The report begins with identifying obstacles to achieving greater organizational stability, including:
- Funding: Among arts funders, some classify TYA as education rather than art, while education funders look at the work as art and not primarily education. So TYA organizations are caught in the middle.
- Limitations of the business model: Theater organizations targeting adult audiences are able to charge higher ticket prices for productions of equal artistic quality and complexity to those offered by TYA organizations. This leads to a discrepancy in earned income potential.
- Leadership development: Most training programs for TYA organizations are practice-based, while training for adult-focused theater tends to center on organizational management, providing business skills for emerging theater managers and encouraging their hiring by adult-focused theaters.
- Research: Despite more and better research on the impact of theater on young people, the TYA field has not been able to incorporate that research into its programs and to forge partnerships with other youth-serving organizations.
The opportunities for the TYA field include greater collaboration among theaters targeting different audiences; encouraging coverage from arts journalists; and greater recognition among funders of the value of TYA programs and productions.
Source: Report Findings
