Latest / Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt / CI to Eye | Purpose-Driven Leadership in Uncertain Times

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CI to Eye | Purpose-Driven Leadership in Uncertain Times · Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt

• 0:08
  Hello, friends! Dan here. Can you believe we're nearing the end of 2024?
• 0:13
  Cue the confetti... and maybe a deep, collective breath.
• 0:16
  If you're anything like me,
• 0:17
  this time of year is equal parts excitement and chaos. Deadlines are looming,
• 0:20
  holiday campaigns are buzzing,
• 0:22
  and it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.
• 0:24
  Today's episode is all about taking a beat to reconnect with our why.
• 0:28
  And to do that,
• 0:29
  we are revisiting one of the most energizing moments of the year:
• 0:32
  Capacity Interactive's Boot Camp. This October,
• 0:35
  nearly 400 arts marketers gathered in New York City --
• 0:38
  and even more joined us online -- for two glorious days of inspiration,
• 0:42
  collaboration, and more caffeine than any of us should probably admit.
• 0:46
  In this episode,
• 0:47
  we are releasing one of our most popular Boot Camp sessions featuring CI's
• 0:51
  President Priya Iyer Doshi and Terri Freeman, president of the Reginald F.
• 0:55
  Lewis Museum. They talk about purpose-driven leadership, resilience,
• 1:00
  and how to navigate uncertain times with a clear vision.
• 1:03
  It's a timely conversation and a powerful reminder of the importance of our
• 1:06
  work. And because I couldn't resist,
• 1:09
  I also played roving reporter on the Boot Camp floor,
• 1:11
  asking arts administrators about their year in review.
• 1:14
  They shared their excitements, challenges,
• 1:16
  and what's keeping them inspired as we roll into 2025.
• 1:20
  Their answers might just give you that little spark you've been looking for.
• 1:22
  So grab a cup of something warm -- coffee, cocoa,
• 1:25
  maybe a festive peppermint latte -- and let's dive in, shall we?
• 1:34
  Welcome back to our Boot Camp stage. You've been here before.
• 1:38
  I have. I have.
• 1:39
  It's so nice to have you back.
• 1:40
  Thanks for inviting me back.
• 1:42
  Very excited to talk to you today.
• 1:44
  So let's start by just sharing a little bit about your journey and
• 1:49
  your sort of journey through your arts career thus far.
• 1:52
  So let me introduce myself. I'm Terri Freeman.
• 1:55
  I am a Black woman who is a boomer --
• 2:00
  probably the only one in the room.
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  I have on dark blue jeans,
• 2:08
  a white shirt, and a brown suede-ish jacket.
• 2:12
  And I'm so happy to be here. I am president of the Reginald F.
• 2:17
  Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.
• 2:21
  I've served in that capacity for the past almost four
• 2:25
  years. Prior to that,
• 2:27
  I was president of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis,
• 2:31
  Tennessee at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr.
• 2:35
  was assassinated.
• 2:37
  So my tenure in the arts and
• 2:42
  culture community has only been about 10 years,
• 2:45
  but prior to that I worked in philanthropy for way
• 2:50
  too long. So that really is my background.
• 2:55
  But before we get into the hard questions, I just have to give a shout out.
• 3:01
  I heard us talk about the Jonas Brothers, so I know who they are,
• 3:06
  but okay. I heard us talk about the Gilmore Girls, and I'm like,
• 3:10
  "Never seen the show ever in my life." I heard us talk about Taylor Swift.
• 3:15
  I do know who Taylor Swift is.
• 3:18
  But whoever is doing the music in between the breaks...
• 3:23
  That is Sana. Where is she?
• 3:27
  There she is.
• 3:29
  Where are you?
• 3:29
  Sana Colter, right there.
• 3:29
  Girl!
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  Stand up!
• 3:37
  From the one boomer in the room: Thank you for the old Black people music.
• 3:41
  I appreciate it.
• 3:43
  And Frankie Beverly just did me proud just on that last break,
• 3:46
  so thank you very much.
• 3:51
  Okay. I don't really know how to transition from that to this conversation,
• 3:55
  but I'm going to try. Okay.
• 3:57
  So you have spent time over the past nearly 30 decades in
• 4:02
  --
• 4:02
  No, 30 years.
• 4:03
  Sorry, 30 decades. Oh my gosh.
• 4:06
  I'm old, but not quite that old.
• 4:07
  30 Years! Can you imagine? 30 decades. 30 years.
• 4:11
  See, you need that for this last session. That's the key.
• 4:15
  30 Decades. Wow. Okay. So 30 years.
• 4:20
  And you have led through many crises during that time.
• 4:24
  We actually have a slide to illustrate some of the things that have
• 4:29
  happened over the past 30 years.
• 4:31
  And of course these are more societal things that were happening,
• 4:35
  but there were also things happening in your personal life that you were
• 4:37
  managing. So I'm just curious, one,
• 4:40
  how does it feel to look at the volume that you see on that screen?
• 4:44
  So
• 4:46
  it really is daunting to look at this,
• 4:50
  and I mean,
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  I know a bunch of you all don't even know that 1992 existed,
• 4:56
  but it did.
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  But when I look at the breadth of
• 5:03
  unfortunate instances that have occurred in our country and trying
• 5:08
  to lead at the same time as these things were happening and trying to
• 5:13
  maintain my own personal sanity and mental health while
• 5:18
  trying to help other people do the job that they needed to do,
• 5:22
  it is daunting. At the same time, unfortunately,
• 5:27
  I know what we see at 2020 won't be the last thing that we have to manage
• 5:31
  through.
• 5:32
  And so we have to be able to move forward through
• 5:38
  really difficult times and help our
• 5:42
  communities move through that because they depend on the work that
• 5:47
  we do as outlets in many ways.
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  So we have to deal with how we are dealing with it,
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  and then we have to help other people try to deal with it.
• 6:00
  And for you on top of these things,
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  speaking about just your own personal crises that layered on top of that,
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  and what that did to what was also happening around in the world?
• 6:12
  So this spans quite some time,
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  but in particular,
• 6:19
  2020 was a tough year for all of us.
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  Everybody had a difficult time in 2020, and for me,
• 6:28
  it was particularly difficult.
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  I was in a bad car accident at the beginning of 2020
• 6:34
  that prevented me from walking for 12 weeks,
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  and it happened in January.
• 6:40
  So 12 weeks after January 15th was March 15th.
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  I went back to work,
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  closed the museum down in a couple of days after I got back to work,
• 6:50
  and started doing the whole remote thing. My mother got ill,
• 6:55
  she ended up passing in the August of that year.
• 6:58
  And at that point I decided that it was important to make a transition back to
• 7:03
  -- at that time I was in Memphis --
• 7:06
  make the transition back to Maryland because my husband was in two
• 7:10
  locations. He was in Maryland and he was in Memphis,
• 7:14
  but he spent more time in Maryland. So I decided to go back and I was
• 7:19
  blessed enough to get the position at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum.
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  But unfortunately a year after being in that role,
• 7:30
  my husband passed suddenly and unexpectedly.
• 7:33
  So in 18 months I had some really significant
• 7:38
  loss. And I'm an only child,
• 7:39
  so losing my mom and then losing my husband...
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  My mom was expected. She had lung cancer. My husband actually died from Covid,
• 7:48
  but it was a blood clot that took him. So we did not expect that,
• 7:53
  and it was tough. But
• 7:57
  interestingly for me,
• 7:59
  my work became what helped me move past that
• 8:03
  grief and to just continue to contribute.
• 8:08
  And of course there were all these other things that were happening in 2020:
• 8:12
  the George Floyd and the Breonna Taylor and all of these other things that
• 8:17
  were going on.
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  And I was working at an organization that was seen as the moral
• 8:22
  compass for the country in a lot of ways,
• 8:25
  at the National Civil Rights Museum. King was killed there.
• 8:29
  So he was what was represented by that space.
• 8:34
  So even though I could only walk on one leg after the
• 8:39
  George Floyd situation occurred,
• 8:41
  I had to make my way back down to the courtyard there because I
• 8:46
  knew that the community would be coming to that space
• 8:51
  looking for some peace, looking for some solution,
• 8:55
  asking -- frankly --
• 8:57
  the ancestors to help make some sense out of what was going on in our
• 9:02
  country at that time. So there were these two things that were going on,
• 9:06
  the personal and the professional. But I think that that's what leaders do.
• 9:11
  That's what you do. You work through it.
