I’m just trying to help save the nonprofit arts industry from its own worst impulses. Where’s my utility belt, Alfred?! It always happens. Whenever I am asked to speak to a group or I write an article or a book, there are those that get caught in the invectives. They get angry because they feel attacked rather than advised. And inevitably, these are the people in the … [Read more...] about I’m Not Angry. I’m Batman.
Impact
What Was That? Your Arts Organization Needs Funding? Get In Line.
Sorry, it was hard to hear you above the din of civil destruction. Massive layoffs. Mass deportations, even of people who are here legally. De-funding Social Security. Enacting enormous tax cuts for the wealthy. Crashing the financial markets (worldwide). Eliminating Medicare. Destroying hope. Raising prices. Legislating inequity. Jettisoning … [Read more...] about What Was That? Your Arts Organization Needs Funding? Get In Line.
“Hope for the Best. Expect the Worst.”
You need to find a way to justify your worth to your community — and at the same time, prepare for bad news, too. The buzz inside your nonprofit arts organization is louder than outside the walls. Much louder. As in, if someone is not completely tuned in to what’s going on at your particular arts organization — either your performances or your impact — they’re just … [Read more...] about “Hope for the Best. Expect the Worst.”
Nonprofit Arts Organizations: Beware “A Little Knowledge”
Forcing data to reach a conclusion causes nonprofit arts organizations to issue pronouncements that just aren’t so. Conclusion I had a friend who had a Ph.D. in Psychobiology. She spent her post-doc work in a lab where, among other experiments, they tested a hypothesis about access to the brain via the olfactory nerve. That particular nerve, one of the key elements of … [Read more...] about Nonprofit Arts Organizations: Beware “A Little Knowledge”
A Case for Support: Forklift Danceworks Uses the Art of Dance to Tell the Stories of Real, Essential Workers
Studs Terkel would have been proud of this remarkably impactful nonprofit arts organization. My favorite book about America is Working by Studs Terkel. In it, Terkel takes months to interview regular working people (and unemployed and retired people) in hundreds of jobs. They discuss what they do and what they get out of it. Their stories are familiar, unfamiliar, … [Read more...] about A Case for Support: Forklift Danceworks Uses the Art of Dance to Tell the Stories of Real, Essential Workers