Leveraging Gratitude: Cultivating Arts Capacity

Even if you missed it, you can thank The Barr Foundation for sponsoring "A Day of Learning and Networking for the Greater Boston Arts & Culture Community" at ICA Boston on 18 November 2013.  

     The day began with an illuminating presentation by TDC's Susan Nelson--"Beyond Breakeven:  Why Capitalization Matters."  Review it and you'll immediately see why the word "illuminating" is not hyperbole.  

     Key takeaway for us?  The "misalignment" between the measures on which arts organizations all too often rely, and the kind of ongoing market research that keeps capitalization matters in mind.  

     This fundamental disconnect then leads to a series of double binds for arts organizations:

• break-even analyses tend to focus on the success of funded projects as opposed to annual operating budgets; 
• arts organizations, not wanting to appear weak--i.e., "unfundable," effectively occlude and/or ignore the fact that they lack sufficient working capital; and in turn,
• overdraw human and capital reserves to fund day-to-day operations in endless search for funds to forward their programmatic mission.

Ms. Nelson strongly urges that we 'flip the script.'  Instead of continuing this unsustainable cycle of diminishing returns, she posits a more strategic approach to capitalization.  Radical idea!

Now that the Thanksgiving celebration is gone (but not forgotten) the challenge in 2014 will be leveraging gratitude in order to grow our capital capacity.  

Next post will summarize observations from the "Cultural Planning Learning Session."