It Takes "Artistic Vibrancy"

According to the Australia Counsel for the Arts, a performing arts organization with "Artistic Vibrancy" possesses and integrates five different key things.  These include:

1. artistic quality or excellence; how well the musicians and the orchestra as a whole executes its performances
2. audience engagement and stimulation; thought provoking to the audience, influences listeners to question, think and feel
3. a fresh approach to the preservation or development of the art form; 
4. catalyst for artist growth/improvement
5. community relevance; an ideal asset to communities even outside of its usual audiences

It makes sense for a symphony to have artistic vibrancy, as these qualities match the business' goals as well as the standards to which the performers work towards.

Some ways in which symphonies can attain artistic vibrancy are by:

• being open to feedback from peers, staff, audience, the wider community, other artists, and funders
• enforcing strong artistic governance
• maintaining strong artistic leadership
• implementing organizational mechanisms to receive feedback and respond to it
• sharing the same artistic purpose within the whole company
• being self-aware and able to self-evaluate/assess feedback that is given by outside sources

It is difficult to evaluate a symphony's degree of artistic vibrancy on a quantitative scale. Based on historical evidence, a generally effective step-by-step process for self-assessment is as follows:

1. Regular artistic reports to the Board of Directors
2. Gather audience feedback
3. Consult with peer to review the company's progress
4. Consider artists' personal reflections
5. Consult with staff
6. Consult with the community through surveys
7. Artistic Director provides summary about lessons learned through this process and shares ideas on how to implement new strategies into the next plan

After this self-assessment, the organization must then formulate a funding plan in order to incorporate the new ideas into the symphony's overall budget.

Artistic vibrancy is basically the driving force of a symphony orchestra, which leads me to conclude that it should be assessed on a fairly regular basis.

Until next time!

-Liz


Some of the information for this blog was provided by:
Australia Council for the Arts, Defining artistic vibrancy: a discussion paper for the major performing arts 
sector, Sydney, Australia Council for the Arts, 2009 
[http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/research/music/reports_and_publications/defining_artistic_vibrancy], Licensing to use this work is provided by: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/au/]