I’m reading “The Ultimate Sales Machine” by Chet Holmes. The content isn’t exactly what you would expect. The book is really about strategically planning for business success. In Chapter 4, Holmes describes what the best business strategists know. He writes, “One of the most strategic things you can do is find market data that makes your product or service more important.”
So, what does this have to do with Children’s Theater? Aside from the fact that Treasure Valley Children’s Theater (TVCT) is a business – a business with the mission to produce quality theater arts experiences for youth – we want to forge mutually beneficial relationships with our community, and market data will support this endeavor.
Fortunately, over the past 20 years, the impact of arts programs on an individual and community have been well documented. AmericansForTheArts.org has researched and concluded the following in relation to arts and business:
8 Reasons for Businesses to Invest in the Arts
source: http://www.partnershipmovement.org/the-movement/
8. Employees want to live and work in a vibrant community: When you partner to support local theater, music, museums, dance and public art, you help to make your community more attractive to current and future employees. Happier employees make for a happier workplace. But you knew that already, naturally.
7. The Arts help you build market share, enhance your brand and reach new customers: Celebrating the arts is a way to build a powerful presence and engage with multiple stakeholders quickly and effectively. Museums, symphonies, dance performances, festivals and more allow you to reach customers and are venues to entertain prospective and current clients. Businesses agree that the arts increase name recognition (79 percent) and offer networking opportunities to develop new business (74 percent).
6. The Arts help you get your message across in engaging ways: The arts can educate the public and your employees about core business issues such as informing them about your products or teaching them to make healthy choices.
5. Did you know creativity is among the top applied skills saught by employers? More often than not, business leaders say creativity is of high importance when hiring. The arts are about critical thinking, solving and reframing problems and facts in ways that reveal insights and opportunities. Music, creative writing, drawing and dance provide skills sought by employers of the third millennium. In fact 72% of companies that give to the arts recognize that it stimulates creative thinking, problem solving and team building.
4. The Arts challenge employees to be their best: Whether it’s showing off their own creative talent in a company art show or battle of the bands, or volunteering for a local arts group, the arts let your employees use their current skills and develop new ones. For instance, sitting on an art organization’s board is great training for sitting on your company’s board. In fact, studies show that millennials who frequently participate in workplace volunteer activities are more likely to be proud, loyal and satisfied employees.
3. The Arts create an environment that blends backgrounds ethnicities and cultures: Through exhibitions, performances and workshops, the arts provide opportunities for employees to grapple with workplace concerns and become more familiar with their coworkers in the next cubicle or around the world. What’s more, committing to the arts lets people inside and outside your company know that you value (and promote) innovative thinking and a creative culture.
2. The Arts are a great way to show you appreciate your employees: Providing tickets to events, museum memberships and other arts experiences is the perfect way to inspire employees and say “thanks.”
1. When you partner with local arts you partner with the whole city: The arts are essential to the health and vitality of neighborhoods, cities, states and our nation. They enhance community development, create jobs, spur urban renewal, attract new businesses, draw tourism dollars, and create an environment that attracts skilled and educated workers.
Thanks for supporting the arts and TVCT!
