Metcalf Foundation
Investing in people, ideas and actions to build a just, healthy and creative society.
My work with the Metcalf Foundation as a freelancer engaged in varied capacities over the past 10+ years has been in support of their goals to nurture individual leadership and organizational innovation in the performing arts sector. Through this work, I’ve had the pleasure of engaging with an incredible collection of individuals and organizations working to transform the field through innovative approaches to revenue diversification, audience and community building, and unlocking artistic potential. I’ve also been able to expand my own thinking and research in the area of arts policy and practice within the non-profit arts and culture ecosystem in Canada through a multi-year Innovation Fellowship that resulted in the publication of a major research paper.
Supporting Organizational Innovation
Metcalf Foundation welcomed their first 3-year cohort of the Creative Strategies Incubator program (CrSI) in 2013. CrSI was a granting program designed by the Foundation to help companies explore strategies for addressing longstanding sectoral issues in meaningful new ways. A Learning Network was created to foster a culture of shared wisdom. As a Support Lead for the Learning Network, I enjoyed designing and facilitating shared learning experiences among several cohorts of the grantees in this program. They each undertook innovative projects in one of three focus areas including revenue development, audience engagement and expanding opportunities for artistic practice to reach its potential.
In 2018 the program transitioned into the current iteration called ‘Staging Change’, designed and led by EmcArts, with the support of local facilitators. This program supports organizations to develop adaptive capacity to address complex challenges. My involvement as a facilitator in the program concluded in 2019.
Critical Thinking and Research
In 2010, I became the first ever Innovation Fellow in the Performing Arts at Metcalf Foundation, investigating evolutions in artistic practice, public engagement and organizational models in the non-profit arts sector in Canada. In 2013, this multi-year research initiative resulted in the publication of a major policy paper titled Choreographing Our Future: Strategies for Supporting Next Generation Arts Practice.
More recently, I supported the work of 2020 Innovation Fellow David Maggs as a strategic advisor, animating his research inquiry in the area of art and transformation in the wake of a global pandemic through a process of critical engagement with a diverse community of research savvy arts, business and academic leaders.
His research, Art in a World After This, will be released soon…
