Rob Bettmann

About the support necessary for artists to make enemies and influence people

Dance critic Claudia La Rocco published a piece on her WNYC performance club blog recently exploring the notion of Artistic Citizenry. The topic is trenchant; from Shepard Fairey to the White House it seems that Americans are engaging with political issues through art. Nothing particulary new, but for this generation the energy is rising toward artistic political engagement.

Many artists today – including Fairey – clearly work from a personal sense of activism. La Rocco’s post, titled The Art of Citizenship, explores some of the issues raised with that type of engagement. She notes, “We tend to have broad stereotypes of what it means for an artist to be a good citizen: making work that protests Vietnam, doing community workshops for impoverished children, etc. … For me, bound up in the idea of being an activist is a certain form of resistance, of re-thinking our assumptions.” La Rocco’s words express her understanding of the potential for artists to influence the issues of their day; citizen artistry as counter-culture, independence, and progress.

On the same day that La Rocco published her piece, the Boston Globe published a visual celebration of the People’s Republic of China’s 60th birthday celebrations. Included in that set of images is the image to the left, which carries the description: “Dancers from the National Ballet of China performs the “Red Detachment of Women” ballet at the Tanggu Great Theater, part of the celebration of China’s 60th anniversary, in Tianjin, September 26, 2009. The “Red Detachment of Women” is a full-length Chinese ballet depicting a peasant woman’s journey into the PLA, combining Western dance style with Chinese cultural elements. (REUTERS/Jason Lee)” These two items represent two sides of the spectrum of Artistic Citizenry. On the one side is independence, and on the other, direct service to political power. The recent NEA scandal shows that even in the United States we may be vulnerable to artistic citizenry directly harnessed by political power.

The La Times Culture Monster blog has done a nice job tracking the recent NEA scandal which focused around an Aug. 10 teleconference “in which the NEA’s communications director urged members of the arts community to help Obama’s efforts to spur volunteer community service.” Analyzing the scandal, conservative journalist/novelist Andrew Klavan wrote,

“Lets just talk about art. It’s hard out here on us creative types right now. When times are tough, truth and beauty sink pretty low on the national shopping list. The NEA, according to its own website, is the nations largest annual funder of the arts. It gives tens of millions of dollars a year in grants to artists and art organizations. It does this, according to the legislation that established it, to help create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this creative talent. It is there, in other words, to protect artists freedom from the corrupting influence of financial deprivation… It doesn’t matter that [the NEA] didn’t actually offer these artists money in exchange for propaganda; its very presence on the line constituted an implied offer of access.”

La Rocco cites a risk for citizen artists of “being shrill or didactic, of circling the wagons to such an extent that you can’t see what’s on the other side, that no one gets in and out.” Another risk is becoming pawns in the chess games of politicians. Modern artists are dependent on foundations – government and private – to make their work. And while a liberal sensibility may naturally emanate from modern art, many artists feel a reasonable pull toward patronage of funder ideas. I wrote in a piece about arts earmarks a while back that,

“Everyone likes people who give them money. We’ll bring you flowers if you let us… [But] if you make the arts community a petting zoo, that’s all its gonna be. You have to take yourself out of the equation. The work we’re doing isn’t meaningless. You need to respect it beyond politics. It’s like religion. It’s art. Please participate, and get out of the way.”

A choreographer I worked for a few years ago told me a story about when Yvonne Rainer came to perform in Washington. She was planning to do a piece in which her dancers wore the American flag. The producers had some qualms about the production, and Rainer was called to a meeting. I was told that Rainer wore an American flag – only – when she went to the meeting, and that when told she couldn’t wear it, she took it off and conducted the rest of the meeting in the buff. The compromise that was reached allowed a flag to be placed on the floor of the dance space; Rainer purchased a flag that filled almost the entire floor, including the entry-way, forcing performers and many audience to walk on the flag.

The story reminds me that independence is a choice for each artist. Still, independence of thought – as understood by all types of citizens – is a value that needs supporting. Artists’ careers grow secure fostering their connections with like-minded groups. Artistic citizenry can be nurtured not just by critics, but by the funding community.

