Follow Friday

There is nothing quite like perusing through Substack or Medium to help one realize just how many smart people there are in the world! So many, in fact, that it can be difficult to know where to start.  We decided to share just a handful of the articles and newsletters that make their way into our inboxes regularly and inevitably become part of our office conversations, in case you are looking for some new inspiration. To keep the list from being too overwhelming, we are limiting our recommendations to the newsletters we make a point to open right away (as opposed to those that are relegated to the To Read folder, which have a much lower chance of being actually read). Many of them are American, so if you have Canadian recommendations, please let us know about them!

Arm's Length by Michael Rushton. 

Michael Rushton taught in the Arts Administration programs at Indiana University, and lives in Bloomington. An economist by training, he has published widely on such topics as public funding of the arts, copyright, nonprofit organizations, and tax policy, and is the author of Strategic Pricing for the Arts (2014) and The Moral Foundations of Public Funding for the Arts (2023). Although he is living in the States, he grew up in Vancouver and often discusses Canadian art management and policy issues. 

Arts Managed Field Notes by E. Andrew Taylor.

This weekly newsletter by E. Andrew Taylor explores professional practice in Arts Management. "Every Tuesday morning brings fresh insight or inspiration on working better, smarter, and more compassionately in the business of arts and culture," reads the Substack description. Andrew brings three decades of insight and inquiry to improving professional practice in the arts. Director and Assoc. Professor of Arts Management at American University, he consults for cultural, educational, and support organizations worldwide. 

Prosper Strategies newsletter.

For more than a decade, Prosper Strategies has helped the world’s leading nonprofits develop stakeholder-centric plans, marketing, fundraising, and brand strategies. Their newsletter often offers great ideas and approaches to Strategic Planning.

Culture for Hire by Ruth Hartt.

With one foot in the arts sector and the other in business innovation, Ruth Hartt is rebuilding cultural audiences through a radically customer-first model. Merging nearly two decades as an opera singer with deep expertise in customer-centric innovation, Ruth equips arts organizations with the strategies they need to reverse audience decline and spark new growth. Although her newsletters can be very sales-y, promoting her services and new software, the ideas she brings to the table around audience-centric marketing are very valuable and useful. She often references the Jobs-To-Be-Done theory in her work.

Mass Culture Newsletter

Our friends at Mass Culture have a less frequent but always good newsletter that talks about data, evaluation, impact assessment, and more, often through very personal case stories that show the work in action. 

Art After This by David Maggs

Again, this series appears more sporadically in our inboxes, but is always opened right away or flagged to be read! David Maggs provides some deep theories and thinking about the current and future state of the arts, engaging in conversations with arts leaders and thinkers that you know went much, much longer than what appears in print!

Now it's your turn!

What newsletters make the cut for you and your inbox? Any podcasts that get you thinking? Let us know on any of our socials or email lisa@rozsafoundation.com, and if we get enough, we can do a reader roundup.