Change Starts at Home

Almost universally, the Cleveland interviewees cited the need to make audience development an internal, company-wide focus. It’s not just a marketing or programming thing, an administrative or artistic thing: reaching new audiences requires total organizational commitment. At Karamu House, that meant making outreach top-of-mind for everybody from “janitors to board members.” After moving to a new location, the Cleveland Play House decided to view audience development as an extension of every position. Verb Ballets implements the idea quite literally, with each company dancer assigned a personalized discount code to help recruit new audience members.

The recognition that audience engagement extends beyond the marketing department arises from changes impacting organizations across Cleveland and the nation. Numerous companies cited declining subscription sales and increasing single ticket sales. Engaging first time or sporadic buyers requires more than just a newspaper ad or brochure mailing. The solutions are still works in process, but some Cleveland companies are finding success with programming culturally relevant works, subsidizing tickets, and creating meaningful experiences beyond the artistic encounter. Acknowledging the very notion of a “work in process” is central, too, as change and positive growth require time, investment and openness to experimentation.

Get to Know Your Neighbors

While aligning audience engagement goals internally is crucial, Cleveland administrators emphasized that the old “build it and they will come” mentality is flawed. A new building, an innovative program, or simply producing at the highest artistic quality is not enough to get new people in the door. Universally, organizations talked about stepping out into the community as a means of growing audiences. For contemporary art incubator SPACES, that meant building a mobile lemonade stand that also served up company information and event invitations to passersby. DANCECleveland is bringing performances to restaurants and professional associations, and the Cleveland Orchestra established community residencies to “meet the audience on their own terms.”

In a city as diverse as Cleveland with a downtown in the midst of revitalization, organizations are saying that they want to get to know their neighbors in the most old-fashioned sense. Ticket sales aren’t necessarily the end goal anymore. For many, the goal is to empower the community to have a sense of ownership of the institution. In doing so, organizations hope to tap the potential for emotional connection and future investment. It might not be the way it was done in the past, but as the Cleveland stories show, it’s time for new approaches to be the new norm.

Above, listen to the story of the Beck Center for the Arts’s new approaches to building the audiences of tomorrow.  This is one of 12 Audio Postcards about arts organizations generating new approaches to engaging younger and more culturally diverse audiences as participants in Engaging the Future, a program of EmcArts and the Cleveland Foundation.

Beck Center for the Arts was founded in 1933 in Lakewood Ohio as a community theater, but Artistic Director, Scott Spence, says “about 13 years ago we started to modify that, realizing that if we were going to be artistically competitive we would really have to take a step away from that model.”

Their audience is typical of other theaters, say Spence, “fairly white-bread… affluent, educated.” As they entered the Engaging the Future program, the Beck Center was asking itself about how “to find out where tomorrow’s audiences are coming from.” In particular, Spence was interested in engaging younger audiences.

In considering new approaches, Spence’s philosophy was “you’ve got to look under every rock and figure out how can I make what I do better? How can I invite other people to the dance?” This kind of new thinking led to a partnership with Baldwin Wallace, a local college with an acclaimed musical theater program.

Victoria Bussert, Director of the Music Theater for Baldwin Wallace College says, “I was looking for another experience that our students could have, specifically, working off-campus” and a partnership with Beck Center was a natural fit. Together, the Beck Center and Baldwin Wallace put together a production of Spring Awakening that was staffed by the Beck Center and cast with students from Baldwin Wallace.

The resulting production was a success for both. Spece says “25% of our huge gross was from student tickets. That tells you something is working.” Bussert was thrilled to be able to offer her students a professional experience during their time on campus. “I don’t know of another collaboration that exists this way,” she says, “ between a higher academic institution and a professional theater.”

By joining forces, the Beck Center and Baldwin Wallace created an experience that was authentically meaningful to both the students and audience. Spense says, “I think we can continue to make some magic together — I’m really excited.”

Related Posts:

• Stories from Cleveland: Engaging the Audiences of Tomorrow
• Introducing Engaging the Future
• Podcast: Audience Engagement
• On Michael Kaiser and Engaging Audiences
• Postcards from New York City: 16 Creative Organizations in Action

In March, we conducted a “Quick Poll” for next generation leaders in the arts.  And now we’re back with the results!

