Top 10 Posts of 2025
The most-read ArtsManaged Field Notes in a bumpy, grumpy year.
“…there’s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers – at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.”
–Octavia E. Butler
It has been an eventful year for the nonprofit arts, arts practitioners, and for the wider world of human endeavor. With so much change and challenge facing the people and communities we care about, it’s worth a (quick) look back to see what pulled our focus and fueled our work.
Here are the top-ten most-read ArtsManaged Field Notes from the past twelve months. May the next 12 months bring care, kindness, and creative renewal to us all.
The curious clustering of human groups
We gather together in particular and consistent numbers. How might that inform arts management practice?Two jobs of a governing board
Nonprofit governance can be strange and sprawling, making clarity a core requirement of the job.Selling the unknowable
How do you “sell” an arts experience when its value cannot be known in advance?One revenue runs through it
“Earned” and “contributed” revenue may look like different streams, but they often flow from the same source.What holds a nonprofit together?
Sometimes we learn the answer by watching them fall apart.The sneaky surprise of new arts buildings
That shiny new arts facility is full of promise and potential, but also unexpected and unrelenting expense.The mayhem vs. the moment
Some recalibrating words from the late, great Tom Stoppard.The rise and stall of the nonprofit arts
The modern arts nonprofit evolved in an ecology of growth. It’s time to evolve again.Mission calisthenics
It’s time to strengthen your nonprofit’s readiness as well as your resolve.Three factors of feeling welcome
So many hospitality frameworks focus on the welcomer, but it’s the feeling of welcome that matters most.
Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash
Source
Butler, Octavia E. “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.” Essence, 2000.