Orchestrating Community: Artistic and Social Governance for Today’s Orchestras

Evaluating and Guiding Impact Beyond Financial Metrics to Cultivate Sustainable Cultural Commons

As a society, we have entrusted our orchestras with the role of stewarding our symphonic performing arts experiences. We have provided them not only with special tax statuses, economic structures, and social validation; but also, with the ability to acquire and manage the tangible and intangible resources necessary to fulfill their artistic and social missions. However, when it comes to governing these institutions and evaluating their artistic and social outcomes, stakeholders (including boards, arts administrators, artists, and communities) lack clarity on how to assess whether these missions are being accomplished in both their artistic and social dimensions. Unfortunately, governance responsibilities—meant to encompass all stakeholders, not just the board—often revert to a narrow focus on financial stewardship. While financial oversight is important, it is only one dimension and is secondary to the primary purposes for which orchestras exist: the artistic and social development.

Grounded in almost two decades of groundbreaking international research on Performing Arts Sustainability (more info Click here), and drawing from the multiple times award-winning multidisciplinary research "Framing Performing Arts Enterprises as Cultural Commons," the present conference/workshop will: 1) Address the necessity of multidimensional metric evaluation (artistic, social, financial, and ecological) for effective governance of orchestras, 2) Outline the artistic and social metrics essential for organizational assessment, 3) Present the different mechanisms available to implement the Artistic and Social evaluation metrics to evaluate comprehensive organization development, and 4) Share strategies for orchestras to engage their full range of stakeholders—boards, senior management, artistic leadership, artists, administrators and staff, and communities—in multidimensional governance efforts that can foster healthy, sustainable, and thriving performing arts organizations.

Research and Conference/workshop in process by Barbosa-Vasquez/Academic and Performing Arts Laboratory to the League of American Orchestras 2025 Annual Conference (TBC).