• 9:13
  And I know we'll talk about how important it is for
• 9:18
  leaders to
• 9:21
  maintain their self-care because yeah,
• 9:24
  we can push through it and we can kill ourselves in the process.
• 9:28
  So we have to make sure that we're taking care of ourselves at the same time.
• 9:31
  Yeah.
• 9:33
  One thing I really admire about your leadership in just conversations we've had
• 9:38
  and our work together on the board, you always have this,
• 9:43
  your why is always so clear. Your sense of purpose is always really clear.
• 9:48
  And so I'm curious when I say something like purpose-driven
• 9:52
  leadership to you, what does that actually mean to you?
• 9:55
  Well, for me,
• 9:56
  purpose-driven leadership is bigger than the mission of the organization.
• 10:01
  It is what can I do with that mission that is beneficial to
• 10:06
  the masses, right? Because ultimately,
• 10:09
  all of our organizations and institutions
• 10:14
  rely on the community. We have to do this for the community.
• 10:17
  We're not just doing it for the benefit of the organization, just generally.
• 10:23
  For me, it's always about, okay,
• 10:26
  what is the broader need that this organization
• 10:31
  can bring to the community that in meeting their
• 10:35
  needs will support my organization?
• 10:39
  So it's always, for me, bigger.
• 10:41
  There may be things that could be lucrative
• 10:46
  for the institution,
• 10:48
  but they may not be beneficial to the community.
• 10:52
  And so I am always looking at how
• 10:56
  I can make sure that what we are presenting to the community is
• 11:01
  beneficial.
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  So can I give an example? Next week we're opening an exhibit
• 11:07
  on the lynching history in the state of Maryland.
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  And that's tough history,
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  but there's no way you can make it not tough. I mean,
• 11:16
  you can't talk about lynching and have flowers and bunnies running around.
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  And as an African American museum,
• 11:25
  I have to be very careful to not traumatize a community that has already lived
• 11:30
  through a lot of trauma.
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  And I have to also make everyone aware that
• 11:37
  those who were at the bottom of the tree were actually having
• 11:42
  kind of a party-like atmosphere,
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  and often were allowed to do that because of the legal system that was in
• 11:49
  place. So to be able to balance all those messages,
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  not make certain people feel bad, but they need to be aware,
• 11:58
  and then not re-traumatize folks who frankly are still often
• 12:02
  lynched in their communities,
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  but make sure I'm getting this information and this history out to them is a
• 12:10
  real balancing act.
• 12:12
  And I do think that we've done that in this exhibit.
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  So I'll be interested in hearing how people respond to it.
• 12:19
  But that's what I mean. I could have just put up there lots of pictures of,
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  I've been to museums that actually have a noose at the
• 12:28
  ceiling and things like that. That's not helpful, to me, for anyone.
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  I think it's more about explaining what this is
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  and how this happened. And so I want to make sure that
• 12:44
  the purpose is around what I can do for the community.
• 12:48
  Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious.
• 12:51
  So you said that exhibition has already opened, or...?
• 12:53
  It opens next week.
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  And some other things are happening a couple weeks from now.
• 12:58
  Everything's happening.
• 13:00
  It's been the busiest season ever, but unfortunately we are --
• 13:07
  we're hosting a watch party for the election.
• 13:10
  Oh, you are doing that. When we last talked,
• 13:14
  it wasn't confirmed.
• 13:16
  Well, it hasn't been confirmed whether or not I will be there, but it's okay.
• 13:22
  They are hosting a watch party. And even in that,
• 13:27
  we're nonpartisan. We receive some funding from the state of Maryland.
• 13:32
  So we have to be nonpartisan.
• 13:36
  We have to open the doors to everyone who comes in the museum.
• 13:41
  And again, it's a balancing act on, okay,
• 13:46
  how do we want to handle this? I don't want to handle it at all,
• 13:50
  but the decision has been made that we would go ahead and have this watch
• 13:55
  party. And then next year we're planning for our 20th anniversary.
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  And so that's a big deal because lots of people didn't think our museum would
• 14:03
  last 20 years.
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  And so I'm kind of ready to rub it in people's faces that
• 14:11
  it's still here.
• 14:16
  And in that work, we'll spend a lot of time talking about our namesake,
• 14:20
  Reginald F. Lewis,
• 14:21
  who was the first African American to do a billion dollar buyout deal on
• 14:26
  Wall Street back in the 1980s, I believe it was.
• 14:30
  And too few people know who he was, and he's from Baltimore.
• 14:34
  So we'll talk a lot about black entrepreneurship, black wealth,
• 14:37
  that sort of thing. But again, that conversation,
• 14:42
  even in a community like Baltimore where you have a significant number of people
• 14:46
  who are impoverished,
• 14:49
  is a tricky one. And I want to make sure that it's beneficial to
• 14:54
  the community, not just to those folks, frankly,
• 14:57
  who already have wealth. That's not my interest.
• 15:01
  My interest is in helping the people who need the information the
• 15:06
  most be able to use it.
• 15:10
  In going back to the watch party, just because you and I,
• 15:13
  we had talked about that a little bit before, and
• 15:17
  you had mentioned to me that in this sort of conflict of whether or not to do it
• 15:22
  and how to navigate that situation,
• 15:27
  you felt like it was something that the community needed.
• 15:29
  It was something that they had, had they asked for it?
• 15:33
  Is that how it came about?
• 15:35
  Yes, they did. They asked for it, and
• 15:43
  it's just so fraught. That evening will be so fraught.
• 15:49
  But they asked for it.
• 15:51
  And I understand that there are people who need to be around other people in
• 15:55
  that instance,
• 15:56
  but then I know that there are people like me who need to be able to back off of
• 16:00
  people. And so what I've said to the staff is:
• 16:04
  we'll have the necessary bodies in place to be able to
• 16:09
  make sure that we can do what we need to do,
• 16:11
  but those people who really don't feel like they can do it,
• 16:16
  let's pull back. It reminds me of when I was working through
• 16:22
  9/11 in Washington D.C. Of course,
• 16:26
  the Pentagon was hit. And so we created this huge fund.
• 16:30
  I was at the Community Foundation, then leading the Community Foundation,
• 16:35
  and we created this huge fund to support folks who were
• 16:40
  affected by 9/11.
• 16:43
  And we were getting in all these contributions from all over the country.
• 16:47
  Envelopes. And then there was this thing,
• 16:50
  and I don't know how many people in the audience remember this,
• 16:52
  but there was this anthrax scare that happened in Washington D.C., right?
• 16:57
  And so anthrax was this white powder that could kill you if you looked at
• 17:02
  it.
• 17:07
  And they were saying,
• 17:09
  if you don't recognize the handwriting and it's from a different place than
• 17:14
  usual, don't open the envelope.
• 17:17
  And there we are with literally post office bins full of envelopes
• 17:22
  from strange people in strange places.
• 17:25
  And I was like, okay,
• 17:29
  we got to open these envelopes. But what I said to the staff was,
• 17:33
  if you don't feel comfortable, don't worry about it.
• 17:37
  We'll get 'em opened if you don't feel comfortable.
• 17:40
  So this whole idea of leading through all of these difficulties
• 17:45
  and balancing and doing things that are --
• 17:47
  because the staff are a part of the community --
• 17:52
  meeting the needs of the community is really important.
• 17:56
  Yeah.
• 17:57
  I want to talk about people because you have already talked a lot about
• 18:01
  people, and I know from what I know about you,
• 18:06
  you feel like you're nothing without your people and those people being the
• 18:09
  people that you work with, those people being the community that you serve.
• 18:14
  Can you talk about how through all these crises that you've led
• 18:18
  through, what does it look like to lead empathetically through that?
• 18:24
  How do you put empathy and compassion in times of hardship,
• 18:27
  in times of uncertainty,
• 18:28
  where us as human beings are really struggling to just
• 18:33
  exist, let alone work? How do you do that?
• 18:36
  Well, I think we have to be in tune with the people who work for us.
• 18:41
  I think we have to be able to really
• 18:46
  be able to discern the cues that people give us about how they are where they
• 18:51
  are, especially when you're doing work that may be difficult or
• 18:56
  may be politically charged, meaning -- I don't mean political with a big P,
• 19:02
  I mean political with a small P.
• 19:03
  It may be based on what's going on in the community.
• 19:08
  We've had some conversations in my office about what's happening in the Middle
• 19:12
  East. That's a tough conversation. There are people on both sides of this,
• 19:16
  and then there are people on --
• 19:19
  one individual who may be on both sides because we just want human beings to do
• 19:23
  well. We want people to be safe.
