{"id":993,"date":"2024-09-03T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=993"},"modified":"2024-09-04T04:05:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T04:05:00","slug":"scene-change-2-now-available-for-preorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2024\/09\/03\/scene-change-2-now-available-for-preorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Scene Change 2 Now Available for Preorder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Assuming that your board has no clear sense of why they\u2019re representing their nonprofit arts organization\u2019s work, there\u2019s a handbook for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Don\u2019t forget to get the first one first, otherwise the second one will mean far less. Just a suggestion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first essay of the school year is usually some throwaway set of paragraphs entitled, \u201cHow I Spent My Summer Vacation.\u201d This is kinda that. I\u2019ve been exceptionally busy over the last month doing podcasts, interviews, and signings for my book, SCENE CHANGE<\/strong>, and, as you\u2019ll see here, embarking on a new book launch just in time for the holiday season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, I embarked on a study of nonprofit arts board members to judge whether they really knew why they were on the board. I\u2019d asked for short (one-word, if possible) answers to three questions. I asked them what their single most important personal responsibility was to the company, their board\u2019s most important collective responsibility, and in what important responsibility they found their board to be lacking. Boom, boom, boom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving 600 responses, I stopped counting. Almost half of the respondents wrote that their most important responsibility was some form of the word \u201cfundraising\u201d and most of the rest responded with \u201cgovernance.\u201d Sadly, given the other answers on the survey, \u201cfundraising\u201d appeared to mean \u201cwriting a check,\u201d not zealously seeking support. And \u201cgovernance\u201d is a nonsense-word that board members use because that\u2019s what they\u2019re told. It has no real meaning, except to say they approve by-laws and vote on various subjects. Unanimously, in most cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the information and some of the follow-up, it became clear to me that despite Richard T. Ingram\u2019s great book on board responsibilities in general<\/a>, the board of directors\/trustees for arts organizations really had no idea why they were there, except perhaps as a human ATM. They\u2019re not to blame for that, of course. It\u2019s often how they\u2019re treated by board leadership and executive leadership. And some money-grubbing development officers, who see each one with dollar signs in their eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Stylish wealthy donors having fun on a luxury yacht. (Is that your development director holding the bottle?)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, as a follow-up and companion to the book SCENE CHANGE: WHY TODAY\u2019S NONPROFIT ARTS ORGANIZATIONS HAVE TO STOP PRODUCING ART AND START PRODUCING IMPACT<\/strong>, I have just completed SCENE CHANGE 2: THE FIVE REAL<\/em> RESPONSIBILITIES OF NONPROFIT ARTS BOARDS.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
FYI: It’s called SCENE CHANGE 2 because I have no imagination.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SCENE CHANGE 2<\/a><\/strong> is part down-to-earth board member handbook, part pot-stirring conversation starter, and strong arts organization conscience-setter. It\u2019s spicy and filled with even more bricks to tear down the toxic and unjust walls surrounding most failing and flailing nonprofit arts organizations. Using the tools found within the pages, members of boards will begin to feel empowered to serve communities first (after all, the community owns your company, not the board) using art as an effective tool and not as an empty, pretty product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s filled with questions you can ask at board and staff meetings and a series of exercises that can help guide your board push your company to greatness (instead of non-charitable activities and the diabolical lie of art-for-art\u2019s-sake, which is neither a mission nor a vision for a community organization such as yours).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your company has a terrible mission not unlike this atrocity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n