Arts Funders Forum Virtual Charrette Series #2: Next Gen Arts Funding

AFF Remake the Model #2 speakers (clockwise from top left): AFF Director, Melissa Cowley Wolf; AFF Co-founder, Sean McManus; Larry Milstein Co-founder, PRZM; guest host, Sarah Arison, President of Arison Arts Foundation and Board Chair of the National YoungArts Foundation; Victoria Rogers, creative business strategist; Jaimie Mayer, Chair of the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Thank you to the 300+ members of the Arts Funders Forum (AFF) community who joined the second virtual charrette in the Remake the Model series — how a new generation of art funders is remaking models of cultural philanthropy. Thanks to our guest host, Sarah Arison the President of Arison Arts Foundation and Board Chair of the National YoungArts Foundation, Jaimie Mayer Chair of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Larry Milstein Co-founder of PRZM, and Victoria Rogers, creative business strategist.

The full discussion is available on YouTube here.

We at AFF are calling this series a charrette because by definition, a charrette “aims to resolve problems and map solutions.” Our aim is a series of white board sessions, where the community develops actual solutions to the challenges facing us right now, and determines how we can best implement those solutions. As AFF co-founder Sean McManus said, “Many of the trends that were underway before the pandemic have now taken on extreme urgency, and we must work collectively to reinvent the models for arts philanthropy that will enable the cultural sector to radically reinvent itself and come out even stronger on the other side.”

AFF is designing the series to address a number of the urgent issues facing the sector, including: ethical philanthropy, the arts and social justice, assessing impact, and driving meaningful partnerships. Please stay tuned for announcements about the next charrette in the series.

Here are six solution-oriented takeaways from the May 13 event: 

1. Artists and cultural institutions need to embrace technology.  
TikTok, AR/VR, Zoom and beyond...arts organizations should embrace leading tech platforms as a way to engage new audiences and monetize content and cultural experiences. This requires reimagining traditional notions of artistic spaces. 

2. Millennials and Gen Z audiences engage with organizations that speak to their core values. 
To connect with the next generation of funders, institutions need to clearly define and communicate their social impact. Young philanthropists want opportunities to uplift communities and amplify solutions to global challenges.

3. Anyone can be a patron of the arts.
Creating new opportunities for a rising generation of funders to experience cultural philanthropy—without requiring mega donations—is long-term thinking. But it requires understanding changing mindsets and creating high-impact experiences.

4. ⁣Supporting artists is an imperative. 
Art is embedded in everything we do. There would be no Netflix without artists and storytellers, and where would we be without Netflix during a quarantine? As the current crisis makes artists increasingly vulnerable, donors at every level should find ways to support the future of the arts.  

5. The cultural community must advance new narratives to express value.
Artists and cultural institutions have a unique opportunity during this crisis to shape new narratives about the role of the arts in society, and to position the arts as a way to heal and recover. Highlighting this intrinsic value will underscore to new and existing donors the importance of their contributions. 

6. This is the time to experiment with new partnership models. 
The COVID-19 Artist Relief Fund is an example of how quickly new models can emerge when there is collective will and innovative leadership. Now is the time to look to trusted partners, longtime collaborators, unexpected places. As the arts more closely aligns with social impact, new opportunities will emerge to expand conventional partnership models.