Clik here to view.
Why are Innovation & Adaptive Change So Important?
During the first 50-year phase of developing a professional arts and culture sector, the primary focus was on growth and longevity—on building sizeable audiences and organizations that occupied a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Are All Organizational Challenges the Same?
Arts and cultural organizations—typically built for continuity, not for innovation—often approach adaptive change with technical solutions and wonder why they don’t work. To understand this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What is Organizational Innovation?
We arrived at our own working definition of innovation through our research and the work of our partner organizations in the field. It places innovation in the context of organizational change, and...
View ArticleVideo: Behind the Scenes at the Innovation Lab for Museums Round 2 Retreat
This past fall, three teams participating in the EmcArts Innovation Lab for Museums attended a 5-day Intensive Retreat, which was an opportunity for each team (composed of 8 to 10 staff, board,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2 Mindsets for Responding to New Ideas
Our weekly feature, The Tipster, brings you easy-to-digest tips on topics that matter to your innovative work. This Week: What mindsets can we adopt when encountering new ideas? Edward de Bono says...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Are the Arts at the Core of Educational Change?
Feet to the Fire, an environmental studies and arts program at Wesleyan University I recently attended the Innovations: Intersection of Art and Science symposium hosted by Wesleyan University, which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Aren’t More Organizations Bringing Artists into the Office?
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundations places 14 playwrights around the country in salaries positions. Image: Howlround.com “Don’t give up your day job!” No artist wants to hear this. It’s a cliché. As an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Might A Background in New Media Theory Benefit Today’s Arts Marketers?
Detroit School of Arts students take a photo by smartphone with jazz legend Marcus Belgrave after a UMS school-day performance. When I applied for the Blogging Fellowship here at ArtsFwd, I was asked...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Activity: Visualizing Challenges
Why is it helpful to visualize your challenges? Sometimes it’s hard to describe a complex challenge in words, but, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Visuals can be a departure...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Should Arts Organizations Focus on Social Bridging?
Teachers and Docents connect at the Portland Art Museum This post is an excerpt from Karina’s guest blog from this week’s Emerging Leaders Blog Salon on the Americans for the Arts ARTSblog, which...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is Big Data the Next Frontier for Innovation in the Arts?
A view of Google’s Tel Aviv office. Universally considered one of today’s most innovative companies, Google has rather unconventional offices with libraries, coffee bars and “build-your-own” desks....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Munch Club #4: What is Systems Thinking?
Systems thinking helps us identify interconnected behavioral patterns so that we can anticipate and adapt to complex challenges. At our most recent Munch Club, the EmcArts staff explored systems...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Activity: Triangles
What is systems thinking and why is it useful? Thinking in systems can help you see the big picture of organizational operations and behaviors. It is a disciplined approach to understanding the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Activity: Identifying Your Adaptive Challenges
Activity Objective To re-examine the foundational assumptions that have led your organization to success in the past, in order to see if they need to change — because they may no longer reliably...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Don’t We Give Ourselves Permission to Disconnect?
A pledge to disconnect from the National Day of Unplugging. Observing yourself In 2004, I had just become associate artistic director of terraNOVA Collective, a New York-based theater company that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who Is Responsible for Building Your Organization’s Adaptive Capacity?
It’s important to balance stability and adaptability within an organization. This is the fourth installment in the Cincinnati Chronicles, Rebecca Bromels’s reflections on her experiences with ArtsWave...
View ArticleClik here to view.
8 Organizational Features Emerging in the New Era
Our weekly feature, The Tipster, brings you easy-to-digest tips on topics that matter to your innovative work. This Week: What are 8 new organizational features emerging in the new era in the arts? In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Turning Northrop Inside-Out
Northrop’s facility on the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities campus. This is the first post from Melissa Wray and Sarah Thompson about Northrop’s experience in the Innovation Lab for the Performing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PICA’s Questions for the City
TBA:12 Festival audiences watching Big Art Group’s The People—Portland. Photo: Joseph Webb. This is the first post from Patrick Leonard about Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s experience in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Redmoon: Creating Structure for Collaboration
A view from Redmoon’s recent Spectacle Lunatique event. This is the first post from Angela Tillges about Redmoon’s experience in the Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts. We asked her to reflect on...
View Article
