Rebuilding & Reimagining: A Personal Reflection on What’s Next
By Alexandra Urbanowski, Associate Director and Director of Strategic Initiatives at SVCREATES
Did we all become futurists during the “great pause”? While isolated from each other, from our audiences, and from our work as arts creators, did we look to the future with curiosity, openness, and ideas, and attempt to predict what that future might have in store for our arts community? I‘m sure many of us took a breath and considered that the past didn’t provide the answers, or even the context, for what must come next. And now, as our arts community emerges from intensive lockdowns and health concerns created by COVID-19, we begin to think about what our work will look like on the other side. Our community (and our entire country) has witnessed the social and economic devastation of a global pandemic, the pent-up demand for a racial reckoning, the divisiveness of the 2020 presidential election, and we know our arts community will never be the same. We are reminded of the power, and even the duty, of the arts to heal, hold truth, and inspire change and yet we must consider how the infrastructure and strategies of our arts organizations can shift to meet the moment.
After “relief and recovery” comes “rebuilding” and then “reimagining”.
So now is the time for reimagining. How can our organizations adapt to new audience patterns and new community priorities, retain staff, fairly compensate artists, and understand what it means to be culturally relevant? How can we catalyze change in the arts and the cultural economy and reshape society’s understanding of artists as workers who are vital to the health of our communities?
I recently returned from the Grantmakers in the Arts national conference where funders from across the country explored new ideas for resourcing a more equitable, sustainable, and relevant arts ecosystem. While challenging, it is also reassuring to know that arts organizations around the United States are grappling with the same issues our local Santa Clara County arts organizations face. Many are questioning old models and deeply held practices and beliefs. Some of these questions are explored in NPR’s recent six-part series called The Next Stage which examines some of the ways regional theaters are shifting. They are overhauling fundraising models, reworking labor practices, rethinking subscription plans, and reconsidering the current nonprofit governance model — where theater artists must answer to a volunteer board of directors, often with little theater expertise.
In Santa Clara County, our expansive network of small arts organizations, artists, arts leaders, and cultural workers gives us a web of support to leverage each other’s experiences, wisdom, ideas, and diverse perspectives as we navigate the path to the future. I believe this web is our unique superpower.
This year and into next, SVCREATES will provide resources to strengthen the web through various roundtables and other networking opportunities. In our workshops, we will attempt to address some of the questions surrounding reimagining and we will work to weave the theme of rebuilding and reimagining into our content — whether it’s exploring board/staff communication or examining how we think about financial planning. We have also redesigned our grant programs and will be launching two new grant cycles in January 2023, designed specifically to help small and mid-sized arts organizations grapple with organizational change. Our Organizational Impact Grants will support projects aimed at building new internal capacities, and our Coaching Grants will match arts organizations and their leaders with consultants to help them think through individual challenges. Please keep your eyes out for announcements about these upcoming applications.
It is an honor and pleasure for me to work with this local arts community, and I look forward to being in “the room where it happens” as our artists and arts leaders dream big and take on the future.
Alexandra Urbanowski is the Associate Director and Director of Strategic Initiatives at SVCREATES where she directs grant programs, designs capacity building and training curriculum, and leads SVCREATES’ regional expansion and other special initiatives. She has over two decades of experience in arts administration, fundraising, and organizational development. Alexandra has provided leadership, advocacy, and strategic management for a range of community development projects and cultural advancement initiatives on both the east and west coasts. Alexandra has held leadership positions with a number of nonprofit organizations including San Jose Repertory Theatre, American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley, and New Hampshire Public Radio.
Alexandra is an alumna of Smith College and has participated in Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program. She currently serves on the boards of the School of Arts & Culture at MHP and Nonprofit Centers Network.
