Collective Action In Action

by

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields’ PR crisis has turned into full-blown stakeholder collective action. In the morning of 2/16/21, the Indianapolis Star’s Domenica Bongiovanni reported that 85 Newfields employees and board members released a public statement calling for president Charles Venabl’s resignation. One day later, that’s exactly what happened. If that weren’t enough pressure, the 2/17/2021 edition of the New York Times reported in an article by Sarah Bahr …

Read more

What Do You Want To See For The Second Half Of Shop Talk Season 1?

by

Astute readers have already written to ask why there wasn’t a new episode of Shop Talk yesterday and I forgot to mention we’re at a mid-season break. All things being equal, the second half will start back up around the second week of March and run through June, but I haven’t decided what exactly might happen over the summer. As I’m getting guests and topics lined up, there are still some …

Read more

Things That Make You Go Buh?!? “white art audience”

by

I don’t even know where to begin with this one so let’s just jump into it. The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields engaged PR crisis management mode over the weekend after a job description for a new director including a qualification that the candidate would work to attract a more diverse audience while maintaining its “traditional, core, white art audience.” It didn’t take long for that gem to get picked …

Read more

Survey: What Do You Think About Donor Cultivation Tracking Software?

by

Over the years I’ve had some fascinating conversations with development professionals on the pros and cons of donor cultivation tracking software. By and large, those I speak with either swear by them or curse them as a one-size-fits-none time suck. With the explosion of purpose-built apps, there are quite a few dedicated donor management apps, most of which offering some pretty slick cultivation tracking tools. Some are completely self-contained while others …

Read more

Have You Added Pronouns To Your Zoom Display Name (spoiler: it’s really easy)

by

Displaying your pronouns alongside your name in Zoom meetings is a great way to normalize pronoun sharing and is a positive step toward improved inclusion. Compared to other virtual meeting platforms, Zoom makes is so easy, there’s no excuse to wait. Seriously, make this your “can’t stop until this is done” task today. In order to make this as easy as possible, I published an article with step by step instructions …

Read more