Your nonprofit arts organization can succeed in changing the world...and here are some that already have.
Your nonprofit arts organization can succeed in changing the world...and here are some that already have.
Business aspects, Leadership, Nonprofit organizations & charities (general)
For the third book in the SCENE CHANGE trilogy, you'll discover that there are, in fact, nonprofit arts organizations in America that fulfill their nonprofit charter by centering their community’s needs over their own. In this book, you'll discover nonprofit arts organizations that have saved people’s lives. Literally. As in, some people would be dead without their intervention. In this process, Alan Harrison studied the organizations for about a year and embedded in their operations. The result? Making your community quantifiably better can be done. It has been done. And this book will give you some ideas on how to transform your nonprofit arts organization, too.
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Wonderful! My students get sound business information from our standard textbook, but they get genuine, hard knocks wisdom from all the Scene Change books. They cut to the chase and challenge them to think practically and meaningfully. We do an exercise where they write a 'standard' Mission Statement and an 'Alan Harrison' Mission Statement - it knocks the empty, lofty rhetoric out of their statements and gets them to the heart of the matter. I also really value Alan Harrison’s no-nonsense emphasis on genuinely serving the community. ~ Elizabeth Carlin Metz, Smith V. Brand Distinguished Professor of Theatre; Chair, Department of Theatre; and Director, Program in Arts Administration, Knox College, Founding Artistic Director, Vitalist Theatre, Chicago
ALAN HARRISON IS BACK with more tough love for the nonprofit arts sector. Alan challenges all of us to be laser-focused on putting community impact first. If you’re looking for help in re-centering your organization on lifting people up through the arts, this book offers advice and case studies that will inspire you and help you get ready for the hard work ahead. Alan’s perspective on the field is an important one to consider in order to expand the base of support for the arts. ~ Hannah Granneman, Assistant Professor and Director of the Arts Administration Program, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
[From a review of SCENE CHANGE]. Many in the nonprofit arts sector will decry this manifesto as heresy, only validating its necessity. Harrison presents a radical new vision for nonprofit arts organizations in this nonfiction work. Drawing on his 30 years of experience in nonprofit theater, the author breaks down, in easy-to-understand language, the United States tax code and the ways in which nonprofit groups misconstrue their responsibilities as a 501(c)(3): “The purpose of nonprofit arts organizations is not about… the production of art, but the production of impact using the arts as tools.” Harrison also discusses the toxic influences within these organizations, including the lie of subscription revenue, glory-chasing artistic directors, and overly-pampered big-money donors. The author proposes pragmatic reforms placing focus on better outreach to the neighborhoods these organizations operate in. Better diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) integration both on the boards and staffs, along with transparency regarding both donations and pay, would increase hospitality and impact, per Harrison. He argues that fostering diverse voices would help institutions to better understand the specific issues that require a nonprofit’s help—be that aiding the houseless, combating gun violence, or raising awareness about the opioid crisis—while putting on shows that both engage and matter to the community. The author is aware that his advice will be seen as controversial and pulls no punches as he explains the problems he views as inherent to nonprofit arts organizations. Sarcastic asides are common, and Harrison has seemingly never met an analogy or metaphor that he didn’t love, but he also emphasizes the importance of data and gives specific advice. While forceful, even the harshest commentary is not presented prescriptively, and it clearly comes from a place of love for the subversive and utopian possibilities of the arts. ~ Kirkus Reviews
(From a review of SCENE CHANGE) In his brilliantly unpretentious, snarky, and hilarious style, Alan Harrison pulls no punches. He identifies and addresses elitism, defines and defuses toxicity, and provides outlines for success, including a hopeful prediction for the future. A truly gifted writer who dutifully, nay expertly combines levels of humor and compassion that seamlessly identify, and as articulately as one could ever hope, the offers of solutions to some of the challenges in the nonprofit and arts sectors, along with sharing his very own, impassioned thoughts about the flurry of inequities he sees as a citizen of the world on a daily basis, Scene Change: Why Today’s Nonprofit Arts Organizations Have to Stop Producing Art and Start Producing Impact by author Alan Harrison shares his perspectives; in layman’s terms and with a genuine diligence to never wander or shirk his prose responsibilities. This book is not only a must-read for anybody even the slightest bit interested in what he has to say, but a serious must-have for all donors, board members, and all those even vaguely attached to the non-profit performing arts. ~ Anne Carlini, Exclusive Magaine
