Running head: WORKING FILE: BLUMENTHAL PERFORMING ARTS SITE VISIT

Working File: Blumenthal Performing Arts Site Visit David Owens-Hill Queens University of Charlotte October 25, 2011

WORKING FILE: BLUMENTHAL PERFORMING ARTS SITE VISIT

Comparing Very Different Organizations This working file is fortunate to be the second in a series. In this document I am equipped to compare and contrast two organizations (Trader Joes from our first site visit on October 5, 2011 and Blumenthal Performing Arts from a site visit on October 19, 2011.) Tom Gabbard, President and CEO, discussed the organization and culture of the multi-campus Blumenthal Performing Arts organization. To best understand the culture of Blumenthal Performing Arts I will continue the practice of using Shiens three levels of cultural understanding: artifacts, values, and assumptions. Gabbard was very open with our visit-group, providing a hierarchical chart and internal documents that outline the core values, as self-defined, of the key divisions of his organization. As always, this file will work to deep-dive beyond the verbal and written artifacts of the organization and uncover truths about their beingtruths that dive right into the organizations authenticity and legitimacy.

Artifacts We met Gabbard in a fancy conference room attached to the organizations development office. The office itself is separated from the rest of Blumenthals office space and is located in the recently developed Bank of America Corporate Center. The space was painted a cool grey, had a gigantic television mounted to one wall and was filled edge-to-edge with a conference table and Eames mid-back manager chairs. We entered the development office from an unadorned hallway lined, on both sides, by stainless steel doors leading to bank offices. Retina scanners guarded these portals; employees entering these secure areas scan their eyeballs to gain admission. The

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Blumenthal development office didnt use a retina scanner, but was surrounded on every side by very secure entryways into the arteries of Charlottes largest bank. The space was clearly developed to sustain one of Blumenthals primary missions: raising the funding necessary to continue its operations. Gabbard mentioned that he horse-traded space in Founders Hall (which adjoins the Blumenthals previous development office) for the space in the Corporate Center. From the very beginning, even before Gabbard said his first word, it was clear that the space was meant to make individuals who were about to part with money feel more confident in their decision to do so than if they were in a space adorned with whimsical posters advertising musicals. This was not a space that played to the artistic sensibilities of the organization. Every inch of the officefrom the dcor to the location itselfwas meant to make people comfortable with the notion that financial transactions happened here. Blumenthal Performing Arts is a space dedicated to artistic exploration and produces a huge number of excellent performances, but an arts space cannot exist without funding, and Gabbard was clear that this is not a notion lost on his staff. Of the approximately 115 employees on staff, the organizational chart provided to our group shows only five dedicated exclusively to fundraising. When only 4% of your staff is dedicated to such an important organizational goal, they need every trick available to ensure success.

Values Gabbard was very frank about his view on organizational culture: he runs his organization like a business. He acknowledges that Blumenthal Performing Arts is not a

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scrappy, nimble, start up organization; they are a large, culturally significant organization with community-wide influence (reaching into the very structure of the community as outlined by his involvement with the Leon and Sandra Levine Cultural Corridor and Knight Theatre.) We assume that businesses have a very specific objective, namely to provide capital for themselvesthis is the food a business consumes in order to grow once a business grows enough, this capital is spread amongst the stakeholders. Nonprofit organizations typically do not have the same notion of empire building/empire sharing. Because their funds are rolled exclusively into programming and are rarely distributed amongst stakeholders we (as observers or stakeholders) feel nonprofits are more warmand-fuzzy and less business-like. Gabbards approach is different but not altogether unexpected considering the size and power of his organization. In contrast to Trader Joes, Gabbard did not refer to his employees as team or crew, he used the much more traditional staff. Like Trader Joes, Gabbard relied on his people to make decisions, but did not indicate that he expected, or allowed, critical organizational decisions from those other than his top lieutenants. Gabbard mentioned that he and his Vice President of Programming made all artistic decisions for the center I feel certain that this is not in line with Trader Joes practice of allowing all team members to merchandise their sections in ways they feel most appropriate. That said, Gabbard clearly expresses passion towards the creative and performance communities in Charlotte and the region. His method of management is more top-down, but not tone deaf to the needs of the community. Gabbard also mentioned partnerships fairly regularly during his presentation to our site visit group. Partnerships carry a connotation of buy-in, goodwill, and conviviality

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within a diverse population. The mission of Blumenthal Performing Arts states that the organization strives to employ the arts as a major catalyst to strengthen education, build community cohesiveness, and advance economic growth. Clearly, to be in this business, the Blumenthal staff must believe inand enjoytheatre, but their mission is much larger and reaches into corners of our community where smaller theatre organizations simply cannot go. By reaching out to organizations that are not like themselves, the Blumenthal staff hopes to act as a rising tideone that will lift all ships. The internal board documents provided by Gabbard are written in this inspirational style and a coding analysis would probably exhibit a privilege towards improving more than just the ledger sheets of the organization. As a point of further study, it would be interesting to see how this plays out in practice.

Assumptions What can we assume to be true about Blumenthal Performing Arts? The points below seem to be pretty low hanging, but are actually of critical importance to all nonprofit and community-supported organizations: When people grow up with your organization, their goodwill towards it can have a multiplier effect on your success Funding is important and raising it is difficult, but the real challenge is in engagement An engaged stakeholder base is difficult to obtain, but once they are established the ability to raise funding becomes less difficult

Sure, most of the assumptions above refer to fundraising, but Tom Gabbard is fundamentally an instrument of development and cultivation. His role, and thus the information to which we were privy, are based on the necessity of organizational

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sustainability. I venture to argue that the objective of all nonprofit organizations is achieving organizational sustainability while simultaneously providing a service to your community.

Conclusion We saw significant differences between Trader Joes and Blumenthal Performing Arts. We were not exposed to any organizational metaphors (though the notion of staff as cast seems so obvious it hurts), a direct question about organizational heroes was treated with a businesslike answer (the heroes are the people who go above and beyond to make the group the best it can be), and the space in which we met was practically devoid of established organizational artifacts of significance (it could have been any office anywhere.) In neither a disheartened or critical way, I would like to point out that the organization is successful in a way very different than Trader Joes in that the groups purpose is defined top-down and stakeholder buy-in is determined by the very notion of the organizations role in the community as a non-profit rather than by any tangible benefits from management, training programs, etc. Tom Gabbard is at the very top of the organizational pyramid at Blumenthal Performing Arts. It should be acknowledged that the only way to truly understand the organizational culture would be to interview members of the organization at all levels and triangulate the truth/multiple-truths in the middle. I would love to do further study on a group as large and diverse as Blumenthalthe added layer of employee subscription to

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nonprofit ideals would provide a rich environment for varying organizational understandings and expectations.