Ideas

Ask the Industry is a direct line of advice and inspiration from organizations learning and sharing valuable lessons. We hope these insights spark new ideas at your organization.

Your organization has a mission statement, right? How about a values statement?

Values are intrinsic to your organization's day-to-day, and they shape its operations. If you don't have defined values, you're missing out on a key piece of internal culture and external connection with audiences.

The past two years have brought turmoil to us as individuals, digital marketers, and arts supporters. Our industry has faced an incredible amount of uncertainty and financial strain, while the happenings of the world around us have taken an emotional toll on our hearts. And yet, we’ve stuck to it. We’ve persevered. Why? Because we know the power of our industry. We know that the arts have the ability to change the way people see the world and their place in it, and that is undeniably worth it.

The arts help us heal from our history, even beyond the past two years. The arts help us remember the importance of connection and regain inspiration amidst the turmoil. The arts make this world a better place. So, we push—the world needs us to.

As we rebuild and reimagine the possibilities of our extraordinary sector, abundance is ripe to think big and beyond what we’ve been able to before, to disrupt the status quo, and to see new potential in our digital strategies.

Capacity Interactive (CI) created and published a list of Anti-Racism Commitments in June 2020. This public statement outlined our action plan for becoming an anti-racist organization and served as an accountability mechanism. As a part of this statement, we committed to reporting on our progress.

The Giving USA: The Annual Report on Philanthropy is “the longest-running, most comprehensive report on philanthropy in the United States.” The report on the unprecedented year that was 2020 dropped this past June, marking the halfway point of a year that many hoped would represent a full recovery. The report illustrates how the stunning events of last year impacted overall giving, and most pertinent to us, the pandemic’s influence on giving to the arts & culture sector.

A critical aspect of our work and lives that we’ve desperately missed since March 2020 is the ability to gather, physically together, around our art. As we reimagine what it means to gather following this period of isolation, we have the important opportunity to be more intentional and deliberate than we were before. What wasn’t working in the “before times” in our gatherings that we can now change? How can we be intentional about the meaning behind our gatherings and the space we want to create?

Capacity Interactive (CI) created and published a list of Anti-Racism Commitments in June 2020. This public statement outlined our action plan for becoming an anti-racist organization and served as an accountability mechanism. As a part of this statement, we committed to reporting on our progress (you can see our update from Q1 2021 here!)

In 2009, I launched Capacity Interactive (CI) to help the arts industry market in an ever-evolving new digital age. Over the past 12.5 years, we've grown from just me at my kitchen table to an incredible team of people who help arts organizations market smarter.

Throughout this time, I’ve become a big believer in embracing change. And in that spirit, I believe that leaders cannot and should not lead organizations forever.

Capacity Interactive (CI) created and published a list of Anti-Racism Commitments in June 2020. This public statement outlined our action plan for becoming an anti-racist organization and served as an accountability mechanism. As a part of this statement, we committed to reporting on our progress (you can see our update from Q4 2020 here!)

March 2020 feels like decades ago, but it was just one year ago the U.S. went into lockdown. We released a blog post to help arts marketers navigate these uncharted waters, but it was uncertain where this pandemic would lead us.

Throughout the course of a year, we saw the sheer resilience of arts administrators in the face of crisis. We pivoted to digital programming to bring art into our audiences' homes. We officially want to discard the word ‘pivot’ from our vocabulary. We explored new ways to keep our audiences engaged. But most of all, we were consistently reminded just how passionate and inventive the arts and cultural community can be.

What is the impact of the pandemic on arts marketing? Capacity Interactive conducted a survey of 53 diverse arts and cultural organizations, collecting data from FY2019 and calendar year 2020, with WolfBrown as research consultants advising on the methodology, survey design, data visualization, and analysis.

We’ve outlined key takeaways to help you understand the data, and posed key questions to help you build stronger foundations for your organization. If you like this blog post, be sure to check out this livestream recording with more insights and in-depth strategic recommendations for the months ahead.

Before you start reading, though, treat yourself to a deep breath: we are a year into this pandemic and it has had a profound impact on all of our lives. All of the data we are about to explore is inextricably tied to the loss and trauma we’ve endured to varying degrees. Give yourself some grace, snuggle a nearby furry friend if you have one, and get ready to dive into the data.