Through a friend I was introduced to the owner of Flaxella – Flax Cafe and Gift Shop. I immediately liked the owner, and the restaurant. The food is excellent, the prices are reasonable, and the atmosphere is relaxed.

The owner has been doing lots of the right things in marketing her business, but she wanted a little extra outside help. She didn’t want to change overall branding – colors, logo, name – but was seeking a tweek to motivate the new marketing push. We kept colors, images and shapes from prior campaigns, but re-worked many of the elements for placement within a variety of directed usages.

The first thing I saw was that the cafe was under-selling itself. It’s a great place, and the prices were far lower than competitors. In being overly focused on providing value, there was only a tiny margin on her products. The owner couldn’t afford to participate in certain kinds of promotions (two for ones, and give-aways) because the base prices had such small margins. Additionally, the growth consumer base – health food and cafe consumers – are used to paying some premium. In not collecting that premium the restaurant both loses out on the income, and fails to meet consumer expectation. We decided to raise some of the prices to be more equivalent to the competition. Flaxella still offers great value, but now there is some more room to play with in the marketing program. In order to implement, the owner required one page folded, printed menus, and a large wall-hung menu, which I designed and delivered as a pdf.

In order not to lose existing customers, some of whom might be motivated by the prices, we created a member program. This builds her e-list, her customer loyalty, and provides brand exposure. The key card – available only to customers prior to the menu switch – offers the bearer 15% off all food and beverages (essentially preserving earlier values for members.) You can see the front of the key card above. All of the new collateral materials implement a few consistent changes.

In terms of expanding the base, we decided that it would be appropriate to broaden her beyond Flax. She provides a variety of healthful food options, including Flax foods and beverages, but not limited to Flax foods and beverages. We moved from Flaxella – Flax Cafe and Gift Shop, to Flaxella: Bethesda’s Health Food Cafe and Coffee Bar. We created a postcard, which is being printed for direct distribution, and also a one page flier for her to run off as she needs. The flier is really a version of the postcard, formatted to print nicely from a business printer. The flier is what is on the left here.

There is no silver bullet in marketing. Success in the restaurant business means volume. Hopefully by broadening her marketing slightly the store will appeal to the health conscious, and not just the flax lovers. I’m certain once customers visit they’ll want to go back.

By collaboratively developing marketing materials freelance professionals can empower business owners to effectively represent their work. That doesn’t have anything to do with design work, but it has an immense amount to do with the return on investment that the owner will see. Small business owners are not in a position to staff their marketing work. In most cases small business owners are the implementers/organizers of their marketing programs. Freelance professional marketing help can reinvigorate the sometimes gruelling process of building a business.

There is no silver bullet in marketing, and the success or failure of marketing initiatives has a tremendous amount to do with the fit of design to implementation. Each business is unique. In order to bring in additional customers the restaurant is adding an events series, starting with a healthful gourmet cooking series – one Saturday afternoon a month to start. I’ll update about that as we have the details. I am also now in the process of creating a new website for the business.

Recommended Usage: Press play, read post.

I didn’t start dancing until I was in college, but I’ve always liked reading, and writing, and editing…. When I was younger – before I started hanging with mavis beacon – I used to really like books to write in. I can remember getting several for birthdays. I still use them now for choreography.

There’s something about one’s most personal (for artist = creative) thoughts that seems anti-septic to harness via computer.

Anyway, somehow, having an attractive group of papers (even now) makes me more confident in my thoughts. I know I’m not alone there. I’ve found that’s the way it is with blogging, too. (and for some, social media outlets as well.)

I transferred over to a new theme about two weeks ago, but hadn’t had the chance to build it out, so it was visually very un-appealing. I’ve suddenly gotten a bunch of freelance work – which is awesome – and haven’t been able to work on my own stuff.

I found myself not attracted to writing on here because of the lack of grace in the ‘book’. I’m pleased to have just made a few changes adding a modicum of grace to this theme. (Still have to update my very-out-of-date blogroll. Been meaning to add a bunch of friend’s blogs who I follow.)

Also – this is the last post that will occur on the DCBlog43 url. I started this a few years ago, and have found my career developing to a place where such a fanciful title is simply not the best I can do. I’ll be moving this over to RobBettmann.com when I have a few minutes soon.