What’s Human Capital Got to Do, Got to Do with It?

Monday, October 19, 2:00pm – 3:15pm

Organized and moderated by Angelique Power, Program Director, Culture, The Joyce Foundation.

Presented by Joan Gray, President, Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago; David Schmitz, Managing Director, Steppenwolf Theatre Company; and Carlos Tortolero, President and CEO, National Museum of Mexican Art.

With help from GIA, a national conversation has begun about the extent to which arts organizations are undercapitalized with respect to their financial resources. But what about human capital? Human capital management perceives employees as assets worthy of investment in order to enhance the organization’s programmatic return. Corporations have long recognized that a business’s success rate is equivalent to an employee’s happiness quotient. And the happiness factor is directly related to wage equity, grooming, professional development, succession and retirement planning, and more. And yet according to the Nonprofit Finance Fund, the arts pay less attention to human capital needs than any other nonprofit sector. According to Americans for the Arts’ latest research, the arts also do a fairly grim job attracting and retaining ALAANA (African Latino Asian Arab and Native American) arts administrators. Are these two pieces interconnected? Join a lively discussion from a group of Chicago art leaders and a funder who have embarked on an at times tumultuous journey to discover if human capital and racial equity are entwined.