What really happens when a young person experiences music, theatre or dance? Is it possible to understand and explain the transformative power the arts can have on people’s lives? Can we measure joy?

These questions will be tackled during our final PAEO workshop, Measuring What Counts, May 29th, 9:30 – 1:00 at CSI Spadina. (register by emailing paonearts@gmail.com ). Like the previous workshops, this one will be firmly positioned towards collaborative action and problem solving.

We all know that the numbers – how many schools, how many students, how many workshops – don’t tell the story. But we also understand that we need to go beyond anecdotes and case studies to convince the unconvinced and, ideally, free up new resources and support.

The session’s focus on evaluating, strengthening and communicating the impact of arts organizations’ educational activities echoes one of the major themes raised in our Performing Arts Education Overview. The funders we interviewed – although strong believers in the value of the arts – expressed the need for a standard method of evaluation that measures the impact and quality of arts education activities. Some said they’d like to find a way to measure changes of attitude and behaviors to build a base of knowledge on whether arts education programs are having an impact.

The expectations around arts education can be overwhelming. A new pilot project in the States  is using Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington and Forest Whitaker to go into eight of the nation’s worst-performing schools, pledging to help turn them around by integrating arts education. Organizers hope to show that the arts can reduce behavioral problems and increase student attendance, engagement and academic success.

Wow. That’s a lot to prove

But our own arts community could unquestionably take a big step forward by freely and honestly sharing the results and impact of our educational activities. And we could work together in everybody’s best interest to develop appropriate evaluation tools – defining the terms, parameters and measures used to describe and evaluate our work rather than leaving it to the funders to fill the gap, or leaving it to each organization to reinvent the wheel.

As for that question about measuring joy: I suggest that anyone planning to attend our workshop, or interested in this topic, should read the wonderful and inspiring Measuring Joy: Evaluation at Baltimore Clayworks  – to find out how one small organization put in place a down-to-earth, commonsense, understandable framework for measuring joy and impact.

My crowd sourcing post  generated a flurry of comment and interest. And for good reason, according to this fascinating piece from NetWitsThinkTank  It says that while the majority of giving still comes from offline channels, online fundraising is becoming increasingly important for acquiring new donors. In fact, it’s the dominant giving channel for new donors 64 years old and younger, and an increasingly common way for new donors to give their first gift.

We’re testing this out right now in Toronto, by way of the Fringe’s charming and cheeky Lots of Little (LOL) Campaign. If you haven’t seen the Fringers’ penny packing video, watch it now. This campaign combines a creative and compelling ask, with a tight timeline and a matching incentive: TD Bank is matching up to $20,000 in donations to the Fringe Creation Lab until July 15th.

(Excuse me; I was just upstairs, making my donation. I want to see this one exceed its goal! )

Another interesting online campaign, spearheaded by New York-based Ms. Foundation, had a completely different set of goals.  Although framed as a giving campaign, its real importance was as a first time collaboration between a range of major women’s foundations and alliances across the U.S. – successfully raising awareness, testing a unified message, and building network capacity.

George Canetti, a Toronto’s Green Theatres colleague in the City’s Energy Office, sent me an article from U.K.’s NewStart  which offers some terrific examples from Storm Cunningham (Recivilizing: Rise of the Renewal Renegades) of people using crowd funding to design, fund and launch community projects in the States. KickStarter looms large in these stories (it expects to direct more funding to the arts in its third year of operation than the NEA does), and – amazingly – so does the fact that the U.S.’s new Jobs Act makes it legal for America’s small entrepreneurs to use crowd funding to finance business start-ups, bypassing many of the onerous regulatory processes designed for larger companies.

Finally, in my last post on crowd resourcing, I wrote about the stunningly successful Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan’s Arts and Culture Challenge, which raised a total of nearly $4.8 million for 75 participating organizations. At the recent APASO meeting in Toronto I found myself sitting beside someone from the Foundation’s Campaign partner, the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan. How exciting was that?

Financial Management: Building a Strong Bottom Line
Date: May 17, 2012
Time: Noon – 2:30 pm
Technological Innovation: On and Off the Stage
Date: May 17, 2012
Time: 3 pm – 5:30 pm
Financial Management: Building a Strong Bottom Line
Date: May 17, 2012
Time: Noon – 2:30 pm
Location: Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave. Suite 400 (The Innovation Lab)
Speakers: Kendra Fry (General Manager, Theatre Passe Muraille) and Heather Young (Principal, Young Associates)
*Read their Bios HERE

Description:
Looking to increase your financial literacy in the arts sector? Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to learn hands-on techniques from experienced and influential arts managers who have helped turn projects into financial success stories. The workshop will begin with general tips and terms to assist with understanding of finances, and will then explore examples of how to focus on private and earned revenue, donor cultivation, deficit reduction, recovery from financial collapse and balancing artistic vs. management choices.

Following that, by using real case studies, participants will get the chance to walk through financial statements and analyze the financial health of an organization. Have fun with numbers while brainstorming with colleagues and take away practical tools which you can implement in your daily work. Discover the art of finance!