Perhaps the most striking finding was that 80% of next generation leaders who self-reported working in highly innovative organizations see their organization as “one they’d want to move up in,” as compared to only 38% in non- or slightly innovative organizations.  With the high rate of turnover emerging as a major resources sinkhole, this points to an important possible relationship between the adaptive capacity of organizations and employee retention.

We also found that next generation leaders at highly innovative organizations were four times as likely to report seeing their ideas implemented and twice as likely to report bringing their “whole self” to work as opposed to “just a part.”  Next generation leaders at highly innovative organizations were also nearly five times more likely to report that their organization has “meaningful ways for employees to invest in themselves” than non- or slightly innovation organizations.

While this “Quick Poll” was not comprehensive enough for scientific analysis, we hope these results will add fuel to the fire that says investing in next generation leaders is essential to a culture of innovation and, ultimately, to weathering the difficult conditions facing arts organizations right now.  Read on for an explanation of our methodology and our full results.

What theory were we testing?

Our goal was to take a closer look at the role of the next generation of leaders in organizational innovation. The hypothesis we set out to test was that the degree to which an organization is innovative, i.e. seeking ways to adapt to today’s challenging conditions by testing out and evaluating innovative approaches to persistent challenges, is positively correlated with how much that organization values the contributions of next generation leaders.

What was our rationale?

We conducted this survey because we had a hunch and we wanted to test it out. Anecdotally, we see it all the time: organizations with strictly hierarchical authority structures (i.e. those who don’t value the contributions of next generation leaders) tend to be resistant to innovation and struggle to adapt, while those with distributed leadership are more nimble in navigating today’s challenges and rapid changes.  But we felt we needed some data back it up for ourselves, for next generation leaders, and for today’s executive directors, artistic directors, and supervisors.

What were our methods?

The survey, conducted online through Survey Monkey, was distributed through ArtsFwd.org, Facebook, Twitter, and word of mouth from March 5, 2012 to March 21, 2012.  We defined next generation leaders as both Millenials (born 1983 – 200) and Generation Xers (born 1963 – 1982), a definition we adopted from the study on “Next Generation Leadership” commissioned by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in 2009.  Of the 165 respondents, 2 reported being 50+ and were removed from the data set. An additional four respondents were eliminated because they indicated that they were already the executive leaders at their organizations.  Of those that remained in the data pool, age ranged from 21 to 49, years in the business ranged from 1 to 20+, and jobs ranged from Program Director to Administrative Assistant to Marketing Manager to Development Associate.

The questions we asked reflected the kind of organizational practices we’ve seen around next generation leaders in adaptive organizations.  We asked: Are your ideas implemented? Do you have the opportunity to make decisions? Are you able to bring your whole self to work?  Do you feel close to the artistic core of the organization?  We then correlated their responses with whether or not they reported that their organizations were “highly innovative,” “somewhat innovative,” “slightly innovative,” or “not at all innovative,” with further explanation of those distinctions based on our definition of innovation.  We also asked for some basic demographic and organizational information.  None of the questions were required, leading to some inconsistency in the number of responses.

What were the results?

Overwhelming, our data supported our hypothesis.  Looking at the two extremes of our data, (next generation leaders who self-reported working at highly innovative organizations (45) and those at non- or slightly innovative organizations (29)), we found that those at highly innovation organizations were:

• more than four times as likely to report seeing their ideas implemented (49% vs 11%)
• nearly twice as likely to report “having the opportunity to make decisions” (93% vs 55%)
• more than twice as likely to report bringing their “whole self” to work as opposed to “just a part” (84% vs 41%)
• twice as likely to feel “close to the artistic core of the organization.” (82% vs. 41%)

NextGens at highly innovative organizations were also nearly five times more likely to report that their organization has “meaningful ways for employees to invest in themselves” than non- or slightly innovation organizations. (67% vs 14%)

Perhaps most striking was that 80% of next gen leaders in highly innovative organizations reported seeing their organization as “one they’d want to move up in,” as compared to only 38% in non- or slightly innovative organizations.  With the high rate of turnover emerging as a major resources sinkhole, the data point to an important possible relationship between the adaptive capacity of an organization and employee retention.

Also important to note: we found no difference between respondents at organizations with budgets over $1 million as compared to less than $1 million, which suggests that the trend is not directly linked to organizational size.  There was also no difference reported between those with greater than 8 years in the field and those with less, or those older than 31 as compared to younger, suggesting that the differences are most strongly correlated with the overall adaptive capacity of the organization as opposed to other factors.

