ABSTRACT
The effects of skills shortages and skills gaps are different. The impact of a skills shortage is an increased workload for everyone else in the business, and missed opportunities to take on new business, causing business to be turned away … Skills gaps, on the other hand, can lead to existing business being lost through poor delivery or impossible pressure on the workforce. (Creative and Cultural Skills 2010: 21)
The performing arts are labour intensive and essentially collaborative in nature, requiring INDIVIDUALSTOWORKTOGETHERINCREATIVEPARTNERSHIPS-ISSOURI3TATE5NIVERSITYFORMERLY 3OUTHWEST-ISSOURI3TATE5NIVERSITY FOREXAMPLEINITSINTRODUCTIONTOITSPERFORMINGARTS courses, particularly elaborates on the importance of people to, and within, performing ARTSORGANIZATIONSSTATINGTHATIT
xUNDERSTANDSTHEESSENTIALLYPUBLICNATUREOFTHEPERFORMINGARTSANDTHERAMIlCATIONSOFSUCH a nature: that performing artists, as vehicles of human expression, must actively participate IN THE COMMUNITY ANDNOT BE ISOLATED FROM IT THAT THE PERFORMING ARTS FULlLL A VARIETY OF needs which range from enlightenment to entertainment to economic development; that the performing arts are inextricably linked to the visual and language arts; and that the performing arts must consistently seek to develop breadth of expression in deference to the diversity of the public they serve. Inasmuch as the performing arts are of, by, about and for the people, the university’s commitment to the performing arts is a statement of oneness with its community.
