If you’ve been reading this blog series (adapted from my workshop for ArtsCore, a program of the North Carolina Arts Council and Triangle Art Works), you know I’ve spent the last few posts talking about frameworks, tools, and mindsets to help you lead with more clarity and less overwhelm.
But I want to take a step back and talk about the moment we’re all in right now—and why leading an arts organization today feels different from when I first started out.
The Era of Big Buildings and Big Bets
When I started my career in the arts in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was a time of growth and optimism. Organizations were building—literally. Big, beautiful buildings went up all over the place. The thinking was: If you build it, they will come.
That “Field of Dreams” approach was how I was taught to think about arts management. Build the infrastructure, make great art and programs, and the audiences, donors, and success would follow.
And in many ways, it worked. We stuck with that model even through the 2008 recession, believing that growth was always the answer.
But Now—Things Feel Different
Now, post-pandemic, with uncertainty in audiences and donor patterns, I think we’ve entered what I like to call the Touch Grass Era.
In the arts, we’ve all heard “do more with less” too many times. I think we’re at a point now where that’s just not sustainable. Instead, we’re in a moment of: “Do less with less—but do it with purpose.” The culture has shifted. Between the quiet quitting and lazy girl jobs, and the fractured attention span we all have now, there is much more understanding that organizations and people who are stretched thin just need to prioritize quality over quantity. (Samantha Calatozzo Cobb discusses how this is playing out in the theater scene in Dallas.)
That doesn’t mean giving up or shrinking back. It means:
- Keep moving forward with the resources you have.
- Build trust and partnerships slowly, by listening first—just like we talked about in the last post.
- Use frameworks like the three-bucket model (Risk Management, Resource Attraction, Opportunity Development) to help you stay focused on what matters most.
- Prioritize what’s truly urgent—and let the rest go.
Your Own Talents Matter
Here’s the beautiful part: when you embrace “do less with less,” you give yourself permission to discover what you—and your team—can do with your own talents and skills. You don’t have to wait for the next big grant, the perfect building, or the most prestigious partnership to make an impact.
You can make your art. You can connect with audiences. You can make a difference with what you have right now.
Connecting Back
In this series, we’ve talked about:
- Understanding your role (Part 1)
- Sorting the urgent from the important (Part 2)
- Sharing leadership (Part 3)
- Building trust-based partnerships (Part 4)
All of those ideas are about leading in an uncertain world—about focusing your energy, lifting others up, and growing your organization sustainably, even when the path isn’t perfectly clear.
This “Touch Grass” moment is just another reminder: leadership today is less about building big, and more about building strong.
Big thanks again to the North Carolina Arts Council and Triangle Art Works for supporting ArtsCore—and to you for reading and being part of this community.
Let’s keep moving forward, together.
📖 Missed the earlier posts? Catch up here:
- Part 1: A Simple Framework to Make Sense of the ED Role
- Part 2: Why Everything Feels Urgent—and What to Do About It
- Part 3: Why Sharing Leadership Makes You Stronger
- Part 4: Stop Pitching, Start Listening—The Secret to Building Partnerships
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