Open-Ended Questions

In response to our two open-ended questions, comments fell loosely into five categories, which include: ways of thinking, leadership, communication, organizational culture, and audiences.  A small selection of the responses are below.

Of a total of approximately 90 responses on each question, only 7 were positive, which is why you’ll see that the responses below are overwhelmingly negative.  There was no discernable pattern of response across different organization types nor the degree to which an organization is innovative.  It is possible that the way in which our question was framed elicited this tone.  Further study is needed.

I’d encourage arts leaders reading this to ask themselves ”Is this something the employees at my organization would say, and if I don’t know, what could I do to find out?”

Open-Ended Question: What do you see from your seat that your supervisors don’t see?

Ways of thinking

• Old ways of doing business are going to make us lose business, our competitive edge, and constantly waste our hard-earned contributed revenue. Implementing new technology and getting rid of hierarchical structures would help us trim the budget and be more nimble.
• A monolithic institution so set in its old ways that it isn’t capable of leading the field in the future. The work itself is forward thinking, but the process by which it is created and produced is very much antiquated and stale.

Leadership

• The artistic leadership rules from above.  They interact with artists and artistic staff daily but only with marketing and fundraising staff when something is wrong.  It does not appear that the artistic leadership knows the temperature of activity company wide and does not value the role that all departments must play in order to have a successful institution.
• A fear of taking action.

Communication

• The lack of communication between departments and because of that the closed off environment and within-the-box thinking.

• I don’t know that my supervisors really get how their employees are feeling.

Organizational Culture

• I see that the organization has a rather large identity crisis.  I’m not sure how all of the programming fits into the mission and goals but I do not have the ability to voice that.

Audiences

• I see a generation of audiences coming up that don’t believe in the singular genius of artists – these audiences see themselves as creators, participators, and engaged meaning-makers.  The age of the spectator is over.

Open–Ended Question: If your supervisor extended an open invitation to share your thoughts, what would be on the tip of your tongue?

Ways of thinking

• We need to be as open as possible to new ideas, new performers, new presentations, new audiences.
• We should look at big picture issues before embarking on a project and geting mired in details.

Leadership

• Visit staff more often.  Ask.  Listen.  Share your vision with us not through open letters in playbills, quarterly staff meetings, and letters to grant panels but with us directly, independently.  We eat lunch in the break room.  Feel free to join us and join in on the conversations.
• We want to work hard and feel committed to the work we are doing. But without any guidance, every idea can seem like a good idea. Which leaves us feeling overworked and directionless. I really believe in ideas bubbling up from the bottom, but we also need a structure in which to develop those ideas.

Communications

• I don’t think I would share what I truly think. I have had invitations to share, and have to be incredibly diplomatic.
• We need to have team building activities and open the lines of communication amongst all departments.
• Can I sit in on a meeting?

Organizational Culture

• If you are going to invest in me professionally with conferences and other educational experiences, give me the opportunity to execute what I learn.
• Let me propose a producing model through which we can simultaneously experiment with form and process, as well as meet new emerging artists AND introduce ourselves to the next generation of audiences. Just let me in the room.
• We don’t rotate roles in meetings enough. The same person always says “no” and the same tensions always arise.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be reaching out to leaders to respond to these results.  We hope you’ll join the conversation and share your thoughts.

Questions for discussion:

• Do you think the relationship between valuing emerging leaders and innovation is cause-and-effect?  Or is it chicken and egg?
• Established leaders: what do you see from your seat that emerging leaders don’t see?

“Last week, Karina Mangu-Ward from EmcArts contacted me asking if I would review their Audio Postcards featuring the audience engagement efforts of arts organizations in Cleveland. Harried though I was in preparing for the trip, I agreed to do so as soon as time allowed. I’m glad I did.

Watching those short descriptions of the work of 12 organizations helped clarify for me some of the issues I have had around the word engagement. In the recent past, I have written several times here about audience development, audience engagement, and community engagement. And at least some commenters have taken me to task about the words and phrases used.

Let’s acknowledge that many of us (most especially me) have deeply held convictions about what these words mean or, more accurately, should mean. There is also an issue about how they are understood outside of the world of professional marketers and community engagement activists. That’s a subject for another post.

Listening to EmcArts’ capsule videos helped capture for me an important distinction between audience engagement and community engagement. Simply put, the former maintains the arts organization at the center of the process. The latter puts community improvement at the center with the arts and the community as partners working toward that end. For me, audience engagement is outreach; its end result is more attendees: expanded “reach.” Community engagement is focused on developing partnerships, deep ones; its end result is trust and understanding from which expanded reach can be pursued.”