Technological Innovation: On and Off the Stage
Date: May 17, 2012
Time: 3 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave. Suite 400 (The Innovation Lab)
Speakers: William Yong (Artistic Director/Choreographer, Zata Omm Dance Projects), Julian Sleath (Programming Manager, City of Toronto – Special Events), Sue Edworthy (Principal, Sue Edworthy Arts Planning)
*Read their Bios HERE

Description:
As technology moves ahead at light speed, how do we keep up!? This unique and innovative workshop explores the many possibilities of opening the technological realm in the arts – both on and off the stage. Beyond Facebook and Twitter, propel your project to the next level of innovation by integrating new and exciting marketing strategies in your work. Don’t fight technology, use it to your advantage and be creative in your administration.

Additionally, discover the endless possibilities of using technology in your craft as stages become research labs with installations, video projections and other dynamic interactive technologies. Participants will learn the ups and downs of technology, hear from experts in their field and will get a Papertronics Lunar module to make and take home.

Curious to find out more? Come check out this interactive workshop and walk away with dynamic tools to integrate in your practice, whether it be in the office or on the stage!
Register Today! Click Here!

Creative Trust and Picasso PRO proudly wrapped up our two year Sun Life Performing Arts Access Program last month. This pioneering program, introduced to Creative Trust members on November 23, 2009, was designed to open up the city’s theatres to Blind/Low-Vision and Deaf/Hard of Hearing audiences. Using a pilot series of audio described and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreted performances, our goal was to help theatre, dance and music companies launch and integrate these services into their organizational cultures and programming.

In two short years we

• Auditioned and trained 8 Audio Describers with renowned AD specialist Deb Lewis, moving the number of theatrical audio describers in Toronto to…8!
• Purchased audio description kits, including headsets and accessories; created a handbook, and trained describers for the experience of live performance
• Held a roundtable for members of the Ontario Association Of Sign Language Interpreters on the specifics of Theatrical Interpretation led by star interpreter Joanna Bennett, our ASL Project Advisor
• Developed our chops with an in-house test-described show without public audience of Featuring Loretta at Factory
• To the stage! Audio described performances of Bethune Imagined at Toronto’s Factory Theatre, and More Fine Girls a co-production of Tarragon and Theatre Columbus; ASL interpreted performances of Brothel at Factory Theatre and Montparnasse, a Groundwater Theatre production with TPM
• Collaborated with Luminato 2011 on recording a first-time audio description for Philip Beesley’s suspended sculpture “Sargasso”
• Worked with Stratford Festival on their pilot project to introduce AD at Stratford with a performance of Camelot described by trainer Deb Lewis
• Brought professional, emerging and student ASL Interpreters together for a final Master Theatrical Intepreter Workshop with Joanna

The press covered a number of these activities and Creative Trust’s blog site became a central portal to all Picasso PRO and PAAP Access information.

Based on available tracking, we know that 100+ new audience members attended Factory’s AD and ASL productions; TPM identified 30 Deaf patrons for the two performances of Montparnasse. Headsets were booked to the maximum for each audio described show and patrons offered generous post-show feedback: they want these opportunities to continue.

Obviously, this is only a beginning. We now have trained describers and interpreters, and an enthusiastic band of theatre professionals who worked enormously hard to make this project a success. Toronto’s Deaf and disability communities are large, diverse, active and growing as our population ages. Access enables these communities to participate more fully in Toronto’s cultural life, and accessible programming enables theatres to develop new audiences from within these communities, and to welcome their spouses, families and friends.

We are looking for new ways and partners to continue this work, past the invaluable and gratefully appreciated first stage made possible by Sun Life Financial. Access is an essential step to allowing Toronto to retain its place on a world stage which increasingly reflects the values of diversity and inclusion.

Facebook’s new timeline format has been slowing rolling out over the past few months (I adopted in December to get an advanced handle on it). Sure enough, it’s now the way your company page is laid out. It’s fairly easy to update and reorganize if you already have a page, as you’ve been automatically transferred – but what if you don’t?

I’ve created several pages for recent clients and while it’s fairly straightforward, there are a few things to note:

You used to choose what page you wanted folks to land on – not anymore. Your option now is something called a sticky post – you pin it to the top of your newsfeed and there it stays – I find many folks are using it to direct viewers to their donor page, or placing show information there.

Building your audience – I humbly suggest you have something on your page for people to see before you invite them to like it. It’s similar to having a restaurant grand opening with no menu, or getting to the dreaded “under construction” page in a heavily promoted website. Start thoughtfully with your invites – don’t click indiscriminately. Choose people who really will like your page – quality likes – and therefore share it with others. Quantity will follow quality.

Photos are much bigger – especially your cover photo. This image is 850 x 315 pixels. Choose a good picture – have it ready and thought out before you post it: this is the equivalent of your Facebook billboard. (But remember, you are not allowed to use it for obvious advertising). There’s a lot more image real estate to work with now, which is a great thing – use it wisely. On that note, we’ve all been through the upload and wait to get the “image too small” message. Here’s a handy dandy cheat sheet from dreamgrow.com  on various media sizes on Facebook.

