October 18, 2020: I was delighted to join my colleague, Erik Gensler, founder of Capacity Interactive, and two other thought leaders for a recent podcast episode to discuss the state of the arts in 2020 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and the issues of systemic racism and social injustice further highlighted by the murder of George Floyd.

Erik put together this discussion for “CI to Eye,” with the goal of offering the audience the broadest possible perspective about how the current times are impacting our arts and cultural institutions. The other participants were Jill Robinson, CEO of TRG Arts, and Tom O’Connor, President of the Tom O’Connor Consulting Group.

We will continuously need to figure out how we will create, celebrate and preserve the arts, and with what resources. And it will remain essential that we continue to dialogue and share ideas as we forge this new era of the arts for humanity. I don’t believe we will be “going back to normal.” That means the only way forward from here for arts organizations and cultural institutions is to carve new paths of resurgence and resilience.

I urge the readers of Arts & Culture Connections to listen to this podcast, and please let me know your thoughts.