People Skills Vital to Work in the Arts

Posted on March 22, 2011

This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press on Sunday, March 20.

People skills vital to work in the arts

Jobs in the arts have never been easy to get, but throw in a historic recession and things get even tighter.

"I would say we suffer chronically from under-employment in the arts field," said Doreen Kraft, executive director of Burlington City Arts.

The nonprofit formed nearly 30 years ago to promote the arts in the city held a workshop last week at City Hall that explored how artists can succeed as entrepreneurs. Kraft said she thought the workshop would be a success if 75 people signed up. They got 245.

"There's a tremendous desire to find out how to be more business-oriented and how to be more competitive in the field," Kraft said. "We're committed as a city to continuing to work with artists to create Burlington as an arts destination. It's all about improving the quality of life here, and artists are a big part of that."

John Killacky, executive director of the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, echoed Kraft's assessment of the economic state of the arts. Killacky said the Flynn had experienced a "pretty dramatic" drop in subscribers for its 2010-2011 season as compared to the 2009-2010 season, with ticket sales falling from 14,500 last year to 11,500 this year.

"What was interesting is the same number of people were buying tickets, but they were buying for two shows instead of five shows," Killacky said. "The audience is still there, but people didn't have the confidence or the discretionary income to commit that far ahead."

By December, Killacky said, the Flynn was down by $75,000 in terms of what it needed in box office sales. He hopes the theater will crawl out of that hole over the next six months.

"What we're doing right now is looking at the budget for next year, is this a downsizing moment for the Flynn with the economy, or a cyclical thing?" Killacky said. "I have to make a commitment to shows for next year this summer."

The Flynn has 34 full-time employees, along with part-time technical crews that work the big shows like Lord of the Dance, which employed 234 people. Killacky said when he hires, he's always looking for people with a good sense of marketing."I'm looking for someone who's entrepreneurial, someone with high person skills," Killacky said. "We are a person business, we're selling you a ticket, or asking you to become a member, or a donor. That's all done almost person-by-person."

Fortunately, Killacky said, artists often have many of the skills he's looking for.

"These days you have to be entrepreneurial," Killacky said. "Artists start with a blank page or empty rehearsal hall every day. We have a number of members on staff who are artists as well."

Sam Ankerson, director of development at Shelburne Museum, is looking for the same people skills as Killacky.

"The attributes or skills that I can think of that would be a common denominator across the board for somebody working for the museum would be an interest in working with the public because we're here for our visitors," Ankerson said. "We have over 100,000 visitors a year."

The Shelburne does also hire staff with strong professional and academic backgrounds, such as its educators and conservators. Two conservators care for the museum's 150,000 artifacts, including American art, folk art and the only public collection of French impressionist paintings in the state. The job requires "very specialized knowledge," Ankerson said, taught in only four graduate programs in the country: New York University, State College of New York at Buffalo, University of Delaware/ Winterthur Museum and Getty Museum/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art.