Why Atlanta Can’t Afford to Lose Its Arts Administrators

There are a lot of reasons to look for a job. Maybe your job duties have changed. Or maybe you’ve gone as far as you can go within a company and are looking for a chance to grow. You might just need a change. Maybe you’ve been laid off. You may have moved to a more affordable area but now your commute is impossible and you’d like to be closer to home. It’s also very possible that you are burned out and something has to change before you lose your mind, and on and on and on. There are many, many legitimate reasons to want to move on to another position, but none of them necessarily mean you want to change your field of practice.  

To Peach Their Own, Dad’s Garage Theatre Company. Photo by Chelsea Patricia.

One of the most challenging things about Atlanta’s arts community is that there are very few chances for job mobility. There are a handful of very large organizations with relatively large staffs, but these organizations aren’t necessarily hiring on a regular basis. There are a lot of ‘mid-sized’ companies that are doing A Lot with limited budgets and who likely do not have full or even part-time work available. And then there are very small organizations, whose staff is one executive/staffer and some volunteers, or several part-time positions that are not yet in a place to expand and hire anyone new. 

It’s hard to find a job as an arts professional in Atlanta. As nonprofit arts administrators we work in a narrow sector that becomes even narrower if you have a specialized field. I have two degrees in theatre and 20+ years of experience in nonprofit arts administration in various positions and fields. I’m very experienced as a theatre artist and educator, but I’ve been working in both management and programming for most of my professional administrative life. After living in the midwest for about a decade, I moved back to Atlanta and lucked into a job at Dad’s Garage Theatre Company within a month of being back in Georgia. I stayed with Dad’s Garage for several years, going through multiple changes in position and leadership in the company. When I was looking for a job this summer, there were very few options for me to both stay in arts administration and my field. I am incredibly lucky that the position I currently hold at Out Front Theatre Company opened up when it did. The job posting was released about a week before I was informed that my previous position at Dad’s Garage was being changed from full-time to part-time. If the position at Out Front hadn’t opened up when it did, I genuinely don’t know what I would be doing today, but if I’m being completely honest with myself, it probably wouldn’t be working in arts administration. It almost certainly wouldn’t be working in theatre management. 

I’m not looking for a job right now - I’m quite happy at Out Front, thank you very much - but I do dream of a time in Atlanta’s future when it is much, much easier to keep working in the nonprofit arts sector and your own field of specialization when it’s time (for literally any reason) to find a new job.

The undercapitalization of Atlanta’s arts scene means that many organizations are simply unable to find the resources for holistic growth.

Trick, Out Front Theatre Company. Photo by Sydney Lee.

There are plenty of mid-sized and small organizations who have been operating for 10 years or longer that have been unable to significantly grow their operational capacity. Programming has been consistent and, in many cases, expanded over the life of the organization, but funds to put towards the administrative staff who are directly and indirectly responsible for programmatic support are hard to come by. If we can fully fund the arts ecosystem in the metro Atlanta area, there will be more positions that need filling in each organization, more organizations can grow sustainably, and more new organizations can be born.  

Atlanta has a wealth of highly skilled arts administrators, many of whom have been working in the nonprofit sector for years. There are also plenty of highly skilled arts administrators who are unable to sustain themselves or their families within the stagnant job market of arts nonprofits who must leave the industry to survive. Just as Atlanta can struggle with retaining artists, we also struggle with retaining arts administrators. Making sure all arts nonprofits in the metro Atlanta area have the resources to not just survive, but thrive creates an environment where highly skilled workers can use their skills in ways that directly impact the area they are most passionate about. Increased staff size means increased administrative capacity and less chance for burnout. More organizations mean more worker movement from entry level to mid level to executive positions. And of course, more organizations and expanded capacity in existing organizations means that there are more jobs for artists and more innovative work coming from these organizations.

We have the administrative workforce to sustain Atlanta’s creative industry—now we need the resources to sustain that workforce.