Stabilizing Community-Based Arts Institutions

Session Designers: Elizabeth Feldman Brandt, Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation and Claudine K. Brown, Nathan Cummings Foundation
Panelists: Elizabeth Feldman Brandt, Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation; Claudine K. Brown, Nathan Cummings Foundation; Mark Stern, University of Pennsylvania

Community-based arts organizations often exist in environments that are inherently unstable. How have funders traditionally defined stabilization, and are those definitions appropriate to community-based institutions? This session will investigate management structures, skill sets, planning strategies, and technical assistance that enable these institutions to function as flexible, resilient entities that can respond appropriately to change. Research on the characteristics of community-based organizations in relationship to their communities will form the basis for establishing reasonable growth and stabilization expectations for these often fragile institutions.

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