September 2010 Field Letter
Written on August 29, 2010
Dear Friends,
Happy almost fall! I know that many of you are prepping for school, grand openings and apple picking. We at TCG are sending our very best as you enter this season.
Fall holds a number of important events for TCG:
We’re excited that this month, we will launch the Society
for the American Theatre. This new leadership giving
program comes in anticipation of our 50th anniversary celebrations
beginning in the spring of 2011. We hope to engage a wide swath
of the theatre-loving population in this drive for founding members
both to recognize the work of TCG and to spotlight a larger community
of theatre practitioners and supporters that has evolved over the
past 50 years. It also provides interested parties with opportunities
to come backstage and learn more about the inner workings of both
TCG and the field. We received a strong response to our pilot in
the spring. We hope that you will take a look and consider joining
up—and let others know about the program. Also be on the lookout
for more information coming soon to your mailbox and a big thank
you to our charter members for their leading support and guidance.
I find that people want to be included as a way of showing the value
and personal investment they place on the community of art and artists
we have built together and I am eager to watch this founding network
emerge and evolve.
In September and October, through support from the Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation, TCG will host a number of Field Conversations
in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. The conversations will focus
largely on how to strengthen relationships between artists and institutions—and
follow on a series of teleconferences held by TCG earlier this year.
From these conversations, we will publish a report and organize
a series of informal follow-up conversations in theatres across
the country. Stay tuned for more information on this effort.
Free
Night of Theater will take place nationwide once again
and the New York event is gearing up. Around the country, the program
has created a strong sense of collaboration among arts service organizations.
In New York, it sparked the first true collaboration among a variety
of associations, including Theatre Development Fund, ART/New York,
Arts and Business Council of New York, League of Independent Theater,
New York State Council on the Arts and TCG. After five years of
directly managing the program, TCG has reduced its day to day involvement;
however, we are still offering a national reservation website and
guidance—via a monthly teleconference—to those participating
in the program. We are also the central organizing point for the
New York program.
The 2010
TCG Fall Forum on Governance is November 12 to 14.
In recent conversations with members of TCG’s Executive Committee
and National Council for the American Theatre, we’ve sought
to uncover what are the most important topics for our upcoming convening
in New York. Our theme is Changing Lives, which is meant to be a
double, triple or possibly quadruple entendre, but most importantly—how
are lives changing at this moment in time and what does that mean
for our work? And how do theatres change lives? We’ve come
across a number of burning topics that are on the minds of trustees
in the field and I am curious about what you are hearing and seeing.
Here are a few highlights:
• What’s next? The economy is still sluggish and somewhat
uncertain. Theatres have weathered the storm of the last two years
remarkably well, but heading into more years of uncertainty, what
strategies are left for us to pursue in order to stay nimble?
• How do we reinvest in and prioritize the artistry? There
is concern about the impact of budget stress on artistic choices
and on artists.
• How are theatres being tapped to participate more fully as activists in community life and community issues?
• Some philanthropic support is moving toward solving societal issues such as the environment, housing and poverty—how do theatres stay front and center in clarifying their missions and how is the world different because they are there? (This reminds me of a great quote from the Maestro José Abreu who created El Sistema, which teaches impoverished children in Venezuela how to play classical music. He said, “In order to bring young people out of material poverty, you must first bring them out of spiritual poverty).
Of course, we will have much more to report in the coming months.
But in the meantime, I hope you are all well. And please don’t
hesitate to drop me a line. Have a safe and enjoyable Labor Day!
Until next month, all the best
Teresa Eyring
Executive Director