Dynamic Adaptability: Arts and Culture Puget Sound

As the economy slowed in 2008, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, 4Culture, Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and The Seattle Foundation polled arts and cultural leaders in the region about their current challenges and what would be helpful as they adapted to changes in the environment. Nonprofits responded that they wanted opportunities to gather with colleagues and learn about effective ways to navigate such significant change.

In response, a consortium of regional arts funders joined to create Dynamic Adaptability: Arts and Culture Puget Sound. This series will include talks and workshops with national thought leaders who have unique and practical perspectives on how to navigate change in this environment. The goal of the Dynamic Adaptability series is to give arts and cultural organizations in the Puget Sound region the skills and support to successfully adapt and thrive in a changing environment.

A brief summary of the first four sessions is attached here.

See video and materials from past events:

• Cultural Capital: Tools for Managing Revenue and Risk
  February 8, 2010, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington
  Video of Nonprofit Finance Fund President Clara Miller’s presentation on new ways of thinking about capitalization in the nonprofit cultural sector, presentation slides from afternoon workshops with funders and cultural organizations and background reading materials.
• Managing Change When Change is Hard: Effective Change Leadership
  May 3, 2010, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington
  Materials from Chip Heath’s presentation on new approaches to leading effective change, even when change is difficult.
• New Audiences and New Technologies: Anticipating the Future
  June 21, 2010, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington
  A presentation by Doug McLennan of ArtsJournal on how to connect authentically with your audience.
• Keeping the Fire without Burning Out:
  Strategies for Personal and Professional Renewal
  January 24, 2011, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington
  Ronnie Brooks, director of the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute, leads this workshop on personal and professional renewal as a necessary survival skill for working in a stressful and changing environment.
• Cultural Organizations as Civic Leaders
  November 2, 2012, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington
  James Kass (Youth Speaks), Chris Coleman (Portland Center Stage), Lisa Sasaki (the Oakland Museum of California) and John Michael Schert (The Trey McIntyre Project) talk about how they are changing the way that they engage with their communities and what it means to exercise civic leadership as an arts organization.
• For more on dynamic adaptability, click here.