• 19:26
  We want people to be whole.
• 19:30
  Sometimes you have to be able to tell that people are
• 19:35
  only able to do so much,
• 19:37
  and you have to put in some relief valves for people.
• 19:43
  That may mean creating a work environment that has
• 19:47
  spaces within the work environment where people can just chill.
• 19:52
  They can just go someplace.
• 19:54
  And because sometimes you need to get away from your coworkers too.
• 19:58
  So sometimes you just need a place to go chill someplace where you can think,
• 20:01
  it's quiet, you can put your EarPods in and you can do what you have to do.
• 20:07
  Sometimes it's actually creating opportunities for people to have
• 20:12
  discussion.
• 20:13
  Sometimes in the September 11th situation,
• 20:17
  it was actually calling in seated massage and
• 20:21
  aromatherapy to help people just get through their day
• 20:26
  because they wanted to be there to help other people,
• 20:30
  but they themselves needed help.
• 20:32
  So I also think that it's really important
• 20:37
  to understand your people from a personal perspective,
• 20:41
  because life happens. And everybody who walks into the
• 20:45
  office brings with them a whole lot of tapes.
• 20:49
  We never know how that tape may kind of pan out.
• 20:54
  Let me give a real recent example. We haven't even had this conversation.
• 20:59
  So I'm in the office last week and I walked past one of my staff's desk
• 21:04
  and literally, she's sobbing. I mean, just sobbing.
• 21:08
  And she has an office, but it's glass. And I'm like,
• 21:12
  oh my gosh, I'm going to have to go in here and talk to this girl
• 21:18
  because I really don't want to know,
• 21:20
  but I don't want her to sit there and just bawl her eyes out
• 21:25
  either.
• 21:25
  And so I go into her office and I ask the dumbest question
• 21:30
  ever: Are you okay? Well,
• 21:35
  obviously she wasn't okay. And she's like,
• 21:40
  no. I said, I tell you what,
• 21:43
  I don't really want you to tell me what's going on,
• 21:46
  but I can tell you need to do something different.
• 21:51
  If you need to go home... And she said,
• 21:54
  I don't want to go home because I feel better being around people.
• 21:57
  And I'm thinking, okay,
• 21:58
  but you can't be here with this glass door sobbing because that is really not a
• 22:03
  good look.
• 22:05
  So we figured out how to put some things in front of the door,
• 22:09
  and she wanted to stay in her office space,
• 22:13
  and she just wanted people to understand that
• 22:18
  she was going through a rough patch. And I said,
• 22:21
  we will respect where you are.
• 22:25
  If you want people to stay away from your door,
• 22:28
  we'll make sure that that's the situation,
• 22:31
  but don't feel like you have to be here in this state.
• 22:36
  You can leave. Well, for her, it was better to be around people.
• 22:41
  But that's an example of just the fact that people
• 22:46
  have things that -- and it was a personal situation.
• 22:48
  People have things that are going on in their lives and they come to work and
• 22:53
  they try to work through it, and not all the time can they work through it.
• 22:57
  I would rather it come out that way than to have it come out in a
• 23:02
  way where people just aren't doing the work that we need them to do.
• 23:05
  Yeah. So
• 23:10
  in this situation, we're talking about supporting the team that you're leading.
• 23:13
  I'm curious, what about in a managing up situation?
• 23:20
  Board dynamics, which I think is fun for you and I to talk about?
• 23:25
  And in these moments of uncertainty,
• 23:27
  what does it look like to...
• 23:30
  Or can you talk about maybe times that you've had
• 23:33
  disagreements or you've had to advocate perhaps on behalf of your people,
• 23:37
  the people that you're supporting,
• 23:38
  the people that you have a day-to-day pulse on what their needs are,
• 23:43
  but perhaps in moments of uncertainty or crisis,
• 23:46
  you're having a disagreement with the board on what you need to do?
• 23:49
  Sure.
• 23:50
  Talk a little bit about that.
• 23:50
  Well, any of you that have boards know that
• 23:55
  they see the organization differently because they come in four times a year
• 24:00
  or so, and in those four times a year,
• 24:04
  sometimes we're explaining things over that we've already talked about
• 24:09
  because they're just popping back in.
• 24:12
  But their perspective on how things maybe should be flowing during
• 24:17
  particular times
• 24:20
  of difficult leadership opportunities or even from the
• 24:24
  perspective of kind of staff development
• 24:29
  can often be different because they're not seeing it from the everyday
• 24:33
  operational perspective.
• 24:35
  And as the person who is in charge of the office,
• 24:39
  it is my role to advocate for my staff
• 24:44
  and help the board understand why what they may be suggesting as the solution --
• 24:50
  sometimes the solution for them in a difficult kind of
• 24:54
  employee-employer situation is simple. Just get rid of them. Well,
• 24:58
  it's never that simple. It's never that simple.
• 25:02
  And it is really important,
• 25:05
  and I try to help my board gently see this,
• 25:08
  that boards govern,
• 25:11
  staffs operate.
• 25:14
  And when we start blurring the lines, you start to get really,
• 25:18
  really messed up office environments.
• 25:22
  So we have to make sure that the board is sensitized to what is going
• 25:27
  on in the office aand why.
• 25:29
  And make sure they know what your plan is on how you're going to handle that
• 25:32
  situation. I have been, again, for the most part,
• 25:38
  lucky in having boards that have allowed me to be the chief
• 25:42
  operator, and they have been focused on governance, but every now and again,
• 25:46
  they overstep their bounds,
• 25:49
  and I have to make sure that they understand that's not your role,
• 25:54
  respectfully. That's not your role.
• 25:57
  That is my role to handle, and I'll make sure that whatever the problem is,
• 26:02
  as best as I can,
• 26:05
  there's a solution to the problem. I get it.
• 26:08
  They are very focused on those high level things,
• 26:11
  and that's where they should be. But when they start saying, well,
• 26:14
  I think you should, and it's an operational issue,
• 26:18
  that's where I have to push the pause button,
• 26:21
  and I'm very comfortable doing that.
• 26:23
  Yeah.
• 26:23
  Are there times where you've been in a board conversation and that perspective
• 26:28
  has actually changed your stance or your position or your decision?
• 26:32
  I think it's made me look at things differently. I don't know that it
• 26:36
  fully changes my stance, but it may say to me, okay,
• 26:41
  maybe I need to move more quickly on this
• 26:46
  situation because what they're presenting to me is giving me a couple of more
• 26:51
  parameters around the what ifs type situation
• 26:56
  that I may not be looking at because I'm so close to the situation.
• 27:00
  So just as they're popping in can be negative,
• 27:03
  It also can have some positive attributes because they can pull in from their
• 27:07
  experiences.
• 27:08
  But definitely there have been things that
• 27:13
  I wish that maybe I had acted on sooner,
• 27:18
  and their counsel could have pushed me to that
• 27:23
  point, but frankly, I may have been stubborn and decided I know what I'm doing.
• 27:28
  And I'm not perfect.
• 27:31
  So sometimes mistakes have occurred and the mistake being sometimes you just
• 27:36
  wait too long.
• 27:37
  Yeah. So when you say that it's making you make decisions sooner,
• 27:42
  do you mean the conversation is prioritizing the thing more,
• 27:47
  or you want to act...?
• 27:49
  It's actually giving me more information to be able to make the --
• 27:52
  Oh, more confidence almost. Okay. Interesting. Okay. Yeah,
• 27:57
  that's great. Well, so decision making is never black and white,
• 28:02
  certainly not in uncertain times.
• 28:03
  And I think a lot of leadership is about getting comfortable in the gray.
• 28:09
  Can you talk a little bit about your own journey and getting comfortable in the
• 28:13
  gray?
• 28:13
  Yeah. I think
• 28:17
  as much as we want things to be a certain way,
• 28:20
  as much as we take the time to plan and figure
• 28:25
  out, okay, this is the direction we're going. "Absolutely,
• 28:28
  we're going this direction." Until you can't,
• 28:33
  and then you have to figure out,
• 28:34
  how am I going to move forward around
• 28:39
  whatever this potential obstacle is in my
• 28:44
  path?
• 28:45
  I don't usually like to use the term nimble when it comes to
• 28:50
  organizations like ours, because we typically are not nimble.
• 28:55
  We're like
• 28:58
  a ship, a cruise ship trying to turn.
• 29:02
  It can be really difficult,
• 29:06
  but you might not have a lot of time to maneuver.
