Staging Change is a multi-year strategic granting initiative offered in collaboration with EmcArts — now part of CultureSource — which has a North American practice focused on innovation and adaptive learning in the arts and culture fields. At the core of the program is the practice of adaptive change, which enables organizations to test innovative responses to complex challenges. In times of rapid change in the non-profit art sector, such as fluctuating patterns of public participation, technological access to the arts, generational and demographic shifts, and new forms of resource development, the establishment of a re-imagined and potent set of organizational capacities is crucial.
The final cohort of Staging Change is concluding their last year of activities and we are no longer accepting new applications.
In the past, we have taken André Gide’s axiom that “one cannot discover new lands without first consenting to leave the shore” as a rallying cry for performing arts leaders and organizations that are in a place to choose to adapt (before circumstances compel it). Now, the entire sector is unmoored and trying to navigate complex uncharted waters. No longer is it only pioneers and early adopters that Staging Change might engage, but the wider spectrum of performing arts organizations that are struggling to make sense of current and emerging conditions – who have had the need for innovation and radical adaptation thrust upon them, like it or not. The thought patterns, sense-making, new skills, and non-traditional team work needed to begin organization-wide adaptive work are now critical to the future of the sector.
The introspective and creative environment in Staging Change, the conversations with peers and colleagues, and the time and space to think deeply about the challenges facing our organization and the sector have been invaluable.
