4 things that the arts need to do to avoid the "tsunami" ahead

FROM TC: The director and producer Gregory Mosher, who runs The Arts Initiative at Columbia University, recently spoke before a group of students about why he thinks America's major performing arts institutions are headed for deep trouble - and what they can do about it. No online transcript is available yet, but I have done a quick recap (heavily condensed for space reasons) of his major themes:



"Tonight I want to talk about what I consider to be the extraordinarily perilous future of the major not-for-profit arts organizations in America. It is my opinion that [they] may be facing the same fate as print journalism. My colleagues have responded [to declining arts attendance and the rising popularity of things like music downloading and video game use] largely the way The New York Times has responded over the last 15 years as they saw the web tsunami coming at them. They hired people and then didn't listen to them. They forgot what business they were in. They thought they were exempt in the same way my friends [in the arts] believe they are exempt. I put it to you that the tsunami is about to crash down on them. And they don't want to talk about it. There are four things I think we need to do: (1) We've got to admit we have a problem; (2) We have to admit we don't know [all] the answers; (3) We have to listen to people who know what they're talking about, and in this case, that means young people; and (4) We've got to be like scientists in a lab and fail our way into success."



Click here to watch streaming video of Mosher's hour-long talk in its entirety.