To learn more, please visit the Programs page at EmcArts.org.

New Pathways

New Pathways is a training and immersion program for non-profit organizations in a local community to advance and accelerate the development of innovative strategies and to strengthen adaptive leadership.

Designed in partnership with a local host agency, the New Pathways program is designed to enable growth in the adaptive capacity of participating organizations through four different strategies:

  1. A sequence of hands-on Workshops led by EmcArts
  2. Participant-led Community Convenings designed by a guiding group of program participants
  3. On-site Coaching for a selection of the participating organizations, as follow-up to the Workshops
  4. The opportunity for an individually facilitated “deep dive” into Incubating Innovation

For more information, click here.

The Innovation Lab for Arts Development Agencies

In 2013, we announced the launch of the Innovation Lab for Arts Development Agencies, a continuation of EmcArts’s work with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Rather than focusing on producing and presenting organizations in the arts and culture field (as with the Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts), this new Lab engages with the adaptive challenges of organizations that provide services in support of the ongoing development of an arts discipline, its organizations and practitioners, or of a particular area of arts activities (defined, for instance, geographically, or by theme). Given the wide range of organizations of these types, we call them collectively “arts development agencies.”

The first phase of this Lab involved seven organizations in a four-month process of organizational self-examination and assessment focused on adaptive change possibilities. Three organizations have now been chosen to continue work in Phases 2-4, where they will design and prototype innovative strategies and launch real-life projects that address major adaptive challenges that they have identified.

For more information, click here.

The Innovation Lab for Museums

In 2012, the American Alliance of Museums’ (AAM) Center for the Future of Museums (CFM), EmcArts, and MetLife Foundation launched the Innovation Lab for Museums, a major new initiative designed to enable selected museums to design, research and prototype innovations, testing novel approaches to field-wide challenges in a laboratory-like setting.

This Lab is a 18-24 month program in which EmcArts facilitators work with innovation teams comprised of senior managers and board representatives in combination with museum staff, artists and scientists, educationalists and/or external voices from inside and outside the cultural sector, such as community partners to provide diverse perspectives. The Lab includes individual coaching, group facilitation, and intensive retreat, and a variety of extended support systems tailored to the needs of each organization.

For more information, click here.

The Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts

The Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts was designed to serve as a catalyst for the journey to new pathways: to help arts organizations challenge core operating assumptions, engage in intense planning on a practical innovation project, create a sense of organization-wide investment in change, and test innovative strategies with grants that help organizations prototype new practices.

Originally launched in 2008 with a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), the Lab helps teams from eligible organizations design and prototype new ideas and to launch real-life projects that address major challenges facing the arts and culture sector today. Organizations are selected to participate in the Innovation Lab via a competitive Request-for-Proposals process. Delivered in three phases over a 12-month period, the Innovation Lab provides a strong framework within which new strategies can be explored and prototyped before a full launch.

For more information, click here.