May 2, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Paul Botts doesn’t buy the results of a recent study commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation that says arts charities aren’t doing enough to attract young workers.
In fact, the author of the blog dot-org writes that arts groups are actually the model for other nonprofits that are looking to fill their ranks with young talent.
The Hewlett Foundation study “Involving Youth in Arts Organizations: A Call to Action”, concludes that many arts charities are failing to attract twentysomethings as donors, advocates, and leaders. In turn, it has prompted quite a bit of hand-wringing over the future of arts organizations.
The journalist Lee Rosenbaum, writing for her Culture Grrl blog, for instance, concludes that arts groups are losing out on young talent because they can’t afford it.
“ I think we’re going to lose the best and the brightest to the corporate and financial worlds unless we can find a way to make careers in art nonprofits more financially rewarding,” Ms. Rosenbaum writes.
Hogwash, writes Mr. Botts, who spent eight years working with the Nature Conservancy and who now works as a program officer at the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, in Chicago. He says he has seen a massive influx of young talent at arts organizations.
“In my day job I deal with small- to medium-sized arts organizations, the number of which has been rising at a crazy rate, and it’s long since become a surprise to meet an artistic director or music director as old as 35,” Mr. Botts writes.
Arts organizations, he writes, might have the formula for attracting and keeping younger adults.
“If there is a sector of the U.S. economy that is doing better now at attracting young people than the arts I haven’t seen it,” he writes. “I’ve been working in the nonprofit arts sector for several years now, just did some empirical research on it actually, and that trend is blindingly obvious. Theater, dance, music, visual arts, whatever.”
Are arts groups having a hard time attracting young leaders, as the Hewlett Foundation report suggests? Or are cultural organizations teeming with young talent, as Mr. Botts states? Click on the comments link just below this posting to share your thoughts.
