Management consultant field trip experience and observations

¶ … visited the Institution of a Now Culture (ThINC), which is, as the mission of the institute states, an institution that "concentrates on the health of our community by acting as a catalyst for artistic and cultural evolution that result in positive social change"

The choice for such an art facility is reasonably simple: this is an institution that intends to promote contemporary art and resuscitate the cultural life in the social environment it itself evolves in. As a choice, Syracuse, New York is not out of the top of the head. Indeed, it declined as a cultural presence and the Institution of a Now Culture aims to bring back cultural activity here. Among the institution's means of achieving its goal one may enumerate the encouragement of local artists, extremely talented in many cases, by providing locations for them to display their work, as well as locations where artists can meet and discuss their ideas, both between themselves and with the people from outside the artist world, raising funds through different investment and fund raising efforts, aimed at providing financial help for young artists etc. The direct role of the facility is to provide a place for workshops, arts programming, seminars, lectures or exhibitions.

The most important observation that one can make at this point is the fact that the ThINC facility, through the very nature of its activity, is less of an entrepreneurship, an economic facility in other words. In this sense, should a managerial evaluation be based on the way the facility succeeds in fulfilling its goals or in the way it maximizes its profit? Given the complexity of the institution's mission, it is probably best that we consider reaching the institution's objectives as the main evaluation scale, while referring to financial issues as one of the means by which these goals have to be achieved.

A second observation is correlated with the institution's specific financial activities. Fund raising, as we have seen, is essential in determining the success of the institution's activity, but it has also become to see the possible large financial benefits it is likely to have by continuing the good work as a contemporary art curator in the future as well.

A third observation will note that, referring to the institution's business requirements, we shall be keen to note that the anonymous artists it supports nowadays may become, at a certain point in the future, successful artists. It may be advisable in this case for the art facility to condone judicial actions that will bring it future benefits from its relationship with these artists.

The main strength resides in the potential the facility has for the future. This means that the facility is positioned so that it can increase its financial benefits from its presence while at the same time fulfilling its most important objectives by promoting culture in Syracuse. Indeed, if we are to look at the arts facility from a business perspective at this point, the financial future looks bright: as a contemporary arts curator, it has the chance of distributing arts not only visually locally, but also nationally and internationally. With an adequate marketing campaign, it can turn more towards the business facility it can become.

The second strength resides in the personnel: understanding the mission of the institute is perhaps the first step towards achieving it. Art passionate, they are keen to discover new artists and new artistic ideas, to promote cultural events and to raise money for contributions destined to encourage young artists.

Among the weaknesses, strangely enough, the main one comes from this ambiguity between the facility's mission and the fact that it cannot afford to overlook any of its economic performances, as it also functions as a business body, destined to go bankrupt unless it is able to support its activities with a proper business plan and the proper resources.

As a second weakness, we may refer to the rather ambiguous mechanism that determines which of the artists receives grants or are picked out to have an exhibition with the facility. The idea here is not necessarily that the mechanism is wrong, but rather that the mechanism does not always facilitate the best picks, because this is what happens when the decision is taken only by a few individuals. In this sense, it may be advisable that, given the close connection with the community that the ThINC programs imply, the members of the community should be given a choice on what exhibitions they want to see, what workshops have greater attendance even with the non-artist group etc.

The second recommendation is in the marketing area. As previously described, the facility has already begun successful marketing campaigns, aimed at a national and international distribution to exceed the local scale. I would also suggest at least a presentation website that will give people outside the community more information about what the art facility is planning to do and what it can bring to their lives. This campaign may include occasional online exhibitions that may stimulate the interest for art in Syracuse, but also the interest of possible investors and charitable individuals.