‘We will become humbler and can improvise better’

Leaders from theaters, galleries and museums share the lessons learned from dealing with the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. They tell how they mobilized digital innovation to keep the arts alive.

Cultural leaders faced an existential threat to their institutions during the COVID-19 crisis. They had to adapt quickly, making innovative use of digital technology, to surmount enormous difficulties. In two previous articles, they shared with us their experiences, the good and the bad, of leading in turbulent times.

In this third and final article, I asked them what lessons they had learned during the pandemic that they could use going forward. To ensure confidentiality, all quotes are anonymized.  

As might be expected from this group of leaders of theaters, galleries and museums, they have all found creative possibilities in the darkness that could bring about significant change for their organizations, as long as the learning does not fade too quickly. These possibilities are by no means specific to cultural organizations – they are potentially widely applicable – and they fall into five broad areas. 

 1. Greater focus  

 Non-profit cultural organizations typically have multiple bottom lines – a range of different metrics for success. As a consequence, they can often find themselves stretched in different directions, chasing funding or oblique opportunities at the expense of a more singular concentration on core purpose. The demands of the pandemic have forced leaders to focus on “core mission and values and hone down activities to the things that are critical and important”. One said: “We have prioritized like never before” and have made “efficiencies that can be re-invested back into our core purpose – to serve the public”. 

The pandemic seems to have had a cleansing effect: “Much of the baggage of leadership has of necessity been cast aside, the bureaucracy and the meetings, as the big issues of survival, colleagues’ state of mind and financial priorities have taken all our energies and time for month after month. We intend to recover and stay focused on those big issues.” 

One heritage leader spoke of fundamental review, noting that that his organization had begun “to cost too much to run; it was bureaucratic and over-governed, full of complexity and slow to react. The pandemic has forced a full-scale review of costs and we have reduced staff levels by more than 40%. The restructuring and role changes that I thought would take years are nearly complete. Ways of working changed overnight; the challenge is to hold on to new-found agility.” 

A museum director expressed succinctly what I suspect many leaders feel in more normal times: “Previously, we were hyperactive – ‘think big, do more’. We always talked about doing less but never did. This forced us to do less, think further ahead and for once we have had enough time to do this.”