• 29:09
  So you have to at least be flexible and figure out, okay,
• 29:12
  what are the other options that I may have?
• 29:16
  And how can I make sure that what I need to
• 29:21
  do is --
• 29:23
  I'm able to do so. I can give you
• 29:28
  an example from when I was at the National Civil Rights Museum.
• 29:32
  We had a situation, and I'm trying to think,
• 29:35
  I want to say that this was probably
• 29:39
  2015 or 2016,
• 29:44
  and I can't remember unfortunately, and this is really sad,
• 29:47
  I can't remember which Black man it was that died,
• 29:51
  but we ended up having this,
• 29:55
  what it was called in the courtyard,
• 29:57
  where people came to the courtyard and they got down on the ground and
• 30:01
  pretended, actually, "I can't breathe." It was here.
• 30:06
  Eric Garner. Thank you very much. It was here in New York.
• 30:09
  And so we did the die-in,
• 30:13
  and I'll have to say my board wasn't real thrilled about it.
• 30:18
  They felt it was far too political,
• 30:20
  and my response to them was,
• 30:23
  but it's what the community needed to happen. We needed to be able to do that.
• 30:28
  And what frankly would people think about the National Civil Rights Museum
• 30:33
  if we didn't do that,
• 30:36
  have that type of action? I'll say, I mean,
• 30:39
  over the course of my tenure there,
• 30:41
  I pushed the envelope quite a bit when it came to things like that and was not
• 30:46
  always in line with the board,
• 30:49
  but they let me stay there for six years.
• 30:51
  So I guess it's because it was bringing people to the museum,
• 30:55
  it was bringing people into the museum.
• 30:59
  So that was one of those circumstances where it was black and white to
• 31:04
  me, but it wasn't black and white to the organization.
• 31:07
  They didn't see it as black and white. And there is this saying, you
• 31:14
  don't always want to ask permission.
• 31:17
  You sometimes want to ask forgiveness.
• 31:19
  And this was one of those situations where I felt it was really important for me
• 31:23
  to just to move forward.
• 31:25
  And then I could ask forgiveness and I'll fall on the sword.
• 31:29
  However I need to fall on the sword.
• 31:30
  But it was the right thing for the community.
• 31:33
  Yeah, that's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever gotten from you,
• 31:37
  which is just the community will give you the answer even when decisions aren't
• 31:41
  black and white, the community gives you the answer.
• 31:44
  And I feel like you have told me many,
• 31:46
  many stories of times where the community gave you a sense of
• 31:51
  intuition or helped you follow your gut or gave you the path
• 31:55
  forward. Do you want to share some of those stories?
• 31:58
  I'll tell you, there was a situation that I ran into while I was at,
• 32:03
  and this is a picture actually of an exhibit that we did in
• 32:09
  Baltimore that focused on the fact that
• 32:13
  Black people had to get healthcare from Black people because white people would
• 32:18
  not give us healthcare,
• 32:20
  and that they set up in West Baltimore Black
• 32:25
  professionals in healthcare that were really taking care of the community.
• 32:29
  But when I was at the National Civil Rights Museum,
• 32:32
  there was an instance when I would
• 32:37
  walk around that museum -- has anybody been to that museum?
• 32:41
  National Civil Rights Museum? So you know that
• 32:46
  each room kind of talks about a campaign during the
• 32:51
  '50s-'60s Civil Rights Movement.
• 32:54
  And there are lots of images,
• 32:56
  lots of images about a
• 33:00
  nonviolent
• 33:04
  movement that actually was very violent.
• 33:07
  It was very violent because there was violence that was affected on the people
• 33:11
  who were trying to be nonviolent. And I would walk through the museum
• 33:16
  as people were in the museum,
• 33:18
  and I would just see the emotion on people's faces.
• 33:22
  It really didn't matter what age. You could feel it.
• 33:26
  I remember once there was a little girl -- little girl,
• 33:28
  she was 13 years old or about that --
• 33:30
  and she was so moved by what she was seeing that
• 33:35
  people who were trying to,
• 33:38
  just trying to have the same rights as someone else,
• 33:41
  she couldn't understand that -- first of all, she's 13 years old.
• 33:44
  So trying to even comprehend why these people don't have these rights,
• 33:48
  seeing the violence that was being afforded them and
• 33:53
  seeing them kind of move through in this manner,
• 33:57
  that was still, I don't know if I would say it was kind,
• 34:02
  but it was certainly,
• 34:07
  they were still the upstanding citizens that they should have always been
• 34:11
  treated as,
• 34:12
  even through the difficult period. And it would so
• 34:17
  impact people. They would get to the museum shop.
• 34:22
  That's where you need to always end up.
• 34:25
  You want to move people to buying something and taking something home with them.
• 34:30
  And they would just talk to the people in the retail shop about what their
• 34:34
  experience was and how it changed them,
• 34:37
  and how they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
• 34:41
  They hadn't learned this information. Nobody told them this.
• 34:45
  And they were just so moved by the fact that people who were
• 34:50
  being treated so poorly could then pretty much show to
• 34:55
  some degree, in some instances,
• 34:56
  kindness to those who were treating them so poorly.
• 35:00
  That was a frequent occurrence.
• 35:03
  But one story I think that really, really, really
• 35:09
  affected me when I was there as I was walking through,
• 35:13
  as I did on a daily basis, there was a gentleman who was there,
• 35:17
  looked to be like a granddad with his grandson,
• 35:21
  and they're walking through the museum and
• 35:26
  he's telling these stories,
• 35:28
  and he's trying to interpret for this young man who looked to be about nine or
• 35:31
  so. And finally I overheard the little boy say, so what did you do,
• 35:36
  granddad?
• 35:38
  And it was such a powerful question because we're always telling
• 35:43
  young people what they should be doing,
• 35:47
  but the question should sometimes be asked of us, "So what did you do?"
• 35:53
  And I always looked at young people differently from that
• 35:58
  point on in that museum,
• 35:59
  that I had a responsibility to say to them what I had done or had not done,
• 36:04
  or why at least... This image here,
• 36:08
  and this gets back to kind of purpose-driven and being supportive of the
• 36:13
  community.
• 36:14
  This was the 2017 Women's March.
• 36:18
  Now this is Memphis, Tennessee. So I had come to Memphis, Tennessee from,
• 36:23
  I had been working in Washington D.C.
• 36:25
  and I had seen what was going on in Washington with the Women's March,
• 36:28
  and I'm thinking it's Memphis. Okay, so what,
• 36:31
  50 people are going to show up or something? Well,
• 36:34
  clearly from this picture you can see there were way more than 50 people that
• 36:39
  showed up,
• 36:40
  and they asked if they could end the march at the National Civil Rights
• 36:45
  Museum because of what it stood for,
• 36:47
  that it stood for everything that they wanted,
• 36:51
  that we wanted this Women's March to stand for.
• 36:56
  And this is what for me made that
• 37:01
  job so wonderful,
• 37:02
  because I did get an opportunity to frankly put Terri
• 37:06
  into the role,
• 37:09
  but connect so much with the community. And in
• 37:14
  connecting to the community,
• 37:16
  then the community affected me in a positive way.
• 37:20
  Yeah, it drove you almost.
• 37:22
  Yeah. And I think it made me a more empathetic leader,
• 37:28
  connecting with the community, understanding that there were needs.
• 37:31
  I wasn't just doing a job any longer.
• 37:33
  I was doing something that was going to be beneficial for a group of folks that
• 37:38
  was much larger than myself.
• 37:40
  Are there ways now that in your day-to-day you... like,
• 37:44
  touch points or ways to sort of touch a rock and stay in touch with the
• 37:47
  community to remind you of that sort of why for you?
• 37:51
  Well, I think honestly, Priya, I think in my head it's just there.
• 37:56
  I'm always thinking that that's why I'm doing it.
• 37:58
  But we're getting ready to open a children's museum in our museum
• 38:03
  to talk about these stories of African American history in Maryland.
• 38:08
  And before we do that,
• 38:09
  we're going to go to the community and ask them what they want.
• 38:12
  Because we may be thinking, oh,
• 38:14
  we'll just put some stuff in there that will,
• 38:18
  I don't mean this in a pejorative way,
• 38:20
  but dumb down the story to a child's level.
• 38:24
  And the parents may be thinking,
• 38:26
  or the guardians or the community may be thinking, well,
• 38:29
  we need another play space that is going to allow children to move around and
• 38:33
  get out some of this energy.