Read the full post here.

“In this month’s Social Velocity blog interview, we’re talking with Karina Mangu-Ward. Karina is the Director of Activating Innovation at EmcArts a social enterprise for innovation and adaptive change across the arts sector. She leads the strategy and development of ArtsFwd.org, an interactive online platform where arts leaders can learn from each other about the power of adaptive change and the practice of innovation. Her interest is in bringing adaptive capacity and innovation from the margins of dialogue in the arts sector to the center.

You can read past interviews in our Social Innovation Interview Series here.

Nell: ArtsFwd is about encouraging and profiling innovation in the arts. But innovation is such a loaded and overused word, what does it mean to ArtsFwd and what do you think is true innovation?

Karina: Innovation is definitely a buzzy word, so we try to be careful about how we use it. ArtsFwd is a project of EmcArts, a non-profit that works with arts organizations across the country to strengthen their adaptive capacities and advance the practice of innovation. So we’re primarily concerned with organizational innovation, which EmcArts has defined as instances of organizational change that: 1) result from a shift in underlying assumptions, 2) are discontinuous from previous practices, and 3) provide new pathways to creating public value.

So we’re not talking about creativity, which is more of an individual pursuit, or inspiration, which is about a momentary spark. The stories we tell on ArtsFwd are about organizations working to build their capacity to adapt to a rapidly shifting environment through the process of innovation, which requires a cross-functional team working together over a sustained period of time to develop, test, and optimize genuinely new approaches.”

Read the full interview here.  

Above, listen to the story Apollo’s Fire’s new approaches to building the audiences of tomorrow.  This is one of 12 Audio Postcards about arts organizations generating new approaches to engaging younger and more culturally diverse audiences in Engaging the Future, a program of EmcArts and the Cleveland Foundation.

Apollo’s Fire is a period instrument ensemble that recreates the experience of Baroque-era music in intimate concerts. The music was originally performed “in the presence of royalty,” says Board President Kemp Smith and tends to attract an older audience. “There are a lot of gray hairs,” Kemp reports.

The ensemble is popular with audiences and regularly sells out mid-sized church venues, which are ideal for creating the Apollo’s Fire experience. But selling out can also make growth a challenge. Adding to the challenge is that the ensemble’s musicians fly in from around the country for each performance, making it difficult to cultivate new audiences through an education program.

As a result, Paul Jarrett, Managing Director, says he’s looking for innovative new ways to grow. “Historically we’ve thought of ourselves as a Northeast-Ohio-based organization,” Jarret says, “and it’s really only been recently that we have begun to explore the potential for geographic expansion.”

According to Jarrett, Apollo’s Fire is at a crossroads. “We are trying some new venues this year that we have not been in before. And it’s not just a new venue but then it’s a different community. “ And every venue they visit, Jarret says, is another opportunity to establish “a more permanent presence in another geographical location.”

Unlike some of the other groups participating in the Engaging the Future program, their new strategies are not focused on a typical young and diverse audience. “The demographics we have currently are what we would expect for what we do,” says Jarret. “I think there’s a stereotypical image of what a younger audience looks like, but for Apollo’s Fire that might be building our 35-55-year-old demographic.”

In terms of cultural diversity, their outlook is practical. Kemp Smith, Board President, says “I’m not sure that any of these initiatives lead to a younger audience. Performing dead white composers is going to appeal, almost necessarily to the same kind of an audience.”

Their goal is world-class performance and an authentic period music experience. The difference, according to Smith, “is that [today] you don’t have to be royalty” to enjoy it.

Related Posts

• Stories from Cleveland: Engaging the Audiences of Tomorrow
• Introducing Engaging the Future
• Podcast: Audience Engagement
• On Michael Kaiser and Engaging Audiences
• Postcards from New York City: 16 Creative Organizations in Action

Above, listen to the story of the Cleveland Play House’s new approaches to building the audiences of tomorrow.  This is one of 12 Audio Postcards about arts organizations generating new approaches to engaging younger and more culturally diverse audiences as participants in Engaging the Future, a program of EmcArts and the Cleveland Foundation.

Founded in 1915, the Cleveland Play House was America’s first regional theater.  In selecting a season, Associate Artistic Director Laura Kepley, says, “We look for plays that are contemporary in style and substance, that resonate with our community.”

