{"id":785,"date":"2024-03-05T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=785"},"modified":"2024-02-28T17:32:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T17:32:10","slug":"nonprofit-arts-leaders-one-final-note-about-the-upcoming-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2024\/03\/05\/nonprofit-arts-leaders-one-final-note-about-the-upcoming-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Arts Leaders: One Final Note About the Upcoming War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2026until, of course, the catalyst event happens, at which point you\u2019ll probably think to yourself, <\/strong>\u201cHow did Alan know?<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Your nonprofit arts organization could become indispensable to the human beings in your neighborhood. But not simply by exhibiting paintings about it (Image by Alexa on Pixabay).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not prescient. In fact, there is still a na\u00efve part of me that hopes that people have discovered that, in fact, war is not healthy for children and other living things<\/a>. But first\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

My new book is now available everywhere, even as an eBook.<\/a> And if it\u2019s not, please let me know.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scene Change: Why Today’s Nonprofit Arts Organizations Have to Stop Producing Art and Start Producing Impact<\/a> is now on the shelves, be they internet shelves or real ones, in the UK and the US. Maybe even Australia by now. If your bookstore isn’t carrying it (yet), please let them know that you want a copy and that they should stock up for the thousands more behind you. Okay, hundreds. Okay, dozens. Okay, your dad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just give them this ISBN: 978\u20131\u201380 341\u2013446\u20131<\/a>. If it’s still not listed, contact me directly at alan@501c3.guru.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you teach an arts management program, work at an arts school, or want to buy a bulk purchase (25 or more) for your board of directors and staff, just shoot me an email: alan@501c3.guru<\/a>. I can get you a substantial group discount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the cover. Click on it to order your copy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And now, this week\u2019s column.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Last week, we discussed the literal, actual, real-live, people-dying war that is on the way sometime between now and 2026. If you didn\u2019t read last week\u2019s column, this column might not make a whole lot of sense to you. But then, that\u2019s not unusual, or so I\u2019m told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Alberta, author of The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> said on a recent episode of Deadline: White House<\/em> regarding why American evangelicals might follow the same path as German Nazis in the 1930s (about 90 years ago):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt is this sense of aggrievement, the sense of persecution, a very real sense of cultural and political displacement\u2026 When you think about a voting group that believes that they are losing something, that they are forfeiting a status in society that they have enjoyed and that many people believe that they\u2019re entitled to, and when you think about it in sort of an us versus them, good versus evil, \u2018The enemies are at the gates! How do we fight back against them?,\u2019 suddenly, that relationship with Donald Trump seems to make a lot of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hitler didn\u2019t lead German White Christians in a populist movement. It would have happened anyway. In other words, it wouldn\u2019t have mattered if you went back in time and killed baby Hitler. Someone else would have gathered the self-described downtrodden, populist, everyone\u2019s-against-me, victim society of racist bastards that took over Germany then and threaten to take over the US now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We often discuss a bygone war through a current lens. M*A*S*H, <\/em>one of my favorite television shows, may have taken place in Korea, but it was filmed in the Santa Monica Mountains and was about Vietnam. M*A*S*H\u2019s <\/em>virulently anti-war sentiment was part of a 1970s society that had endured years of senseless killing in a foreign war that the US ultimately lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, historically speaking, how can war \u2014 a real, dangerous, all-Americans-at-risk war, one in which the outcome is not solely about oil, communism, vengeance, or some other issue that affects the bottom line of the military industrial complex<\/a> and the wealthiest 1% \u2014 positively affect a society? And where do nonprofit arts organizations fit into all this horror?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is a real war. Most of these men died. How can your organization help? (Image by WikiImages from Pixabay)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

World wars happen when a critical mass within the dominant social group (in recent centuries, White Christians, many of them falling under Tim Alberta\u2019s description of evangelicals) feel as though their supremacy is under threat. There may be catalyzing events, but ultimately, an entire society won\u2019t go to war until that takes place. This isn\u2019t a question of the morality or immorality of war; just a statement of sad observation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the US, this is part of the reason why DEI programs at your nonprofit arts organization have become so easy to jettison when the money runs dry. They don\u2019t appear to positively affect the dominant social group (to that social group, that is). With so many organizations and government agencies choosing instead to have meetings, talks, discussions, and the worst culprit, \u201cListening Sessions,\u201d White Christian society has proven correct the kind of allyship Dr. Martin Luther King wrote about in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro\u2019s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen\u2019s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to \u2018order\u2019 than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Until a sphere can\u2019t <\/em>fall off the table, it inevitably will.<\/em> Performative DEI statements (the ball in that metaphor) from major arts institutions have proven to fall off all significant tables by undermanned nonprofit arts organizations. Actions are considered riskier, more expensive, and thornier than talking about actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The world on the edge. Elements of this image furnished by NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