• 38:35
  So we want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the community,
• 38:39
  but also ensuring that we have the educational experience for young
• 38:44
  people that we think is important for everybody to have, frankly,
• 38:47
  when they come to the museum.
• 38:48
  Yeah, love that.
• 38:51
  I want to start to turn inwards a little bit,
• 38:54
  but I'll use community as our sort of bridge.
• 38:56
  Can you talk about your personal community,
• 38:58
  the community that you surround yourself in in your personal life and what that
• 39:02
  does for your inspiration?
• 39:04
  And I think, again, I am at a part,
• 39:07
  a point in my career that is different than many people who are in this room,
• 39:11
  but my touch points have always been my family. There they are.
• 39:17
  I have three adult daughters.
• 39:21
  And the picture that is to your right,
• 39:24
  I guess the one in the pink is my oldest. She's 35.
• 39:29
  The one in the middle is my baby girl, and she is 25.
• 39:33
  And the one on the left there is...
• 39:38
  she's something else.
• 39:41
  She'll be 33 on December 1st,
• 39:44
  and they are what
• 39:49
  grounds me.
• 39:51
  These pictures were in London and headed off to Greece.
• 39:56
  We did this the year my husband, their dad passed so suddenly.
• 40:01
  We needed to do something for ourselves,
• 40:03
  and they helped me get through that difficult time.
• 40:08
  They are truly my rock. And if anybody asks me,
• 40:11
  so what have you done? What is the thing that you are most proud of?
• 40:16
  It's these three girls that I have created,
• 40:19
  three women who are not afraid of anything or
• 40:24
  anybody, have very strong views,
• 40:27
  and let people know what those views are,
• 40:30
  but in a way that people respect the way that they are presenting themselves.
• 40:35
  So for me,
• 40:36
  it is all about my family and being able to have,
• 40:41
  that's my anchor. They ground me.
• 40:43
  Yeah. I love hearing you talk about your daughters.
• 40:46
  You glow in a different way when you talk about them. It's really special. Okay,
• 40:51
  so let's talk about care for yourself.
• 40:56
  How do you focus on that and prioritize that?
• 41:01
  It just has to be a thing that I'm always kind of in the back of my mind
• 41:04
  thinking about.
• 41:05
  And I think for everybody out here who has a high-stress
• 41:10
  position, if you're in marketing,
• 41:12
  that's high stress because you are always required to sell the next thing in a
• 41:16
  lot of ways. And people, it's very easy for people to point fingers and saying,
• 41:20
  you're not doing what you should be doing.
• 41:23
  They think you're responsible for actually,
• 41:25
  you're the other half of the equation when it comes to development and bringing
• 41:28
  money in. So that's stressful,
• 41:31
  particularly in an environment where things are up one
• 41:36
  day and they're down another.
• 41:37
  We don't know when the next crisis is going to come, but I tell you what,
• 41:41
  it's going to come.
• 41:42
  There will be another crisis that you will have to work through.
• 41:45
  So I think you have to always give yourself space and
• 41:50
  time to be able to take care of yourself.
• 41:52
  And this is what I say about Millennials and Gen
• 41:57
  Z. You all know how to say, okay, enough,
• 42:01
  I need a break.
• 42:04
  My yoga class is at 4:30.
• 42:09
  We Boomers, we would just push through it.
• 42:12
  We would be haggard and just barely being able to get the stuff done,
• 42:16
  but we just kind of push through.
• 42:18
  I think it's an incredibly beneficial characteristic to be able to say, I,
• 42:24
  I have to take care of me to be able to come back in here tomorrow and not
• 42:29
  kill somebody.
• 42:32
  And so I think that you just have to always have that in the back of your
• 42:37
  head. For me, that's reading.
• 42:39
  So in the morning I get up. I'm a Wordle nut.
• 42:44
  I'm not good at it, but I'm a Wordle not. And so I do Wordle,
• 42:49
  I do Connections. I play another stupid puzzle game before I get out of the bed.
• 42:54
  I do inspirational reading all before I
• 42:58
  even step foot out of the bed. And I have --
• 43:02
  my bathroom mirror has all these affirmations on it that I have written.
• 43:06
  And I don't focus on all of them every day,
• 43:09
  but I do focus on a couple of them.
• 43:12
  And I try to prepare myself on a daily
• 43:17
  basis for whatever may come my way.
• 43:20
  But I am a woman of faith,
• 43:23
  so I pray that whatever comes my way,
• 43:25
  I will be able to deal with it in a manner that
• 43:30
  is productive. That's what I want to do.
• 43:33
  I want to be able to deal with whatever comes at me in a productive manner.
• 43:38
  But I give myself time now, which I'll tell you when I was,
• 43:43
  for those of you that are in that age range where you've got young kids,
• 43:47
  it's hard. That's a hard time.
• 43:50
  They need you and they need you to focus on -- and they don't --
• 43:54
  and kids don't care. They don't care how bad your day was. So what?
• 43:58
  Do for me what I need you to do for me. And cats are the same way.
• 44:05
  But you just have to give yourself time.
• 44:10
  Whatever it is that you like to do,
• 44:12
  give yourself space and time to do some of that. If you can't do it daily,
• 44:17
  you have to at least give it to yourself weekly. And again,
• 44:20
  I don't know what's ahead of us with this election,
• 44:24
  but I'll guarantee you that some way or another there is going to be some stress
• 44:29
  involved, some serious stress.
• 44:32
  You need to take care of yourselves because if you don't,
• 44:36
  you are going to be like a cat on a hot tin roof.
• 44:39
  You're just going to have to be able to take care of yourselves, build it in.
• 44:43
  It is a priority.
• 44:45
  It is a part of the investment that you make in yourself to be able to do the
• 44:49
  jobs that you do.
• 44:51
  Yeah. Would you be willing to share any of your affirmations on your mirror?
• 44:55
  You can tell me no, but I'm curious.
• 44:58
  Oh, I can't hardly remember them.
• 45:02
  That's fine.
• 45:03
  But no, one of them is: the goal is me.
• 45:07
  Yes. Yes. Clap for that.
• 45:12
  That's one of 'em. Another is:
• 45:17
  prayer changes me and
• 45:22
  I can change things.
• 45:24
  So through prayer I become changed,
• 45:28
  and then I can then affect change in a way.
• 45:33
  And perfection? Perfection is for Jesus.
• 45:41
  It is not for us. Perfection is for Jesus.
• 45:45
  We work to become perfected, but we never actually get there.
• 45:49
  And it's important to remember that perfection just can't be what we're focused
• 45:54
  on. We have to do the best that we can intentionally
• 46:01
  with good intention, right? Intention is important,
• 46:06
  but perfection is not what we are supposed to do. That's not our role.
• 46:11
  So those are some of 'em, and I change 'em.
• 46:13
  I think of things in my head and I'll write it down.
• 46:16
  And sometimes I put the affirmation on my computer.
• 46:19
  I need to look at it throughout the day, right? Oh, and the other thing is,
• 46:24
  while I'm not one who is totally into astrology, I kind of am.
• 46:29
  And so I like to read my horoscope on a
• 46:34
  daily basis. And it doesn't define my day for me, but it says to me, okay,
• 46:39
  this is what the atmosphere is like.
• 46:41
  So I'm going to work within this atmosphere.
• 46:43
  Yeah. Did you get a good one this morning?
• 46:46
  Yeah. It's all about creativity and productivity and being able to
• 46:53
  affect things through writing in particular.
• 46:56
  So we'll see what that means for me.
• 46:58
  Oh, yeah. Okay.
• 47:02
  So you have been in a number of leadership roles.
• 47:06
  You're a highly accomplished leader, and I'm curious,
• 47:09
  I want to talk a little bit more about you being what you do and
• 47:14
  you being separate from what you do.
• 47:16
  And I think it's very easy to,
• 47:20
  regardless of role, have those things overlap in a healthy way,
• 47:24
  in an unhealthy way.
• 47:26
  Can you talk a little bit about how what you do intertwines with who you are?
• 47:31
  Can you talk about times where you've had to really pull those things apart and
• 47:35
  keep them separate?
• 47:37
  Yeah. I think that happens to all of us,
• 47:39
  and particularly when you're in leadership roles in these cultural institutions
• 47:43
  where there aren't a lot of you in the community.
• 47:46
  So everybody knows who's running the theater and everybody knows who's running
• 47:50
  the ballet, and everybody knows who's running this museum.
