MADE FOR MUSIC REHEARSAL AND RECORDING SPACES EVENT SITE State-of-the-Art Acoustics Competitive Rates Convenient Midtown Location Lounge, Café & Resource Center
RESERVATIONS & INFORMATION DiMennaCenter.org or call 212.594.6100 450 West 37th Street, New York City
Canada’s
National Arts Centre Orchestra
ARTIST TRAINING 14 th SUMMER MUSIC INSTITUTE PINCHAS ZUKERMAN Artistic Director
Application Deadline: FEBRUARY 6
CONDUCTORS
KENNETH KIESLER, DIRECTOR
June 16–28 COMPOSERS
GARY KULESHA, DIRECTOR
June 23–29
Application Deadline: December 12 2011
Our public opinion research and your reported experience show that orchestras are valued by the public to the extent that they demonstrably possess and embrace all four of the following qualities:
• INSTITUTE FOR ORCHESTRAL STUDIES 6 weeks with the NAC ORCHESTRA during the 2012–2013 season
Apply online at www.nac-cna.ca/smi or www.nac-cna.ca/ios
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the League has developed an assessment resource, Your Orchestra, Your Community. This does not tell you what to do. But it does frame the processes orchestras should have in place to do effective work in this area. This resource is designed as a starting point—a catalyst for discussion to help your orchestra strategize ways of further developing your work to achieve your goals on the road to true civic engagement. It includes success indicators and a set of questions corresponding to each indicator. We encourage you to use this tool with your board, staff, and musicians to set some priorities and direction. Another element of the Toolkit is a unified Messaging Framework that offers a guide to communicating our public value. This excerpt lays out the key elements of the framework:
• Respond and are accessible to
Ottawa YOUNG ARTISTS June 11–30
At a time when the public expects nonprofits to meet basic human needs, orchestras must demonstrate that they are relevant and accessible to the broadest cross-section of their communities.
• •
community Strengthen civic health and quality of life Contribute to youth and lifelong learning Model excellence through highquality musical performances
Each orchestra will have different ways of supporting these messages through data and/or stories. But remember, if your orchestra’s civic, educational, and musical benefits are available to only a small segment of the community, those services cannot be considered
“public goods.” It is by virtue of delivering a public service that orchestras have traditionally been granted charitable or educational tax-exempt status. Thus, you have an obligation to convey the specific ways your orchestra broadly benefits the public. Your engagement with and services to the community must be authentic and reflective of community needs. The League has many resources to help you make progress. (See Additional Resources below.) Above all, do not claim to have impact that your orchestra does not currently produce. If your orchestra has not yet met its potential to reach broad segments of the community, it is more effective to acknowledge your orchestra’s challenges than to overstate the impact of your work. America’s orchestras (and, I suspect, opera companies, museums, and theaters) have all been transitioning from a single-minded focus on the excellence of the performance or artwork, to paying greater attention to the value created for the community. We have an important story to tell about our value. In Washington, the League is vigorously making the case for orchestras, and orchestras are advocating on their own behalf. For example, you sent more than 1,000 letters to Congress regarding charitable-giving tax incentives. But orchestras must also vigorously strengthen the reality behind the case we are making.
Additional Resources The Public Value Toolkit is the latest in a continuum of League work to assist orchestras in developing their educational and community engagement work. Visit the following sections of americanorchestras.org for more in-depth information, including tools, examples of best practices, reports, and articles: http://www.americanorchestras. org/utilities/education_community_ engagement_resources.html http://www.americanorchestras. org/learning_and_leadership/civic_ engagement.html
symphony
WINTER 2012