Artist Story: Jonathan Meyer
Rethinking the Non-Profit Model
Photo credit: Gerald Garner, Jr
With four hours of business management for every hour of work in the studio, and a day job to pay the bills, what keeps one going through the years? I suppose we all have our own work to do investigating the role of ego and ambition in keeping our art alive; this is important but perhaps rather personal work. Alongside my personal drive, however, I had an underlying idea of growth, the promise (or will-‘o-the-wisp) of company development. You think, “Yeah, I can work 60, 70 hours a week, learn to do my own graphic design, figure out quickbooks and ask those people for money”. It will pay off, is the unspoken idea. The metaphor that came to me – after years of this – was that this work is like push-starting a car. Exhausting, yes, but at some point, you’ll get to the top of a hill. Right?
Well, maybe. People have made it to the top of that hill, even recently. Realistically though, the chances are slim especially in Chicago and in the current economic environment. We enter into this work as a labor of love, yes, but what about sustainability? Do I continue to do this for the love of the work, or in hope of the contingency of some sort of eventual acclaim or financial success? And if the former, are my actions working towards that goal, or is my energy getting bogged down in the latter goal? These questions began to bring me up short. Inevitably, the question became: Was the non-profit model really serving me? Realizing that my goal was not the running of a successful dance company (however valid a goal this is in of itself) but my growth as an artist and the continued exploration of my form, I then decided to test the flexibility of Khecari as a legal entity, to see how well it could support my investigations as an artist and to use the structure for personal growth.
There are a lot of options out there in addition to forming and running a 501(c)3 not for profit. For example, as an independent artist there are possibilities for fiscal sponsorship under an existing non-profit, or collaborating more directly with an established arts organization. There are also arts collaboratives where administrative work is shared. And one friend, long in the dance world, told me if he were ever to start another arts organization, it would be a for-profit venture.
As with most things, there are pros and cons with any choice. The non-profit route offers a donor base, eligibility for certain grants, and a basic structure but it also carries burdens of administrative work and certain distasteful tedia like begging for money. Fiscal sponsorship leaves the burden of production work with the individual artist. Collaborative ventures can invite discord and force compromise (which in themselves, of course, can be opportunities for growth and development), or simply yield communal disorganization. A for-profit model champions the idea (beautiful? naïve? needed?) that the arts should make money, yet renders one ineligible for a good deal of grant money.
Ultimately, however, what I mean to suggest is that our ideas about how our business works may be limiting while the social and economic climate around doing dance calls for increased flexibility, adaptability, and creativity. I feel confident that there are options beyond all these I’ve named - which await our discovery. And, there is a double-sided benefit to rethinking things. If I get creative in finding a venue for a show, for example, I may find a door-split option or much cheaper rental than a traditional theatre (and in the process, of course, take on added frustrations and costs in using a space that’s not accustomed to operating as a theatre). Additionally, I may stumble across a deeper examination of the work I’m meaning to present specifically in light of the limitations and possibilities of this space. Or perhaps financial necessity leads me to consider sharing a show with other artists and the resultant collaboration enriches the work.
For myself, I’ve come to see Khecari less as a company in the traditional sense and more as a flexible structure. Khecari is a place that can support my work as a solo artist, provide a platform for working with a group of dancers, serve as a presenting organization for a collaboration I’m involved in, or even become a way to present other choreographers whose work I want to support. The key here is to keep in mind one’s priorities as an artist, to start from this clarity and ask how best to proceed, rather than mold ones energies into models that may or may not best serve our purpose. The economic exigencies of doing art may grow increasingly bleak, but there’s a reason we’re artists; hopefully, our creativity can apply to carrying our work out from the studio as well as to the work done within. If necessity is indeed the mother of invention, this promises to be as exciting a time as it is challenging to be working in the arts.
Jonathan Meyer began dancing at Oberlin College in 1990 and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1996. Exploring the intersection between the phenomenal and social worlds, Meyer's focus on gravity and partnering seeks to understand how humans draw meaning from the juxtaposition of physics and relationship. His eclecticism reflects studies in modern and post-modern techniques, gymnastics and capoeira, taiji and aikido, ballet, butoh, and contact improvisation. Meyer is Artistic Director of Khecari, which he founded in 2002 in Taos, New Mexico, and relocated to Chicago in 2006. Khecari is committed to rigorous artistic inquiry supporting emotionally grounded and socially relevant performance. Meyer has danced with Rick Darnell and The High Risk Group, Pierre-Paul Savoire, Het Volta, Gail Gilbert, Kevin Wynn, and in Chicago with Chicago Dance Crash, The Seldoms, Asimina Chremos, and Julia Rae Antonick, his collaborative partner. He is a past Links Hall LinkUp artist and a current Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist.