Business Boomers Penetrate Arts Leadership — Part Three

Why Do these Baby Boomers Seek Out the Nonprofit Arts?

Giving Something Back
Having reached middle age, many of those interviewed acknowledged that they have much to give and want to contribute. “We ask ourselves…” said one corporate executive, “What have we done in our lives? What haven’t we done? What have we accomplished? How have we made a difference? I assume that around the age of 45 or 50, we all ask ourselves those kinds of questions, and start thinking about our answers. That’s when I knew I would be making a change.”

One new arts administrator with a passion for the arts as well as golf said, “At some point just before my 50th birthday, I realized that I was now playing on the back nine.” When he announced that he was leaving banking after more than 20 years to work in the arts, he said he was amazed at the number of people who sought him out to tell him what they had always wanted to do, jobs they wanted to take, changes they wanted to make happen. He told them to “take the first step, just do it. We all want to leave our mark before we go.”

Different Working Environments
When asked what they like most about working in the nonprofit arts world, almost all of the interviewees mentioned the pleasure of working with their new colleagues. They often repeated how much they like their fellow staff members at the arts organizations, how smart they are, and how much respect they have for them—for their professionalism and for their commitment.

A former banker observed that in the corporate world he was a specialist with a small frame of expertise; the longer he worked in that company, the more of a specialist he became. His attraction to the nonprofit arts was due in part to the attraction of working as a generalist. A person with a leadership role in a nonprofit arts organization wears many hats,” he said. “I fundraise, advocate, work with artists, do the small talk, manage staff and budgets, and deal with a board of directors…all the time speaking intelligently about the mission of the organization.” Another said, “In a big corporation, even as a VP, you are only a small piece of the whole. In a nonprofit, even a large one, your decisions affect everything.”

A former marketing specialist said that working with people in the arts community is the best part of his new job. “They are good-hearted and smart, and you get to know them on a different level. In business there is a certain façade that everyone wears. In corporate America, you learn the facts about people. You know whether they are married and how many children they have, but you rarely know what they think, feel, or believe. The arts community is more open. People talk about their feelings.”

Respect and Passion for the Arts
Baby boomers are now middle-aged. They have been around the block and around the community. The career changers interviewed had developed a respect for the arts, and most who made this transition had, at some point, served on the board of an arts organization, and several had served on the board of the organization that later hired them.

A former community affairs director said that it was during his time in business that he developed ‘an appreciation for what the arts do for the community as a whole, for the city’s reputation and for the quality of life in our region.” He said he had seen “the effect of the arts on a company’s ability to hire people from outside the community and convince them to move. If the arts are strong in your city it tells people that you are civilized.”

Another transplant from the corporate world said that what made him the happiest about moving to a museum was the feeling of pride that he had about the importance of the organization to the community. He also appreciated the cooperation among the staff, and their level of commitment both to the art and to the institution.

Some interviewees were motivated by their lifelong love of the arts. The arts hold good memories, and have been part of their lives for years. One baby boomer said, “My parents were big believers in giving back to the community. They always volunteered with arts organizations, so I grew up doing it and that’s what seemed natural to me. I realized that the arts have always been the things that brought me the most pleasure.” A former retail executive said that he knew he needed a job with an arts organization the day he realized that he “lived to do his board and volunteer work.”

Maybe the Arts Will Be Easier Some career changers assumed that the pace and pressure of working inside a nonprofit organization would be easier than inside the corporate world. According to a June 2005 article in the Wall Street Journal, “Business executives who worry about meeting growth targets every quarter may think they would have fewer headaches running a nonprofit. In fact, the job is more stressful than ever as more nonprofit groups compete for limited funding. And while juggling myriad personnel and other duties, heads of nonprofits also feel pressured to strengthen governance practices and codes of ethics.” Heads of nonprofits carry “even more of a burden of responsibility” than corporate executives, said Citigroup CEO Charles Prince, who serves on the board of The Juilliard School.

Creative Jobs Are Growing in Respect and Numbers
Over the last several years, the arts and the creative people that work in the field have become more widely recognized as important factors in economic development. As a result of Richard Florida’s book, The Rise of the Creative Class, as well as declarations from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and National Association of Governors on the economic value of the arts, more communities have acknowledged the importance of having creative environments. Cities across the country are actively looking for ways to recognize, recruit, and support creative industries. Many boomers wanted to work inside creative organizations. Others were interested in a variety of qualities that they associate with the arts, such as tolerance and cultural awareness.

Nonprofits are growing in size and number, and that means that there are more jobs in the nonprofit community. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the growth rate for employment at nonprofit organizations is higher than in any other segment of the labor force. From 1997 to 2001, the average annual growth rate in employment for nonprofits was 2.5 percent, compared to 1.8 percent in business and 1.6 percent in government. During that same period of time, there was a 17 percent increase in the number of nonprofit organizations in the United States.

According to Americans for the Arts’ Creative Industries Report, there are 578,000 businesses in the United States involved in the creation or distribution of the arts. These businesses employ 2.9 million people—4.4 percent of all U.S. businesses and 2.2 percent of all U.S. employees. Between 2004 and 2005, growth in the number of arts businesses outpaced total U.S. business growth (5.5 percent vs. 3.8 percent). Similarly, at a time when the total number of U.S. jobs shrank (-1.9 percent), employment by arts businesses dropped at less than half that rate (-0.8 percent).