Leaders of Thriving Arts Groups of Color Identify Keys to Success

In March 2021, SMU DataArts in partnership with The Wallace Foundation issued The Alchemy of High-Performing Arts Organizations, Part II: A Spotlight on Organizations of Color, a new report that explores how leaders of arts organizations of color view the reasons for their success, along with challenges they face. Based on research conducted in August and September 2020, the report finds commonalities among eleven arts organizations of color in dance, music, theater, and multidisciplinary performing arts, among them Chicago Sinfonietta, as well as ten community-based arts organizations, each with a proven record of high performance. Co-authored by SMU DataArts Director Zannie Voss and SMU DataArts Research Director Glenn Voss, the new report aims to inform arts organizations in multiple disciplines about approaches to financial sustainability. Simon Woods, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras, is quoted in the introduction to the study: “After a pandemic that has asymmetrically affected those who have less, and who are marginalized or oppressed, orchestras—and all arts organizations—must come back with a new will to engage with their whole communities.”

Read the full report at wallacefoundation.org and at culturaldata.org.