Wednesday, November 16, 2011
So a guy with a relatively high profile in the little world of the arts writes an article for the Huff Post. In the article he talks about the "death" of traditional arts criticism and the g…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:00AMMonday, November 14, 2011
Last week, during a social media workshop I was conducting, a participant did something that I love. She noticed her own behavior. In this case she noticed how she checks a lot of social med…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:00AMWednesday, November 9, 2011
Let's do a little housekeeping: 1. THANK YOU to the hundreds of folks that get this blog via your email or an RSS reader. Your presence is both noted and appreciated. 2. If you're in Chicago…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:56AMMonday, November 7, 2011
The musician updates her Facebook status and the paid downloads of her musics jumps up. The arts organization sends out an email and the ticket buyers step up. That's the dream of social med…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:46AMFriday, November 4, 2011
Most risks are overblown. No, that slightly provocative Facebook post you did is not going to ruin the company. No, trying that new artistic choice isn't going to blow up everything. It may …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:34AMWednesday, November 2, 2011
Placing ads is easy. Convincing your box office people to become sales people is hard. Sending a tweet is easy. Convincing your organization to have more transparency in the world of social …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:58AMMonday, October 31, 2011
In 2008 I wrote this post. The gist of it was that people don't attend artistic events for the reasons people expect. For example, many people don't attend classic musical productions becaus…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:32AMFriday, October 28, 2011
I was on a Riverboat tour in New Orleans. It was a lovely day. We went down the Mississippi River. The tour guide gave historical facts to help us understand what we were seeing. I was getti…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:52AMWednesday, October 26, 2011
It's ironic to say this given what I do for a living, but I think we focus way too much on the mix of artistic and business skills. Don't get me wrong, understanding how to create work, prom…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:55AMMonday, October 24, 2011
Part of the "truth" of art is that we don't know what is going to work. We have our theories. We have our really good guesses. But you never really know. Another "truth" is that the more tim…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:18AMFriday, October 21, 2011
This is from 2010, but I think it's still relevant. It's a two part audio of a presentation I did on Authentic Arts Marketing. If you're short on time, just check out Part 2. Link to the aud…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:16AMWednesday, October 19, 2011
It helps if you start by acknowledging that you don't know exactly what people want. I mean sure you may know the basics, that people want to be treated with respect, that they enjoy good cu…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:00AMMonday, October 17, 2011
Price is another one of those flags you waive that indicates who you intend on serving. Art is such a complex thing so you can't really have a simple set of rules about how to price what you…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:00AMFriday, October 14, 2011
This is the Mission Paradox Blog. I'm your friendly host, Adam Thurman Since 2007 this has been a place where artists and those who work within artistic organizations get insight on marketin…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 12:53PMOne of the hardest transitions to make is from an artists (or organization) that is used to spending very little to create and market work . . . to one that needs to spend more. Sometimes sp…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 11:34AMWednesday, October 12, 2011
They like their flags in New Orleans. That's one of the things I observed walking down Bourbon Street. It's like most things in life. It's a street filled with choices. I lost count of the n…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 12:03PMMonday, October 10, 2011
When's the last time you listened to a record that was absolutely horrible? I don't mean a song that doesn't fit your particular taste. I mean a song with poor audio, misplayed instruments, …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:59AMFriday, October 7, 2011
I get this question a lot: "How can get my audience/friends to spread the word about my art?" I'll be honest, my first instinct when I'm asked this question is to dance around it. I want to …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:21AMWednesday, October 5, 2011
Most people have never heard of me. They never will. That's probably true for you as well. Can you handle that? Can you handle the fact that you can have a pretty successful career and still…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:07AMMonday, October 3, 2011
Now is not the time to put your artistic skills on the shelf. You need them now more then ever. That's true whether you plan or pursing an artistic career or you want a more traditional, non…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:04AMFriday, September 30, 2011
Eventually you must have a moment where you answer this question: Are you serious about this? Is this theatre company a hobby . . . a way for you and your peeps to commune . . . or is this...
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 11:21AMWednesday, September 28, 2011
Most of what I do (and you do) is manage conflict. The conflict between understanding an audience/marketplace and responding to a singular artistic vision. The battle between paying the ofte…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:00AMMonday, September 26, 2011
In his book Life Itself, Roger Ebert talks about how he developed his skills as a writer and film critic. Here's a passage I love -------------------------------------------- "I came to the …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:00AMFriday, September 23, 2011
All the stuff I talk about on this blog . . . the marketing, the leadership . . . all of it is just a means to an end. So here's the question I want you to ponder this weekend:...
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 11:36AMWednesday, September 21, 2011
What are you willing to break? What rules are you willing to break in order to find success? What assumptions are you willing to challenge? These are essential questions. The competition in …
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:47AMMonday, September 19, 2011
Few ideas annoy me more then the idea that small = innovative. We hear this all the time in the arts. It's assumed that (for example) an upstart dance company is filled with folks that are s…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 11:57AMFriday, September 16, 2011
This morning I'll hand the floor to Steven Pressfield and his fantastic post, Unscrewing the Writer He talks about a set of essential skills for writers (and other artist), let me draw a lit…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:28AMThursday, September 15, 2011
Maybe once or twice a year I do a live arts marketing workshop. Typically these workshops are for small to mid-sized arts organizations. This time I'm doing a workshop that will focus on the…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:19AMMonday, September 12, 2011
There is nothing wrong with being relatively small. There is no shame in being a theatre that has an impact in a few neighborhoods. There is no shame in being an artist with a cult following…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 10:03AMWednesday, September 7, 2011
If you accept the soft power, hard power premise I gave at TEDx it would be easy to assume that the use of soft power is automatically a good thing and hard power is a bad thing. In fact, bo…
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:59AMMonday, September 5, 2011
Here's my TED Talk from the TedxMichiganAve conference. It's entitled Power and the Arts Check out all the TedxMichigan Ave videos here
SOURCE: Mission Paradox at 09:05AM 
