Hiring from Inside or Outside the Arts

When it comes to recruiting senior marketing roles at arts organizations, I encounter two extremes of thought. On one end:

“Don’t bring me anyone who has never worked in the arts. They won’t get it.”

And on the other end:

“Someone who is ‘only’ an arts marketer is going to think too small — we need someone who comes from the outside.”

I take issue with both of these positions for the same reason that I take issue with all false choices: we need to have a far more nuanced conversation than either of these statements suggests.

Marketing the arts is a unique discipline, mainly because you are in the business of helping the work of an artist (or several artists) to reach as wide an audience is possible, often requiring you to interpret that work for distribution in a reductive format across a variety of different media. Depending on the organization, genre, and artists involved, this portion can be incredibly delicate, and can easily sabotage an entire campaign. And in the context of some art forms, this is done before the piece of art even fully exists (I see you, theatre marketers).

From there, it is a countdown to the expiration date of that event or exhibition, activating as many channels and relationships as you can in order to hit your goals with the most efficient spend possible. That’s a crass redux of a complex and often very scientific process, and doesn’t even scratch the surface of institutional marketing and branding, but you get the idea, and you have other things to read today, so I’ll keep moving.

This is not the same process as selling consumer products or travel or higher education or luxury goods—but it does share things in common with each of them that are incredibly valuable. I have interviewed some fantastic candidates from these other industries who have spoken eloquently and honestly about their assessment of what it takes to shift into the arts industry, and sometimes I am blown away by their ability to analyze the business model and map their own skills to the needs of the role we’re discussing. The best will respect how different it is to sell the arts, and have a plan for how to navigate that learning curve. The worst have a complete underestimation of the arts industry, and think that it will be endless playtime in relation to where they’re coming from. Once I get a whiff of that, those meetings don’t last long.

To the idea of arts marketers thinking too small, I will ask what I always ask when I hear this sentiment: how do you invest in your marketing department’s continued growth? That doesn’t always mean money. Sometimes that is time, focus, freedom, and executive permission to experiment and fail — but sometimes, yes, it is money. I am obviously biased here, because I am an arts marketer and a <gasp> consultant, but I have worked with colleagues across the world who have truly humbled me with their creativity, dynamism, and commitment to this field and its great potential for impact. To dismiss them outright is a waste, and perhaps contains just a small shred of an arts inferiority complex on the part of the speaker. By investing in professional development through things like conferences and cross-industry gatherings, you’re increasing the likelihood that your team will make contact with potential mentors, and bring their learning back to your organization.

Regardless of who is ultimately hired and which direction the search ultimately goes in, an executive who doesn’t respect the craft and complexity of arts marketing will quickly find themselves with another vacancy to fill. In that unfortunate case, no one wins.

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Tom O’Connor is the President of Tom O’Connor Consulting Group. TOCG is a New York City-based arts consultancy offering strategy, assessment, executive search, and leadership coaching services to organizations across the US—all with a focus on audiences and revenue outcomes. Tom has spent over 15 years working in the cultural sector, is on the faculty of the graduate Theater Management program at the Yale School of Drama, and received his MSW in Clinical Social Work from Fordham University.