Would One Unified Arts Service Org. Have a Bigger Impact?

On the Partners in Performance website, John McCann asserts in his article "Strength through Coordination and Collaboration" that consolidating discipline-specific arts service organizations (like Theater Communications Group, Opera America and the League of American Orchestras) into one American Institute for the Arts, would not only save on overhead, but would unify priorities for the industry to be heard at the national level, allow data to be gathered and used more easily across disciplines, and bolster the role of the arts in public consciousness.

While I agree that it would be useful to have standardized data across disciplines to enable further research and better arguments for policy makers, I have trouble believing that such an umbrella institution would be able to articulate a unifying priority that gets a seat among the energy and health care debates at the national level or would create messages that could penetrate the hearts and minds of the public to prevent further marginalization.

On the other hand, perhaps the advancements in technology and networking can overcome the past difficulties of this type of collective effort and a real strength-in-numbers approach could have a bigger impact.

http://partnersinperformance.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/strength-through-coordination-and-collaboration/

--Leah