After 86 years in another location, in the fall of 2011, the Play House moved to Playhouse Square in the heart of downtown Cleveland.  The move was motivated, in part, by wanting to connect with younger and more diverse audiences – the audiences of tomorrow.  Kepley says,

“Cleveland Play House is in the middle of a huge transformation, so that we can be in a place that is sustainable.”

According Corey Atkins, Artistic Associate, “The thing that’s been exciting about down here is that were seeing a much more multi-generational audience.”  The move was a joint partnership between Cleveland State University and Playhouse Square, so the new location is one block from Cleveland State University’s main campus, and according to Atkins “We’ve also seen a really great uptick in the number of people who work here downtown, who will end their workday, go grab a drink, and come see a show.”

In light of these changing conditions, one of their adaptive challenges has been to rethink their relationship to subscribers. Since the move, Kepley says, “While we continue to have subscribers that number dropped off a little bit, but we have doubled our single ticket sales.  So that’s really exciting for us, but that also presents new questions.”  This led the Play House to question their old way of doing things.  As a result, she’s asking, “How do we engage these people who may not be signing on for a whole season of work but who may just be coming to one or two titles that appeal to them?”

One of the responses they’ve tested out is the Show Plus program, which is a “series that targets certain populations — students, young Clevelanders in their 20s and 30s, and then the LGBT community and allies” by offering “a pre-show party and an after-party, and oftentimes a chance to Q&A with the actors as well.”  So far, the results have been encouraging.  “We’ve been really pleased at the diversity of backgrounds, of races, of gender, that have attended,” says Atkins.

Beyond new strategies, the team at the Cleveland Play House is also exploring ways of changing their underlying culture.  Kepley says,

“One of the things that we’re doing differently, and it’s really exciting, is that we have organization-wide started thinking about engagement.  It’s not just one person’s job, it’s not just one department’s job, it’s everybody’s job.”

The result of the move and this new way of thinking has been transformative.  Kepley says “There’s a saying that when you pack, you don’t want to take anything that’s not working.  So in this transformation, we’re not bringing the things that don’t work or the things that no longer work.”

Related posts:

• Stories from Cleveland: Engaging the Audiences of Tomorrow
• Introducing Engaging the Future
• Podcast: Audience Engagement
• On Michael Kaiser and Engaging Audiences
• Postcards from New York City: 16 Creative Organizations in Action

The Cleveland Foundation has partnered with EmcArts through the Engaging the Future program to work with 12 Cleveland cultural institutions that range from the Museum of Contemporary Art to Karamu House as they generate innovative approaches for engaging younger and more diverse audiences.

Too often, ground-breaking strategies and advances remain isolated within individual organizations, unknown by the wider arts field. It is part of EmcArts’ vision to move the dialogue around innovation from the margins to the center of our discourse in the arts. This partnership provides a unique opportunity to share with you fresh thinking and courageous experimentation these 12 organizations are working on in order to address the challenge of change.

To explore their journeys so far, we’ve created 12 short audio postcards about their starting conditions and current priorities, featuring images from each group with audio narration. Stay tuned for updates on ArtsFwd.org as the stories evolve.

We hope you’ll watch and share your reactions.  Are you facing the same challenges in your city?  What trends do you see emerging?  What new strategy might you try in your organization?

Watch all 12 audio postcards

The 12 organizations are:

Apollo’s Fire
To grow their audience, a world-class period instrument ensemble explores opportunities to expand their reach beyond Northeastern Ohio.

Beck Center for the Arts
To engage a younger demographic onstage and off, an 80-year old arts organization partners with a local musical theater college.

The Cleveland Orchestra
To engage today’s audiences on their own terns, a 90-year old orchestra introduces a diverse slate of new offerings that upend business as usual.

Cleveland Play House
To build on the momentum of their relocation to a new neighborhood, America’s first regional theater redefines engagement as every staffer’s role.

Cleveland Public Theatre
To ethnically and racially diversify their audiences, an adventurous theater rethinks the role of neighborhood residents in the creation of new work.

DANCECleveland
To cultivate the next generation of dance lovers, the US’s third oldest dance presenter questions their assumptions about single ticket buyers.

Great Lakes Theater
To engage more young arts participants, a classic theater develops new strategies to turn their venues into an inviting social space.

