The Innovation Labs for the Arts programs concluded in 2017, but their core design principles continue to inform all of EmcArts' ongoing programming. Please read below to learn more about these programs, and click here to read a report on what we learned from designing and delivering them over the course of ten years.
Why do we need Innovation Labs for the Arts?
This is a complex time for the arts sector. The norms of the last 50 years are no longer holding up. Today's leaders recognize that passive audiences, subscription models, hierarchical leadership, and linear strategic planning can no longer solve the challenges they face. In order to navigate a changing world, arts organizations have to explore new organizational models, learn to co-create with their audiences, and bust silos within their organizations and their communities.
This is all difficult and vulnerable work - it requires letting go of old assumptions and getting comfortable with experimentation and ambiguity. Our Innovation Labs created spaces to support arts organizations as they navigate their most pressing, complex challenges, and build cultures that embrace change. Our Labs were a strategic mix of resources for organizational change and carefully sequenced financial investment: our experience is that both are needed for spurring lasting adaptive change and innovation that sticks (rather than incremental change).
To learn more about Innovation Labs, please contact Liz Dreyer, Senior Programs Manager.