“Arts” With A Small “a”
Okay, so the words haven’t exactly been flying like locusts lately.
Sorry about that. I’ve been spending a lot of time in a sort of grayed-out fog waiting for the next steps in treating my cancer to begin. There, I wrote it. Cancer. I’ve been really avoiding that. Writing it makes it so much “realer”, you know? But I guess I might as well get used to it because with the kind of cancer I’ve got, there’s a pretty good chance that I’m going to be dealing with it in one form or another for the rest of my life.
Anyway, enough about that for now, though. The Huffington Post has a nice little article that I think you should read: Michael Kaiser: The Importance of Small Arts Organizations.
Until recently, I was the president of a small arts organization in which I am also a performer. That would be the Woodbridge Flute Choir. I’m very proud to say that the flute choir is performing this week at the National Flute Association’s annual convention in Charlotte, NC. It’s a huge honor and one that’s well deserved. The flutists and our conductor (Artistic Director, Debbie Gilbert) have worked very hard and the group sounds amazing and beautiful.
Relating back to Michael Kaiser’s article, though, the Woodbridge Flute Choir — like many small arts groups — is badly in need of money and more exposure. (It’s sort of a chicken and egg situation, I think. If we had a bigger following, we’d get more money. If we had more money, we could perform in more popular venues and draw bigger audiences.)
Next season (Fall 2011 – Spring 2012), the flute choir is taking a big risk and paying to perform a couple of concerts at the new Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Virginia. If you’re in the area, come and listen. If you’ve never heard a flute choir, I think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised.
Posted by RebeccaHartong on August 10, 2011 under Music
I think a major class of culprits in the lack of exposure for small arts groups are our local news vehicles moving from local coverage to syndicated national news focusing on celebrities and their pocket dogs or stoned abusive sitcom actors going on extended rants. Small groups have never had the resources to advertise and market. When local papers and radio stations stopped providing coverage and reviews, the smaller groups were heavily impacted. Those of us who attend must go early in any performance or concert run and be more proactive about using our networks and personal media to pass the word.