DEI requires the kind of self-sacrifice among those in the numerically dominant society that they are currently loathe to offer, even among those who \u201cmean well.\u201d And so, it happens slowly, if at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War changes all that. This next one \u2014 like the one that occurred about four score ago and the one four score years before that and the one that was famously \u201cfour score and seven years\u201d before that \u2014 will require <\/em>self-sacrifice actions from that dominant society. The only difference between those wars and this one is this: for the first time in American history, the US will be fighting a war while its population has only a slight White majority<\/a> (roughly 51%, according to projections) and likelier, a White Christian plurality, but not a majority. It will behoove that group to join hands as \u201cAmericans\u201d in order to defeat evil (even if that evil is internal). Only in that way, Americans will come together as they haven\u2019t since the end of World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For a nonprofit arts organization, the stakes are unusually high. If you work now to engage in the lives of those who need the help (as your charitable status and your funders increasingly require), your organization will be best-placed for a seat at the community table. And when that war happens, it will be those who helped their communities in the fight that will benefit, not those who put on art for its own sake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, before your child asks you, \u201cWhat did you do in the war, Daddy?\u201d consider that your acts of self-sacrifice will mean much more than those of artistic purity. No one will care about your brilliant production of Hamlet<\/em>, no matter how good a play it is. They\u2019ll care about the steps your organization took toward bringing people together and winning the peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a nonprofit arts organization, the stakes are unusually high. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,20,22,100,32,29,28,23,19,18,17,99],"tags":[50,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-culture","8":"category-board-of-directors","9":"category-board-of-trustees","10":"category-book-recommendation","11":"category-charity","12":"category-dei","13":"category-diversity-equity-inclusion","14":"category-executive-director","15":"category-leadership","16":"category-nonprofit","17":"category-nonprofit-arts-organizations","18":"category-scene-change","19":"tag-nonprofit-management","20":"tag-peace","21":"tag-war","22":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/ball-falling-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":291,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2023\/03\/28\/nonprofit-arts-organization-boards-an-epilogue\/","url_meta":{"origin":785,"position":0},"title":"Nonprofit Arts Organization Boards: An Epilogue","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"March 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are a nonprofit arts board member, you have a chance to build something great. And no, the best way is not to copy your fellow arts organizations.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts and Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts and Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/category\/arts-and-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Build-a-Board-Workshop.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Build-a-Board-Workshop.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Build-a-Board-Workshop.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Build-a-Board-Workshop.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Build-a-Board-Workshop.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1517,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2025\/10\/07\/a-punchy-outspoken-argument-for-how-nonprofit-arts-organizations-should-be-run\/","url_meta":{"origin":785,"position":1},"title":"“A PUNCHY, OUTSPOKEN ARGUMENT FOR HOW NONPROFIT ARTS ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD BE RUN.”","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"October 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\"An example-driven new map to success in the realm of nonprofit theater.\" \u2014 Kirkus Reviews.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts and Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts and Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/category\/arts-and-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Scene Change, Scene Change 2, and Scene Change 3 - 3 books to improve your arts organization","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-book-titles.jpg?fit=1200%2C606&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1683,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2025\/12\/30\/scene-change-3-just-named-to-kirkus-reviews-25-best-indies-of-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":785,"position":2},"title":"“SCENE CHANGE 3” Just Named to Kirkus Reviews’ “25 Best Indies of 2025!”","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"December 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're serious about succeeding as a nonprofit arts organization, you're going to want to pick up the trilogy at your favorite bookstore.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts and Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts and Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/category\/arts-and-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Scene-change-3-with-sky.jpg?fit=1200%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Scene-change-3-with-sky.jpg?fit=1200%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Scene-change-3-with-sky.jpg?fit=1200%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Scene-change-3-with-sky.jpg?fit=1200%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Scene-change-3-with-sky.jpg?fit=1200%2C640&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1048,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2024\/09\/17\/nonprofit-arts-organizations-whats-a-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":785,"position":3},"title":"Nonprofit Arts Organizations: What\u2019s a \u201cCommunity?\u201d","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"September 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Say it, out loud. What is the definition of \u201ccommunity\u201d to your nonprofit arts organization? It may not be the community to which you claim membership.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts and Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts and Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/category\/arts-and-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/inigo-square.jpg?fit=1000%2C864&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/inigo-square.jpg?fit=1000%2C864&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/inigo-square.jpg?fit=1000%2C864&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/inigo-square.jpg?fit=1000%2C864&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1647,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2026\/02\/26\/short-and-sweet-teachers-that-teach-teachers-that-educate-arts-nonprofits-that-produce-arts-nonprofits-that-are-worth-a-donation\/","url_meta":{"origin":785,"position":4},"title":"Short and Sweet: Teachers : Educators :: Arts Organizations : Nonprofit Arts Organizations That Deserve Donations","author":"Alan Harrison","date":"February 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Back to the basics, because the message is only going so far. 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