• 47:54
  So you are often defined by what you do,
• 47:58
  but you want people to understand that that's not all of who you are.
• 48:04
  I went to a gallery opening recently at
• 48:09
  a children's hospital, a gallery in the hospital in Washington D.C.
• 48:14
  and a friend of mine went with me and we walked
• 48:18
  in and the woman who was talking about the event looks
• 48:23
  up and she says, "Oh, I'm so honored that Terri Freeman is here with us.
• 48:28
  She's the president of..." And I was thinking,
• 48:31
  I just went because I wanted to see the artwork that was going up on the walls.
• 48:35
  I didn't go as Terri Freeman, president of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum.
• 48:40
  I just went as Terri Freeman. It was a little frustrating for me,
• 48:45
  and thankfully he was with me and I could vent to him.
• 48:49
  But it's one of those things where sometimes you're not able to
• 48:54
  separate it from the perspective of those people who are external.
• 48:57
  But I know that ultimately it only
• 49:02
  takes one mistake for me to no longer be the president of the Reginald F.
• 49:07
  Lewis Museum.
• 49:08
  So I have to be very comfortable in being Terri Lee Freeman,
• 49:13
  because those three girls who you saw,
• 49:16
  those are the people who care the most about me. I'm not fooled by that.
• 49:20
  I'm not fooled by the accolades. I'm not fooled by the awards.
• 49:24
  I'm not fooled by any of that.
• 49:25
  I'm happy that people respect the work that I have done,
• 49:29
  but I also know you can be here one day... We've
• 49:33
  seen it, right? Celebrities all the time. Well,
• 49:36
  you can be here one day and then the next day you are somewhere on the ground.
• 49:40
  And so I'm very realistic about that,
• 49:44
  and I make sure that I know who I am.
• 49:48
  So trying to ensure that I have a whole body of stuff
• 49:53
  that I do that has nothing to do with the position,
• 49:58
  the book club that I'm in, or the vacations that I take. I'll tell you,
• 50:03
  I'm not one who really allows my social media to
• 50:08
  be commingled with work stuff.
• 50:11
  I don't friend people who work with me. You're not my friends.
• 50:15
  I may like you, but you're not my friends that way,
• 50:19
  because you never know. Actually,
• 50:22
  I'm dealing with this right now in my office because
• 50:26
  of somebody posting something on social media and a person was a
• 50:31
  friend of theirs, and now you got foolishness going on.
• 50:34
  I just think that your social media can be used for
• 50:39
  the benefit of your organization,
• 50:41
  but it doesn't mean that everybody that knows you has to be your friend.
• 50:44
  I have board members that will come on my page and ask to friend me,
• 50:48
  and I just ghost them.
• 50:52
  I'm not doing it!
• 50:55
  Because some stuff is not for them to know.
• 50:59
  So there are ways that you can make
• 51:04
  sure that there is a separation of church and state, if you will,
• 51:10
  but still give everything that you need to give to the institution because
• 51:16
  you made a contract with that organization that you would do something for
• 51:21
  them and did that in good faith,
• 51:23
  and you did it because you loved the organization.
• 51:27
  We have the benefit of working around beauty,
• 51:31
  whatever form it is, but it's beauty all day long.
• 51:35
  And I'm so blessed to be able to do that and not have to make a widget.
• 51:42
  But even beauty can get ugly after you look at it so
• 51:47
  much, so long.
• 51:48
  So we have to be able to distinguish between what is their time and
• 51:53
  what is my time.
• 51:54
  Yeah.
• 51:55
  You have a funny story about your husband in this and a time when you had to
• 52:00
  separate... Can we tell that story? I just think it's unique.
• 52:04
  This was, that's my late husband. Actually, that's the last picture we took.
• 52:11
  It was about a week before he passed.
• 52:13
  Wow.
• 52:13
  And he was handsome, wasn't he?
• 52:18
  And one day I came home from work and I'm in a tizzy and I'm going
• 52:23
  about telling people what they need to do and do this and go over here and why
• 52:28
  isn't this done? And he looked at me and he said,
• 52:32
  you are not the president of this house.
• 52:37
  And I was like, okay, alright. I hear you. I hear you. And
• 52:45
  he wasn't being negative, but what he was trying to say was,
• 52:49
  this is not where you tell people what to do. Right, left, pointing here,
• 52:53
  do this, do that. This is where we work together. We're a family. And
• 52:59
  you can --
• 53:00
  sometimes the commute home isn't long enough for you to separate from some of
• 53:05
  what has happened in the office. And so yes,
• 53:08
  that was one of the things that he told me.
• 53:11
  You make sure that you understand that here we operate differently
• 53:16
  than you do in the office place.
• 53:18
  Yeah.
• 53:19
  Do you find it hard to leave work at work in your role?
• 53:24
  Oh God, yes.
• 53:25
  Yeah.
• 53:26
  And I have a rule. I have a rule.
• 53:29
  The rule is you do not get on email before you go to sleep.
• 53:35
  And the other week I did it
• 53:39
  and I couldn't sleep because I was like, oh my God, really?
• 53:44
  I have to deal with this when I get in the office the next day.
• 53:48
  So note to self, when you have a rule,
• 53:53
  go by the rules. Play by the rules of the game.
• 53:57
  And the rules of the game are you don't do that late at night because you need
• 54:01
  to be able to separate from that space and rest.
• 54:05
  And when your mind is racing about all the stuff that you have to do,
• 54:10
  you just can't do that. So yeah,
• 54:14
  it's really important for us to take... My husband was,
• 54:20
  he was a pastor, and
• 54:24
  he used to say this often to our congregation. He would say,
• 54:27
  you need to take care of your health. He said,
• 54:30
  because God will forgive your sins, but your body won't.
• 54:37
  That's deep. I wouldn't tell him that,
• 54:44
  but that's deep. Think about that. Yeah. Okay.
• 54:47
  So for eternity you'll be okay,
• 54:50
  but you might not make it 'til next week if you don't take care of yourself.
• 54:55
  And so it is that mental health piece of this,
• 54:59
  the physical health piece of this.
• 55:02
  I work predominantly in community with
• 55:06
  African American people who have -- are more susceptible,
• 55:11
  let me put it that way,
• 55:12
  are more susceptible to negative health outcomes for a variety of
• 55:16
  environmental reasons.
• 55:19
  And I want my people to be healthy and strong.
• 55:24
  And so I used the platform of the museum to be able to do
• 55:28
  that by not just giving them exhibits,
• 55:31
  but you saw that at blacks and white we had a health fair,
• 55:33
  and so I had the health community come to the museum. We did testing,
• 55:39
  we had a mobile clinic, we did food as medicine.
• 55:43
  That's the sort of thing. I mean, when I say purpose-driven,
• 55:47
  I know that I have a role that is supposed to not just
• 55:51
  benefit me and the institution,
• 55:53
  but benefit the community that supports us.
• 55:56
  Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
• 56:00
  So we've talked about resilience of leaders and resilience,
• 56:05
  finding resilience in ourself.
• 56:06
  We've talked about the resilience of community and the power of community.
• 56:09
  So now I want us to end by talking a little bit about the resilience of our
• 56:13
  industry. And of course,
• 56:15
  you've seen so much and you've seen the resilience that our industry has.
• 56:20
  And how has witnessing that given you the confidence to
• 56:24
  lead in the way that you do?
• 56:26
  Who would've ever predicted
• 56:30
  Covid and that we would literally have to go dark? Shut our doors?
• 56:36
  Where -- I was at the time in Memphis.
• 56:38
  They had never shut the doors at the National Civil Rights Museum,
• 56:41
  except on the days they were closed. Who would have thought?
• 56:46
  And I remember saying to my treasurer, he said,
• 56:49
  I think you need to plan to be closed until July. And I'm like,
• 56:53
  absolutely not. Probably maybe until May, but not until July. Well,
• 56:58
  it was July 1st when we actually opened the doors. Again,
• 57:02
  we would've never been able to predict that.
• 57:04
  We could have never planned for that.
• 57:07
  But I will say this:
• 57:10
  in our doing everyday business,
• 57:13
  there was always the idea of we have to plan for the rainy day.
• 57:18
  And because we did that and did it well,
• 57:21
  we were able to continue to pay people for a month before we had to
• 57:27
  get the PPP and before we actually had to look at furloughing
• 57:31
  people. So it was kind of that forward thinking and planning for that
• 57:36
  rainy day,
• 57:37
  but never would've thought that that rainy day would've been what it was.
• 57:40
  My point is that we did open. We reopened.
