation. donorschoose.com/queereye

QUEER EYE | Donor's CHoose

WE LOVE TEACHERS! Kathi Dooley made such a huge impact on her students we couldn’t help but think of all the incredible teachers who make lifelong impacts on their students’ lives. That’s why we’re supporting DonorsChoose.org who helps fund local arts teachers’ classrooms around the United States! Pay it forward to a new generation of teachers and students with a donation. donorschoose.com/queereye #QE4teachers

Posted by Queer Eye on Monday, July 22, 2019

Today’s title is a quote from Dr. Henry Rosso.

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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