It takes 30 likes gets you your vanity url – an important thing to have – rather than facebook.com/numbersandletters you will now have facebook.com/pagename. Much better for marketing and promotions.

On your admin panel, there’s a link called “use activity log” – it gives you a straight dated column of what’s been going on with your page chronologically. An excellent tool if you are trying to track ticket sales.

Insights are now readily apparent on your admin panel. This is what the marketing folks are looking for to show people – the stats – who’s liking, who’s talking, what the reach is to friends of friends. A marketer’s best friend when trying to correlate social media activity with real world action.

And finally – look at other pages. See what other companies are doing, what’s working, what’s not. I’m not saying slavishly copy or steal, but if there are good ideas out there use them.

Happy Facebooking!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/nonprofitsector

Young Associates’ Pre-Fringe Seminar: “Make it to the end of Fringe before your money runs out!” with Heather Young and the team at Young Associates looks like a great assist to small companies, fringing or not. Learn how to project expenses, manage cash flow and identify areas of concern; budget and cash flow templates provided. To register email training@younga​ssociates.ca.

Tuesday March 27, 9:30 – 1:30 at CSI 215 Spadina. PAEO Roundtable Sharing Best Practices/Learning From Each Other presented by Creative Trust and PAONE. An essential opportunity for arts leaders and educators to begin implementing recommendations of the Performing Arts Education Overview.
To RSVP: Send your name, job title, name of organization, and contact information (email and phone number) to paonearts@gmail.com by Friday, March 23.

 Thursday, April 5, 2012 at the ROM. Ontario Museum Association’s full day Accessibility Symposium, bringing together museum practitioners and organizations that work to improve accessibility in the community to share best practices and programming that meets or exceeds the standards of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

 Thursday, April 5 Webinar, 12-1:30 pm. Understanding the New Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (Bill 65). An ONN webinar (aimed at Executive Directors, Board Presidents, Treasurers and Secretaries) on the basic features of the Act and how it will affect your organization. This session will provide sufficient information to begin transition planning; presented by ONN Policy Advisor Lynn Eakin. Click here for registration ($60/$30)

Ottawa is beginning some exciting diversity initiatives spearheaded by Charles Smith of CPAMO (Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Ontario) – including, for those who remember it, a newcomer artist jam on April 16^th reminiscent of TTA/TAPA’s old Loon Café.

I’ve recently been inspired by Adam Thurman’s passionate and provoking post in Mission Paradox about his own attitude to arts/diversity.

He says that the challenge to recognize and empower people of color, younger people and those with different ideas is the elephant in the room for the nonprofit arts sector – some of which has yet to embrace where the world is clearly going. “At the core, it’s a very simple idea.  You open the door. You share power and responsibility with those who don’t necessary look or think like you.  You continue to do this until it becomes an institutional habit…I’ve never seen an organization who honestly wanted a different, more robust, more diverse culture fail at the task…I’ve never seen a token, bullshit effort win over the long term.”

In Ottawa on April 16^th, an opportunity to open the door: MASC Mondays, an informal showcase convened by the Multicultural Arts in Schools and Communities, is going all out in collaboration with the Coalition of Newcomer Canadians for Arts and Culture on an evening filled with exciting performances by artists from Ottawa’s diverse communities. 7:30, at the Arrow and the Loon Restaurant and Pub in the Glebe

On April 17^th: Ottawa’s arts leaders will gather to share information about their diversity programming and plan a proposed conference on pluralism in the Ottawa region.

Those of us trying to make sense of the Vancouver Playhouse’s abrupt closing on the eve of its 50^th anniversary may find some answers in this WolfBrown post excerpt by Jane Culbert.

How do some organizations thrive in difficult times? Last year, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation commissioned a study of a number of “bright spots” (“organizations that are achieving outstanding levels of success in one or more areas – artmaking, audience engagement, organizational development and capitalization”) to identify characteristics, perspectives, or behaviors that can potentially be replicated by others. The report, Bright Spots and Hard Bargains: Leadership in the U.S. Nonprofit Performing Art Sector is well worth reading – and so are the opening remarks  that Holly Sidford (one of the report’s authors) gave at a Community Foundation conference last April.

She describes three performing arts organizations (or “institutions”, as Matthew Jocelyn says we should describe them that were identified through the research. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, whose new mission is to develop “a passionate audience for the orchestral experience,” Trey McIntyre, a dance company centred around creative community engagement, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia, which focuses attention on American composers and performers, each exemplify:

• strategic and impact driven leadership;
• a clear sense of public purpose and a distinctive artistic identity; and
• a belief that the institution is inseparable from its constituency.

I don’t know enough about Vancouver Playhouse to know if these lessons are applicable to its situation. But they are certainly worth thinking about for the rest of us.