• 57:45
  We are here. We're here.
• 57:48
  And in some instances, you all are here with packed houses,
• 57:54
  full audiences.
• 57:55
  You've got people coming in and out of your museums or zoos or
• 58:00
  whatever it is that you -- Look at this.
• 58:03
  We had lines for a colloquial -- I can't say that word,
• 58:07
  colloquium, that we did about fiber arts,
• 58:11
  the Black Woman Genius exhibit that we had, and that people were coming out...
• 58:16
  There was a point in time when it was just quiet and dead in the
• 58:20
  museum. But we have bounced back.
• 58:24
  We've done it so many times. We've come back.
• 58:28
  And like I said, people,
• 58:30
  many people didn't think that our museum would've lasted for 20 years. Well,
• 58:34
  we're here. And the same goes for your institutions.
• 58:38
  Some people probably thought,
• 58:39
  we'll never be able to make it out of this Covid thing.
• 58:41
  And here you sit and you've learned lessons that you can apply when the
• 58:46
  next crisis occurs, because as I've said, it's coming.
• 58:51
  My husband used to say, you're either going into a storm, in a storm,
• 58:55
  or just coming out of one. So you figure out where you are
• 59:00
  and know the direction that you're going to be going in. But it happens.
• 59:04
  It's a cycle.
• 59:05
  And the fact that we are just so resilient as a
• 59:09
  community, and you know what?
• 59:12
  The broader community depends on us to be resilient because they need what we do
• 59:17
  to help them bounce back.
• 59:20
  Beautifully said. Terri, thank you for your generosity and your kindness.
• 59:23
  Thank you for being here.
• 59:33
  Ah, what a great conversation. You know,
• 59:36
  Boot Camp is one of my favorite times of the year, after Thanksgiving and,
• 59:39
  of course, Arbor Day.
• 59:40
  We get to sit down with folks who love our industry and want to more effectively
• 59:44
  share the art that our organizations produce and present.
• 59:48
  This year we took our microphones to the conference floor to chat with arts
• 59:52
  marketers, fundraisers, and executive leaders about what's lighting them up,
• 59:56
  the challenges they're tackling,
• 59:57
  and what keeps them passionate about their work. Now,
• 1:00:00
  most of us are art nerds to the core. We don't just work in this industry.
• 1:00:05
  We live and breathe it. So naturally we asked everyone,
• 1:00:08
  what's a piece of art that inspired you this year?
• 1:00:11
  Honestly, I went to the Apollo Theater last night to see Amateur Night,
• 1:00:15
  and I was inspired by I guess a sense of history and tradition.
• 1:00:19
  We had a dance performance at ACA that was called Dance/Splits,
• 1:00:23
  and it was extremely inspiring.
• 1:00:26
  Last week,
• 1:00:27
  I went to go see this children's musical called Spells of the Sea at the Kennedy
• 1:00:30
  Center.
• 1:00:31
  Now, unsurprisingly, Broadway was a recurring theme. I mean,
• 1:00:35
  Boot Camp was a stone's throw from Times Square. I'm based in Los Angeles,
• 1:00:39
  and whenever I visit New York,
• 1:00:40
  a Broadway show is one of the first tickets I book.
• 1:00:44
  A piece of art that's inspired me recently was Stereophonic,
• 1:00:46
  which is a play that I saw on Broadway a couple of nights ago.
• 1:00:50
  An incredible play with brilliant music that has left me
• 1:00:55
  thinking about a lot of things.
• 1:00:57
  I actually just saw Sunset Boulevard last night. Blown away.
• 1:01:00
  Everyone is talking about, is it Nicole Scherzinger?
• 1:01:03
  Nicole Scherzinger, Tom Francis... I think it's a Jamie Lloyd production.
• 1:01:07
  So cool. Totally. If that's the future of theater, I'm all for it.
• 1:01:11
  That's where I am.
• 1:01:12
  And then there was a clear crowd favorite.
• 1:01:15
  One that continues to inspire me is Hadestown.
• 1:01:17
  Hadestown.
• 1:01:19
  I saw Hadestown.
• 1:01:20
  It's true.
• 1:01:21
  There must've been something in the air because Hadestown was our most popular
• 1:01:24
  answer this year. If you take nothing else from this episode,
• 1:01:27
  it's to get tickets to Hadestown. But let's get down to business,
• 1:01:30
  because that's what Boot Camp is all about.
• 1:01:32
  We asked arts administrators about the biggest challenges their organizations
• 1:01:36
  are facing, and a key theme? Reaching new audiences.
• 1:01:40
  Well, right now, Austin's changing.
• 1:01:43
  The landscape is pretty different than what it was pre-pandemic.
• 1:01:46
  So right now we're in a position of strategic planning and figuring out what the
• 1:01:50
  next step is and how we bring the new Austin audiences into our spaces.
• 1:01:55
  Getting back to a regular momentum again after the pandemic and
• 1:02:00
  trying to reinvigorate and refresh ourselves.
• 1:02:04
  We, post-pandemic, have expanded our programming immensely,
• 1:02:09
  which is an incredible opportunity for us,
• 1:02:12
  but obviously presents challenges in terms of growing pains,
• 1:02:14
  of getting into the groove of things. Thankfully,
• 1:02:17
  we've started to find a rhythm,
• 1:02:19
  but ever expanding with our outreach of audiences and diversifying who's coming
• 1:02:23
  to see the shows, the types of shows that we're producing...
• 1:02:26
  I think our biggest challenge is: we have a lot of data,
• 1:02:30
  but how do we pull it and then tell a story from it?
• 1:02:34
  Audiences have changed so much,
• 1:02:36
  and so really finding a way to harness all of that and figure out how our
• 1:02:40
  audiences are behaving and what we can expect in the future,
• 1:02:43
  and how do we meet the need for our community.
• 1:02:46
  We've been thinking a lot about different audiences that we want to cultivate
• 1:02:50
  and have not yet seen the pathway for how to turn those into actual
• 1:02:55
  campaigns at the more niche level.
• 1:02:57
  And I'm hoping to learn more about how that's done in digital spaces.
• 1:03:01
  And then there's the fact that digital advertising is constantly changing.
• 1:03:05
  If you're feeling like it's impossible to keep up with the different social
• 1:03:08
  algorithms or need for endless campaign assets,
• 1:03:11
  you're not alone. What's a challenge you're hoping to tackle at Boot Camp?
• 1:03:16
  How to tackle different algorithms on the different digital
• 1:03:21
  media platforms,
• 1:03:22
  and also how to go about structuring digital campaigns
• 1:03:27
  when they're constantly evolving and changing as well.
• 1:03:31
  We know that the demand for content, especially graphics content,
• 1:03:35
  is higher than ever.
• 1:03:36
  So something I've been thinking a lot about not just this year,
• 1:03:39
  but going into next year, is how do we build up impactful assets,
• 1:03:43
  but in a way that is kind of conducive to the flexible needs we have?
• 1:03:49
  In the past, our theater, at least, would build up one image at a time.
• 1:03:52
  That one image is getting cropped into a bunch of different situations.
• 1:03:55
  Not so easy to do for really thin display ads.
• 1:03:58
  So thinking about how to approach graphics in that kind of flexible way has been
• 1:04:03
  kind of a learning curve and something I've been keeping top of mind.
• 1:04:06
  Algorithms are shifting, content demands are growing,
• 1:04:09
  and budgets are always tight.
• 1:04:11
  But Boot Camp reminded us that we're all in this together.
• 1:04:14
  So what's on your radar for 2025?
• 1:04:17
  We heard from attendees about the ideas they're most excited to take back to
• 1:04:21
  their organizations and how they're planning to put them into action.
• 1:04:24
  A standout theme was hospitality. It's not just a buzzword.
• 1:04:27
  It's a mindset that's more important than ever as we think about how to create
• 1:04:31
  meaningful connections with our audiences.
• 1:04:34
  Just thinking about ways that we can bring impact and
• 1:04:38
  memorable experiences to everyone who comes through our doors is so exciting to
• 1:04:42
  me.
• 1:04:42
  I'm definitely going to say the hospitality and really thinking about,
• 1:04:45
  what is that patron experience? And for me, that works in advancement, which is:
• 1:04:49
  what is that donor experience?
• 1:04:50
  How are they getting to see what these artists are creating throughout our year,
• 1:04:53
  whether it's National YoungArts Week or what our alumni are doing in the greater
• 1:04:58
  arts scene?
