Rob Bettmann

A little commentary/essay I wrote was just published in the Dance/USA e-journal. You can see the whole piece here, and here’s an excerpt:

“Times are perennially hard for modern dancers,” wrote Guelda Voien in the New York Observer this past summer, “but company managers, dancers and grants groups said the current climate may be among the most difficult they’ve ever faced.” Here in Washington, D.C., arts organizations large and small have been impacted by the general economic recession. Part of our concern as a field, highlighted by Voien’s piece, is whether giving has declined (and will rebound), or whether it is in decline and we have yet to hit bottom. The key question in this moment is: who, or what, is to blame for these hard times?

Research in The Americans for the Arts (AFTA) State of the Arts (2009) report makes a case for our field’s troubles being about more than the economic recession. The numbers show that, “between 1998 and 2007, the percentage of foundation funding directed to the arts decreased from 14.8 to 10.6 percent. The corporate giving share to the arts decreased from 10.3 to 4.6 percent during the same period.” The arts are losing philanthropy market share, and while recent hardship may be entirely related to the economy, the AFTA report shows that as an industry our relative value is in question….

….The AFTA data deal with all the arts – not just dance – and many of the problems faced by the dance field today are challenges shared by other fields. Like dance, jazz music is having a difficult decade, and, like dance, perhaps there is no single cause to blame. Writing in 2008 about the decline of jazz music, critic Marc Myers wrote, “Our quest for simplicity always demands a date and time for major historical turning points. The truth is that the reasons for most major events such as Rome’s fall or the Great Depression are a bunch of little factors that converge at roughly the same time and feed off each other.” Managers in the arts are struggling to balance audience building with the creation of valuable new repertory and the dwindling audience’s preference for things they already know. Simultaneously, in this down economy, foundations that already have less to give are prioritizing feeding people over providing arts opportunities.

Again, click here to read the piece on the Dance/USA site. BIG thank you to dance/usa journal editor Lisa Traiger for her help on the piece.

While rehearsing with Jane Franklin in Shirlington, VA, I happened to meet an Arlington County employee who spends half his hours as the county’s liaison to the Arlington Sister City Association. The guy was needing to hire someone to do layout, and I jumped on it.

The ASCA is a member association, and in addition to their website, they wanted some printed collateral materials that would reach potential membership, and help their membership engage. A minor investment in layout expense was seen as leveraging all of the work/activities reported on in the newsletter. The contract was for a simple, professional, black and white 8.5 x 11 layout, delivered as printable pdf.

When we made the contract we specified up to 4 issues within one year at a flat rate. We didn’t specify the number of pages, how materials would be delivered, or when they would be delivered. The sample newsletter I was given (the thing I was hired to upgrade) was six printed sides. When I got the content for the first issue it was clear it would be impossible to do in less than 12 sides. For the next one it was 16 sides. For the one after 12. Understanding that each page of layout require a certain amount of time, I got pretty hosed with the contract, though I know not on purpose. If you click on the cover image to the left you can see a pdf of one of the newsletters.

I’ve gotten very positive feedback on the quality of the upgrade I delivered, and the Association has since hired me to produce additional graphics (save the dates, and invitations), so I’m pleased with that.

I know that part of the value they receive with my layout work is the time I spent with their images. I worked every printed image – tweaking levels, cropping, and fixing photographic malignancies that marred some of the images (before I got to them.) This shows nicely in the final printed copies.

As a freelancer I’ve learned that really nailing down the technical specifications for each component – including delivery dates for required materials – is helpful in ensuring peaceful completion of the scope of work.