GroundWorks DanceTheater
To invite broader engagement with their work, an enterprising dance ensemble explores new channels for extending the artistic experience beyond the performance.

Karamu House
To reach untapped audiences, an African American cultural center considers new strategies to leverage their upcoming 100-year anniversary celebration.

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
To sustain audiences upon moving to a larger venue, a contemporary art museum investigates ways to motivate repeat visits by offering unexpected on-site experiences.

SPACES
To cultivate new audiences for their contemporary art offerings, an experimental venue tests out playful new strategies to entice potential audiences.

Verb Ballets
To expand audience awareness and engagement, a contemporary dance company explores new approaches to personalizing their outreach.

Related Posts:

• Postcards from New York City: 16 Creative Organizations in Action
• Introducing Engaging the Future
• Doug Borwick on Community vs. Audience Engagement

David Shimotakahara has been a member of the Atlanta Ballet, Boston Repertory Ballet, Kathryn Posin Dance Company, and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. He performed with Ohio Ballet under the direction of Heinz Poll from 1983-1999. He also served as Rehearsal Assistant for Ohio Ballet from 1989-1999. From 1989-1997, Mr. Shimotakahara founded and was Director of New Steps. This acclaimed dance project offered a variety of programs that stimulated the creation and growth of new choreography in Northeast Ohio. Mr. Shimotakahara has choreographed for opera and theater with the Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival and the Dallas Theater Center. He served on the Carlisle Project advisory panel in 1996, and dance panels for the Ohio Arts Council, Illinois Arts Council, the Mid Atlantic Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts. He has received 6 consecutive Individual Artist Fellowships for Choreography from the Ohio Arts Council from 1996 to 2007. In 1998, he received a McKnight Foundation Fellowship from the Minnesota Dance Alliance to create new work in the Minneapolis, St. Paul communities. Mr. Shimotakahara was awarded the 2000 Cleveland Arts Prize for Dance. In 2002 his work with GroundWorks Dancetheater was recently voted “One of 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. In 2007, he received the OhioDance award for Outstanding Contributions to the Advancement of the Dance Artform. Mr. Shimotakahara was a 2008 recipient of the first COSE Arts and Business Innovation awards as the founder of GroundWorks DanceTheater.

Charles Fee holds a unique position in the American theater as producing artistic director of three independently operated, professional theater companies: Great Lakes Theater in Cleveland, Ohio (since 2002), Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise, Idaho (since 1991) and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival in Lake Tahoe, Nevada (since 2010). His appointments have resulted in a dynamic and groundbreaking producing model for the companies, in which 37 productions have been shared since 2002. In addition to his work with the companies in Ohio, Idaho and Nevada, Charles is active within the community. He has served as a member of the strategic planning committee for the Morrison Center, as producer of the FUNDSY Award Gala (’96, ’98 and 2000), and as producer of the 1996 Idaho Governor’s Awards in the Arts. Charles has served on the board of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Downtown Rotary Club. He received his B.A. from the University of the Pacific and master of fine arts from the University of California, San Diego.

The deadline to apply for the Innovation Lab for Museums is fast approaching. Proposals are due Monday, May 14, 2012. Download the RFP here.

If you have questions about the application process or would like someone at EmcArts to review your draft application, here’s how:

• IN-PERSON CONSULTING: Liz Dreyer, Manager of National Programs, and Richard Evans, President, will be conducting in-person application clinics and answering questions at the American Association of Museums Annual Conference on April 30th and May 1st. If you would like feedback on your draft application, you must submit it by Friday April 27th. Email Liz at ldreyer@emcarts.org to schedule an appointment and to submit your draft. Slots are filling fast.
• BY PHONE: Melissa Dibble, Managing Director, will be conducting 30-minute phone consultations through next Friday May 4th. If you would like Melissa to give you feedback on your draft application, you must submit it by Tuesday May 1st. Email Liz at ldreyer@emcarts.org to set up your appointment and submit your draft.
• ONLINE RESOURCES: For more on the Innovation Lab for Museums, you can read Highlights from Round 1 Applications, download summaries of Round 1 selected projects, finalists, and 11 other applications, read the Center for the Future of Museum’s blog post about Tips for a Successful Application.

Happy applying!

Related Posts:

• Highlights from Round 1 Applications to the Innovation Lab for Museums
• Now Accepting Proposals: Round 2 of the Innovation Lab for Museums
• Innovation Lab for Museums Tips for a Successful Application