• 1:04:59
  Cookie Ruiz brought the theme to life in the arts world,
• 1:05:02
  showing how Ballet Austin prioritizes hospitality to make every audience member
• 1:05:06
  feel seen and valued.
• 1:05:09
  Cookie's presentation this morning about how Ballet Austin is providing
• 1:05:14
  hospitality and welcoming their guests was really an important reminder about
• 1:05:18
  how we can be welcoming and putting our guests first.
• 1:05:21
  I think the focus on hospitality at the conference is really an important
• 1:05:25
  reminder to all of us that, yes, data and marketing is important,
• 1:05:28
  but really it's about providing an opportunity for our guests to have an
• 1:05:32
  experience that'll change their lives.
• 1:05:34
  Moving forward, our customer service needs to go beyond merely checking boxes.
• 1:05:39
  We need to find those small human touches that turn a regular visit into
• 1:05:43
  something memorable. Another theme on arts marketers' list of resolutions?
• 1:05:48
  Accessibility.
• 1:05:49
  Dr. Shani Dhanda's session challenged us all to move beyond compliance and look
• 1:05:54
  at inclusivity as an ongoing journey.
• 1:05:57
  I loved the accessibility one last night,
• 1:06:01
  particularly because at Lincoln Center we have a heavy dedication to
• 1:06:05
  accessibility, and so to hear not only the things that we're doing well already,
• 1:06:09
  but how we can expand upon that to reach a further audience.
• 1:06:13
  There were so many wonderful takeaways.
• 1:06:15
  The wheels were turning in my head about immediate things we can do and things
• 1:06:19
  we can look forward to longterm.
• 1:06:21
  I really loved the accessibility training,
• 1:06:24
  and I think that's something we can apply to our theater and our practices a
• 1:06:28
  little bit more,
• 1:06:29
  and I just am excited to bring some of that back to the organization.
• 1:06:32
  As we look ahead, these ideas about welcoming audiences,
• 1:06:35
  thinking creatively about accessibility,
• 1:06:37
  and designing meaningful experiences will only grow in importance.
• 1:06:42
  Another hot topic among arts leaders was AI.
• 1:06:45
  From fast-tracking content creation to streamlining operations,
• 1:06:48
  we are seeing a clear focus on the ways technology can drive our organizations
• 1:06:52
  forwards in 2025.
• 1:06:55
  We are firm believers at ArtsWave in the ability for certain ways
• 1:07:00
  of utilizing AI that can be a huge help to especially small and mid-size
• 1:07:05
  arts organizations that are doing a lot with very little.
• 1:07:09
  And if you can alleviate some of that pressure, I mean, man,
• 1:07:13
  it can be a game changer.
• 1:07:15
  I think AI and trusting in technology to actually help you achieve the results
• 1:07:19
  you want is a big theme that we've been working with Capacity on,
• 1:07:23
  and so I'm really excited to hear how others bring that into their day-to-day.
• 1:07:26
  And then there was the power of collaboration to make our sector stronger.
• 1:07:32
  Something I learned here at Boot Camp was --
• 1:07:35
  it was just a phrase that really caught my attention.
• 1:07:38
  We are all competing with the couch. It is true.
• 1:07:41
  We're not competing with each other in the art space.
• 1:07:43
  We really are competing with the other things that people are tending to do,
• 1:07:47
  which is sit on the couch.
• 1:07:49
  I've learned a lot about connectivity and how we can get different organizations
• 1:07:53
  to collaborate rather than feeling like we have to compete with one another.
• 1:07:57
  Have a mission -- and that mission has to be something about not just,
• 1:08:02
  "We want to put on great shows,
• 1:08:03
  we want to do this." We all know that you want to do that, and that's amazing,
• 1:08:06
  but how are you actually affecting and impacting your audience?
• 1:08:10
  And then when you know that,
• 1:08:11
  you can then go out and search for other organizations --
• 1:08:14
  whether they're in the arts, whether they're sports,
• 1:08:16
  whether they're a restaurant, whatever it is --
• 1:08:19
  that are affecting people in a similar way.
• 1:08:21
  And those are those really interesting and unexpected collaborations.
• 1:08:26
  The message was clear. When we stop competing and start collaborating,
• 1:08:30
  we can go much further.
• 1:08:32
  It's an important reminder as we strive to grow our audiences in the year ahead.
• 1:08:37
  To wrap up each conversation,
• 1:08:39
  we asked interviewees to give a quick shout out to someone at their
• 1:08:41
  organization: someone who made their work better, brighter,
• 1:08:44
  or just a bit more fun. And let me tell you, the love was flowing.
• 1:08:48
  From supportive colleagues to inspiring mentors,
• 1:08:51
  these shout outs painted a picture of the strong collaborative culture in arts
• 1:08:54
  organizations.
• 1:08:56
  It's clear that behind every successful project is a team of dedicated,
• 1:08:59
  passionate people who lift each other up.
• 1:09:03
  Shout out to Kevin Becerra. He's one of our newest team members,
• 1:09:07
  and every conversation we have, I'm really inspired by his passion.
• 1:09:10
  I'm going to give a shout out to Van Ackerman.
• 1:09:13
  We have been talking a lot about the Enneagram this year.
• 1:09:15
  For anyone who's interested, he's the man to talk to.
• 1:09:17
  The guy who's got my back right now, Steve King. Hardest worker in the biz,
• 1:09:21
  as far as I can tell.
• 1:09:23
  Tim Washington, our marketing manager.
• 1:09:25
  He is always pushing me to look at new platforms, try out new things...
• 1:09:30
  Shout out to Suzanne. I feel like Suzanne is kind of everybody's work mom,
• 1:09:33
  and if there is something you want to vent about or go talk to
• 1:09:38
  her about, she is always there to talk.
• 1:09:40
  Oh my gosh. So Nicolette Theroux is our ticketing and sales manager.
• 1:09:45
  I work above her. I oversee our ticket office as well,
• 1:09:48
  so I'm her boss and she's amazing and I love her.
• 1:09:51
  Yeah, my work bestie Lindsay, she's always hyping me up.
• 1:09:55
  And she's also my fellow reality show watcher, so yes.
• 1:09:59
  Oh, I of course want to shout out the amazing Advancement Team.
• 1:10:02
  It's been so wonderful to get to see how our new team dynamic of fundraising and
• 1:10:06
  marketing together in one team has been working out.
• 1:10:09
  I want to give a huge shout out to my marketing and sales team.
• 1:10:13
  They're incredible. Kellie Lawson, our marketing and communications manager,
• 1:10:17
  Alyssa, who's our graphic designer,
• 1:10:19
  and then Amos does all of our social media and he's just --
• 1:10:21
  and our house photographer. He's amazing.
• 1:10:23
  Peggy Lushine, who's our associate director of sales,
• 1:10:26
  is back in Chanhassen dealing with all the issues we've been having with
• 1:10:30
  ticketing. And in fact, two weeks ago,
• 1:10:32
  we had to cancel four performances because we had 11 people ill with Covid.
• 1:10:36
  Oh my goodness.
• 1:10:37
  And so trying to deal with trying to reseat four performances worth of people
• 1:10:40
  into a sold out show is pretty challenging.
• 1:10:43
  And so she's doing an amazing job with her team.
• 1:10:46
  I'll give a shout out to Greg. He's my office mate.
• 1:10:49
  He's the associate director of marketing and analytics. He's the coolest.
• 1:10:53
  He would love this. This is totally his vibe.
• 1:10:55
  I'm going to try to get him to come next year.
• 1:10:57
  Everyone in my organization. I love them all.
• 1:11:01
  Aww. Does anyone else have the warm and fuzzies? It's melted my cold,
• 1:11:04
  cold heart. If you've got Boot Camp FOMO,
• 1:11:07
  you can watch all the sessions on demand at capacityinteractivebootcamp.com.
• 1:11:12
  Until next year, keep sharing the art, telling the stories,
• 1:11:15
  and doing the work that makes this industry shine. See you in 2025!
• 1:11:34
  Thank you for listening to CI to Eye.
• 1:11:36
  This episode was edited and produced by Karen McConarty and co-written by Karen
• 1:11:40
  McConarty and myself, Dan Titmuss.
• 1:11:42
  Stephanie Medina and Jess Berube are CI to Eye's designers and video editors and
• 1:11:47
  all work together to create CI's digital content. Our music is by whoisuzo.
• 1:11:53
  If you enjoyed today's episode,
• 1:11:54
  please take a moment to rate us or leave a review.
• 1:11:57
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