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Written by Stephanie Fortunato
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Monday, 19 October 2009 |
Foster sustainable cultural organizations
Nurture agile, healthy, resilient organizations able to anticipate and meet all forms of new challenges.
The city’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations anchor the local and regional creative sector, employ and present Providence artists, provide cultural and educational opportunities for citizens, and attract tourists. The thirty-eight nonprofit arts and culture organizations that responded to a 2005 economic impact study survey reported an economic impact of $111.8 million and support close to 3,000 jobs. Their aggregate attendance for events was 2.7 million; these attendees spent a total of $71.18 million, excluding the cost of event admission. (Americans for the Arts, 2007)
Ironically, cultural organizations are both successful and precarious. Nonprofit cultural organizations are critical to Providence yet many face an unprecedented crisis, as dramatically reduced funding, increased costs, and changing audience habits converge into a perfect storm that threatens their survival. Many need help with funding, board and staff development, and management assistance. Even before the recession, staffs were not well paid and worked beyond a sustainable pace. Most are undercapitalized, under-funded, and lack overall capacity. Most nonprofits entered 2009 and the growing financial emergency with no reserve capacity.
The international financial crisis is affecting virtually all nonprofits and mid-sized cultural organizations are especially vulnerable to funding cuts. Contemporary dance and experimental theatre are in jeopardy. Many are laying off staff. Funders are increasingly receiving appeals for emergency funding without the discretionary funding to respond. Some organizations are likely to fail. Nonprofits are challenged as never before. This plan should address short-term strategies to mitigate the impact of the crisis and long-term strategies to help make the sector more resilient.
Outcomes of Cultural Planning
- Information, training, and assistance will be provided to assist cultural organizations adapt to fundamentally changing immediate and long-term conditions.
- Critical cultural organizations and jobs will be preserved.
- Creative restructuring assistance will encourage resiliency and innovation, collaboration, programmatic and administrative integration, mergers, and reinvented organizational structures.
- Cultural organizations will convene regularly to share information and strategies.
- The landscape of cultural organizations, including the staff, board, volunteers, programs, donors, and audiences, will be appropriately diverse, reflecting the full socioeconomic, racial, educational, and cultural diversity of Providence.
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Creative Providence Cultural Assessment Findings Report (
Art New England Dec 09 -Jan 10
