Post-Covid IX for Nonprofit Arts Organizations: Remember the “Nonprofit” Part – It’s Way More Important Than the “Arts” Part

Until we get shut down again, which is likely, the “new normal” is going to be great. It’s going to be awful. It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be puzzling. It’s going to be inspiring. It’s going to be confusing. It’s going to involve a lot of change. A lot.

For many organizations, especially large ones, change – even inevitable change – is something that doesn’t happen with any alacrity, despite conditions that call for change. Feet drag on this subject. The merry-go-round slows to a near-halt.

I put the idea of change to you in the form of an exercise that you can do with your board during a meeting or, if you have to have one (and there’s some debate on that issue), your retreat.

Step 1: Pair up. This is a team competition.

Step 2: Stand facing each other.

Step 3: Study each other.

Step 4: Person (a) turns his back on Person (b) for 10 seconds.

Step 5: Person (b) makes a change.

Step 6: Person (a) turns back around.

Step 7: Person (a) identifies the change.

How long did it take for Person (a) to guess what change was made?

The goal is to see how quickly the change can be identified. The fastest team wins. There is a no trick. And if any team member takes a long time to discern what the change is, you may have some issues as a company. There are huge insights about your operations that can be gleaned from the results, if you know what you’re looking for. And if you don’t, send me a DM through LinkedIn or go ahead and ask in the comment lines. I’ll send you a DM with the goals, results, and issues.

In the wake of the worst health crisis in the history of the United States (more Americans dead than had died in Vietnam and Korean wars put together) the burning question among nonprofit performing arts organizations seems to be, “How can we get back to business?”

Genuinely, shouldn’t the question be, “Is art enough?” Or rather, “How can I take this once-in-a-lifetime crisis and use it to change my organization into the most impactful version of itself?”

There are two opposing perspectives on the answer to “Is art enough?”

or

Gran Fury, Art is Not Enough, 1988, printed in the Village Voice

In the nonprofit arts world – as opposed to the commercial arts world – the answer lies in the communication received, not the communication sent.

The legendary basketball coach and teacher John Wooden (pictured, right) used to talk about the basketball pass as a metaphor for leadership. To paraphrase, he said that the player passing the ball had the responsibility to make it successful, not the receiver. The same goes with communications and leadership: the person passing the ball has the responsibility for the success of the play. The pass could be beautifully performed – with style, perfect form, aplomb, urgency, and aim – but if it isn’t caught, the play is a failure. Even if the receiver is out of position. Even if the receiver is in position but drops the perfectly passed ball. If a receiver is not capable of catching that ball in that moment, for whatever reason, the ball should either a) not have been passed to that player; or b) not have been passed to that player yet.

Orchestra and choir leaders are taught this early. An oboe or an alto out of tune is the responsibility of the conductor, not the performer. That performer should probably not have been placed in that position in the first place.

And if the conductor believes that everything is fine with that performance despite the ill-fated noise, it is the board’s responsibility because there is a chance that conductor should never have been hired either.

Clearly, this is a metaphor that has not made it to the bulk of the US nonprofit arts sector. If “Starry Night” were kept in a vault, it would have no impact whatsoever on anyone (except the artist). The production of nonprofit art in particular – as opposed to for-profit arts ventures, the goal of which is to make money for the investors and the employees – has not proved to be important to the community in tangible ways – unless any particular nonprofit arts organization can reveal proof otherwise.

In the kind of vacuum that only includes artists and production, no performing art is important.

In the “New Normal,” then, it is incumbent more than ever that nonprofits take their positions as charities seriously. More than everything else: the goal of every worthy nonprofit is to positively impact its community and fill a public need (however it is defined in its mission and by-laws), because the private sector is ill-equipped or uninterested in tackling an unprofitable enterprise.

Charity is not about raising money; it is about doing impactful work. With the emphasis on the impact, not the work.

There are dozens of reports that confirm that the nonprofit arts sector was the last to rebound from the Great Recession of 2008. There is every reason to suspect that the social service sector, because its collective work was fundamental to the restoration of society, was presented to the giving public as indispensable and worthy of contributions. Arts organizations – the larger ones, sadly – looked at the problem as a time to cut programs.

An even more damaging tack was the decision to try to continue programming that had been de-funded by its governmental, corporate, or foundation partner. Arts organizations (usually through its board) have been told so many times to do for a dime what actually costs a dollar. This is a killer for an organization. When the money stops for a program, you have to end the program, no matter what. Otherwise, donors will believe you don’t really need the money.

And here we are in the summer of 2020. Regardless of the opportunity at hand and with the best of intentions, there are arts organizations trying to “re-open” rather than “open.” There is great excitement in the following announcement about seating and about the building. One might assume, then, that the art inside it is not important, as it is totally disregarded in the copy.

Yes, seating and social distancing is important. But if the reason for the art is still the art itself (art for art’s sake is fine for some, I guess, unless you want to measure community impact), then in 2022, there will be reports that the arts sector is again lagging behind the social service and social justice sectors and, except for those that choose to go the Oral Roberts route, will close en masse. Perhaps justifiably.

Will yours close?

Does it deserve to close?

Why not?

And what will the world specifically miss if it does, beyond the exasperating arguments of jobs, economic impact, and butts in seats? After all, those are arguments for the arts (and for restaurants, sports teams, and convention centers), not for your individual nonprofit arts organization.

Will you take the opportunity to change – and change with gusto? When you pass the ball, so to speak, have you done everything you possibly could to pass it to the right person, at the right time, for the best outcome?

Or will you continue merely to show how stylishly you can pass a ball -- or produce art -- without first having an outcome in mind?

Will you be a new organization?

Or will you simply “re-open?”

_______________________________________________________________________

Post-Covid Article #1: Don't Ask

Post-Covid Article #2: Is It About the Car Wash or Is It About the Car Wash, or the Car Getting Cleaned? Steps Toward a Post-Covid Performing Arts Future

Post-Covid Article #3: The Sacrifice After the Sacrifice - Go Small or Go Home

Post-Covid Article #4: In the New Normal, You're Going to Need Some Mischief

Post-Covid Article #5: Shedding Egos and Empowering the Tribe

Post-Covid Article #6: A Rose is a Rose is a Rose – Don’t Let Data Get in the Way of Failure (because failure is the key to innovation)

Post-Covid Article #7: We're All Startups Now

Post-Covid Article #8: Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

Alan Harrison is a writer, father, performer, nonprofit executive, artist, blogger and impresario (in no particular order). He has led, produced, directed, promoted, raised money for, starred, and failed in over 300 theatrical productions on and Off-Broadway and at prestigious (and not so prestigious) nonprofit arts organizations across the country. He’s also a two-time Jeopardy! champion so, you know, there’s that. The arts invoke passion (mostly from artists), but nonprofit arts are only successful when they result in measurably positive change among those that need it most. When a nonprofit’s donors are also its recipients, then its mission is meaningless puffery, flapdoodle and codswallop.