More Thoughts on Supple and Demand

There has been a great deal of talk lately about supply and demand in the arts sparked by Rocco’s recent comments. I have been struggling to decide where I stand on the issue and would like to share a few thoughts, and even more questions, after reading Diane Ragsdale’s Jumper blog entry Supply and Demand Redux.

I agree with Diane Ragsdale that it was an important issue to bring up and deserves close examination. It seems to me that there needs to be a better way to measure demand. Most of you probably know more about how this is measured than I do, but I suspect there are many people who would like to be partaking in the arts but are unable. The first reason that comes to mind is cost. I know I would very much like to be attending the Cincinnati ballet’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream this weekend. But with tickets starting at $35 and seats that you would really want starting at $65, there’s no way my graduate student budget can manage it. I suspect there’s a huge number of people who would like to visit art galleries, a play, or a musical, but simply can’t afford it.

I also wonder how free performances impact demand. How many people’s demand for the arts are met by all of the free orchestra or chamber music concerts provided by CCM? How many parents pass on going to the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company because their child’s high school just presented Hamlet? They know the quality isn’t nearly as high, but it was free and convenient, making it “good enough”.

Both of the above reasons are extremely difficult for professional organizations to compete against. The symphony can’t let everyone in for free, nor can they present at every local high school. However, how to compete against these things is not the issue here, but rather whether these things are adequately factored into demand. Or if they even should be.

So now having wondered about all these things, I find I am still divided on whether there should be less supply or not. The one thing I am sure of is that there should be more oversight deciding which organizations receive government funding. This is an incredibly complicated issue on which it seems there are too many individual interests to ever be resolved adequately. In a perfect world, each organization would have responsible leadership that knows when to shut the doors and move on, but doesn’t give-up too soon. Being successful in the arts certainly takes a great deal of perseverance. This is of course a dream world that will never exist, but at least it provides a goal to work towards.

And on a closing note, if the Superbowl’s halftime performance is any kind of example of the “art” that the country is typically exposed to, we should all work extra hard to promote arts organizations in any way possible.