The Arts & Culture Mindset in a New Era of Crisis

The headlines are dire. The health and vibrancy of arts and cultural centers in our country have taken center stage in mainstream media coverage over the past few months.

Many amazing, talented people are out of jobs due to the struggles of many performing arts organizations across the country.

“American Theatre is Collapsing!”

“Nonprofits Struggling as Financial Setbacks Hit New York’s Performing Arts Community”

“The Entrance Fee to America’s Museums Keeps Rising!”

“Theatres are in Crisis!”

These doom loop headlines have a profound impact on people’s mental health and their ability to do their jobs. Coming out of the pandemic after years of trauma, there is a lot of hard work happening right now to right the ship, and many are having to do this with even fewer resources than they have in the past.

While panic will drive clicks to those that monetize headlines, it’s the kryptonite of smart, strategic, measured actions that drive positive impact towards the future. Yes, many organizations are having significant financial issues; many are in a crisis. After all, data shows that the habits of arts and culture patrons have changed and capitalism has no brakes. Add the impact of AI, streaming, and inflation — there are now (and always will be) real issues that require us to evolve as an industry.

But as we all know, to weather a crisis, mindset is key. And in a growth mindset mode, I’m trying to ditch the word “crisis” in exchange for the word “correction.”

A crisis pushes us on our heels, a correction shifts us to the balls of our feet.

A crisis invites panic, a correction invites strategic thinking.

A crisis connotes a doom loop out of our control, a correction gives us a vision for choice.

Whether we like it or not, the market is forcing many organizations to adopt new business models to survive. It’s scary, it’s cold, but it’s the truth we see ourselves in.

So, with that in mind, here’s my view on how we can most effectively navigate correction:

Remember the game you are playing

In Morgan Housel’s book The Psychology of Money, he frames the world of how we contextualize our personal finances with the rest of the world beautifully when he says, “It’s like we are all on the same field yet we are playing a different game.” Two very different people open a 401k, but the down stock market is a gold mine for a young investor and a trauma pit for an elder statesman on the brink of retirement. Their choices will be fundamentally different yet at face value by investing in a 401k they are playing on the same field.

In cultural organizations, we are quick to look and compare and contrast with our counterparts, but the reality is that everyone is actually playing a different game. Some are making decisions just to survive, some are making decisions to make a donor happy, and some are making decisions for the long term. Stay focused on the game you are playing and make that clear throughout the organization. Salacious headlines have a very bad tendency to take you off mission.

Don’t overreact, don’t underreact

Disruption isn’t transformation; disruption inspires transformation. I’ve heard these two words used often interchangeably, which is a recipe for organizational stress and failure. The reality is that the world has changed. The consumer, the employee, and the business model — all are likely undergoing some kind of change. For me, I believe change should be constant, and reinvention should be built into organizational processes each year indefinitely. Having a steady hand is one thing, but doing nothing thinking these changes are “only for now” is a fool’s game. Look no further than the deterioration of the subscription model in the performing arts: this model will never go back to the way it was without an innovative look at the value proposition to the patron.

At the same time, when I hear things like, “We need to throw out the old playbook,” I worry this will backfire. For better or worse, your current playbook is what the organization knows. If you throw it out, you better have a new playbook, have trained everyone on the new playbook, and have a mechanism to battle-test and evolve it. That’s a tall order if you are trying to do this quickly and under duress.

A steady, proactive curiosity with concrete steps for organizational evolution creates guardrails against the over (or under)-reaction.

Center your decisions on the patron

Author Lynn Twist beautifully captures a central truth in how we impact the world around us: “What you appreciate, appreciates.” Arts organizations often focus on communicating why the arts are important. What I feel like they aren’t as focused on is communicating why they feel the patron’s needs are important. I work in many slices of the arts and cultural communities, and I think across many facets of the industry, we’ve made remarkable, long-overdue progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion both on and off stage. We’ve also made remarkable progress in bringing many investors, donors, and money sources from a more expansive canvas. These are all good and necessary changes that make the industry stronger. Let’s keep this inclusive thinking around how we think, treat, and appreciate the patron, the people responsible for subsidizing the industry. As we know, this work has to be ongoing as we are never truly done.

Rising costs are a function of many things, some in our control and some not. We all know who’s missing from the room when cost decisions are being made: the patron. Yet, they are often the ones taking the brunt of the rising costs with a rising ticket price. This is not sustainable and is a death arrow to audience development and a further dagger to your long-term health. Handle each decision and negotiation as though the patron is in the room with you.

Diversify the table

You know the famous saying that goes, “When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” The longer we do our craft, the more prone we are to become overly reliant on what we know. We all inevitably reach for some version of the hammer we know by simply doing what we do each day with repetition. We do what we know; we master what we see. But we often don’t know what we don’t know because we all have blinders through our own lived experiences. The broader the lived experience is at the table, the fewer blind spots we will have when navigating whatever correction we are undergoing. As David Weinberger so wisely says, “The smartest person in the room is the room,” when you invest in making the room the best it can be.

Skate to where you think the puck is going to be

There’s a famous quote from hockey player Wayne Gretzky that says, “Skate to where the puck is going to be.” Nobody knows what the future will hold, but we have some good hints directionally where things might be heading. Given I work in the marketing space, I can say with confidence that I believe privacy, security, compliance, accessibility, first-party data management, and CRM innovation will be central to an effective modern marketing infrastructure in 2024 and beyond. I don’t exactly know which platforms will rise above the rest or which legislation will be passed by the government, but I feel confident enough in my client recommendations for directional investments.

The speed of change in the world of technology is unlike anything I’ve seen after over two decades in this business. In less than six months, ChatGPT became a household name, shook every major institution in this country, and opened us up to a reality that is now right in front of us — artificial intelligence is going to become a far more central part of our lives.

Whatever the market force that is hitting your organization, it’s going to force you to make uncomfortable decisions in how you do business. In this journey, I encourage you to draw inspiration from the concept of “reversible” vs. “irreversible” decision-making in driving innovation. When decisions are inherently reversible, make them fast and don’t overthink them. When decisions are irreversible, take it slow.

Carry optimism but not delusion

Morgan Housel has another saying that he typically applies to how we think about the economy but that I think is completely relevant to the state of the arts and cultural industries today: “The past wasn’t as good as you remember, the present isn’t as bad as you think, and the future will be better than you anticipate.” I find this to be such a powerful framing and grounding for navigating change. Change is hard, and it’s easy to look into the rearview mirror to remember the “good ol’ days.” It’s well-documented that it’s all too easy for us to underestimate the rate of change in the future. We are human, and we are bad predictors of the future. Remember that.

Many arts organizations are struggling. Let’s help each other, share information, and extend grace. It’s not an easy time for many.

Leadership is stressed.

Employees are stressed.

Communities are stressed.

Let’s remain focused on the future, where a “correction” doesn’t have to be a bad thing if we don’t want it to.