A Guide to Working at Fractured Atlas This week Fractured Atlas published How We Work: A Guide to Working at Fractured Atlas. It’s a document that’s been in the making ever since we opened our doors in 1998, and it’s the result of years of conversations, research, experimenting, and iterating. Within minutes of publishing, we were already tinkering with it, a nod to the ever-changing nature of life at Fractured Atlas. work.fracturedatlas.org Why publish this document publicly? Why not? What’s so special and sacred about workplace policies, values, and culture that we often keep them under lock and key? Every company has core values whether they articulate them or not. Every organization has a set of guard rails that guide its work. (Those guard rails might be close together or miles apart, but they still exist.) Our organizations, and the cultural sector, benefit from articulating these things and sharing the information so we can all borrow and iterate on the ideas like any talented artist (I’m looking at you Benjamin Britten and your Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra). Maybe you’re interested in a job at Fractured Atlas and curious about what it’s like to work here. Maybe you’ve heard whispers of Fractured Atlas’s unlimited day off policy. Maybe you’ve heard about our R&D pipeline for the exploration and development of new products and services. We thought the time had come to put pencil to paper, and then, uh, publish that content as a website. It seems we’re constantly talking about workplace culture at Fractured Atlas. What do people need to do their best work? How can we find meaning and purpose in our work? If this isn’t the job you love anymore, can you craft the one you want out of the one you have? If not, where do you want to go and how can your time at Fractured Atlas help you get there? How can teams operate with trust and respect while also embracing healthy conflict? We talk about shared purpose — change the world — and shared identity — Waffle Wednesdays (usually on Thursdays) — and about what it means to have a workplace environment where you’re more frequently than not building the plane while flying it. Our office library includes dog-eared copies of Good to Great, Nuts!, Maverick, The Hard Things About Hard Things, Delivering Happiness, Zingerman’s Staff Guide, How to Measure Anything, Multipliers, The Purpose Economy, The Advantage, Give & Take, Who: The A Guide to Hiring, Remote: Office Not Required, and countless others related titles. We talk about what it means for our company culture and the office environment when 75% of staff work remotely at least one day a week, with 25% of staff fully remote in ten different states. Is it possible to equalize the experience so rather than onsite versus offsite, people feel they all work for the same organization and are committed to the same purpose? How We Work isn’t a template, not even for Fractured Atlas. If we were to relaunch the company today it would be a mistake to take this document as gospel and adopt it without question. Just like trying to be Google doesn’t work for Fractured Atlas, trying to be Fractured Atlas circa 2002 doesn’t work for Fractured Atlas circa 2016. Would we borrow and iterate on some of the policies, probably. Some of them have withstood the test of time. Others? Still in the experimental phase and might not make the cut. Lastly, does each person at Fractured Atlas wholeheartedly agree that — from their personal perspective — How We Work accurately reflects their work experience? No. Like most things we do at Fractured Atlas, smart, opinionated, talented people disagree. People disagree about how to go about accomplishing something. People disagree about the speed at which things should be attempted. Show me 35 smart, talented, insightful people who all totally agree about everything. Does that mean we wait for perfect alignment and consensus? No. We head down a path that is directionally correct and make adjustments as we go. Please take a gander, and then, if they don’t already, encourage your organization to publish what it’s like to work there. Openness and transparency help us all. It helps fuel the conversation so we can become stronger organizations and a stronger sector. Ultimately, it helps us create better, more fulfilling and supportive places to work that make bigger dents in the universe. Share away!

Courtney Duffy’s work as Fractured Atlas Arts & Technology Policy Fellow has been made possible through the generosity of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. You can find her by emailing courtney.duffy@fracturedatlas.org or on Twitter @cduffy90. The Deutsch Foundation recently profiled Courtney’s fellowship on its blog, which you can find here.

Every week, we find the most interesting and important stories at the intersection of the Arts, technology, and business and share them with you. (If you’d like to get these in your e-mail inbox you can subscribe to here).

Pre-gaming your arrival to the executive director’s chair It was like receiving an electronic time capsule from my younger self when the text message pinged its arrival. Last week a friend texted me the photo below of a handout I created to accompany a talk I gave about ten years ago. I don’t recall the session name, but the handout was titled, “…like drinking from a fire hose,” and contained a list of the things I suggested a new non-profit executive director review before sitting down in that fancy, new chair on their first day.

Source: Flickr Members of Congress spend recess at home in the district, offering artists a great opportunity to connect Our Arts & Technology Policy Fellow, Courtney Duffy (@cduffy90), whose role is made possible through the generosity of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, offers the merits of connecting with elected officials in the coming weeks, along with advocacy tips for artists who choose to do so.

photo credit: Gender/Power Composition IV, a MAP Fund recipient and Fractured Atlas member Calling all presenting artists and arts organizations! If you’re fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas and interested in applying for the MAP Fund, please continue reading for some important information about applying.

The Fractured Atlas and Createquity teams are back with a second installment of the Createquity podcast! Our first series, “Watch Where You’re Giving,” discussed the implications for the arts of the growing philanthropic movement called effective altruism. In this series, we look at what it takes to “make it” as a professional artist, as explored in Createquity’s recent series of research-driven articles. Is a college education actually necessary, and how much depends on talent versus luck versus a high tolerance for uncertainty? And is the chance to succeed as a professional artist equally available to people of all backgrounds and income levels, or are people who, for example, grew up in lower-income families less likely to become professional artists? In this latest Createquity podcast series, Createquity and Fractured Atlas team members illuminate the major factors that contribute to artists (or prevent artists from) establishing successful careers. We also focus on some of the tools Fractured Atlas has developed to support artists, with the larger goal of helping create a more navigable and equitable ecosystem for professional artists. Episode 1: Guest Michael Feldman (bio below) provides a quick rundown of the research Createquity has done on this topic. Hear about how the decision to become an artist is affected by socioeconomic background and tolerance for risk, and what artists have in common with tech entrepreneurs. This includes a comparison of different state-run programs for artists in countries outside the United States. Episode 2: In this case study of sorts, guest Theresa Hubbard, Program Specialist in fiscal sponsorship at Fractured Atlas (bio below), explains how fiscal sponsorship and the organization’s other programs can help mitigate some of the challenges and risks working artists face. She also discusses her own professional and personal experiences with access to creativity and her views on the future of the field. The Host Andrew Taylor, Host Andrew Taylor thinks (a bit too much) about organizational structure, strategy, and management practice in the nonprofit arts. An Associate Professor of Arts Management at American University in Washington, DC, he shares what he learns at “The Artful Manager.” The Guests Michael Feldman | Editorial Team, Createquity Michael Feldman provides strategic and engagement advice to local and international arts organizations. Based in Washington, D.C., he also serves as a board member of the Alliance for a New Music Theatre, an arts partner of the Czech Embassy for theirMutual Inspirations Festival. Michael is a former cultural attaché and diplomat whose experience bridges the arts, development, and public policy worlds. Michael was a director at PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief; a director for Europe and Central Asia at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; and professional staff of the Budget Committee of the U.S. Senateas part of a fellowship with the American Political Science Association. At the US State Department, Michael served in Europe and Central Africa; he oversaw assistance for the Balkans; and he negotiated policy with theOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD), the G-7/8 process, and the European Union. Michael graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Economics and speaks German, Czech, French and Italian. Theresa Hubbard | Program Specialist, Fiscal Sponsorship, Fractured Atlas Theresa Hubbard is a Program Specialist at Fractured Atlas, where she helps sponsored artists and emerging organizations navigate the funding landscape and find resources to support their work. She also serves on the steering committee of the National Network of Fiscal Sponsors. Prior to joining the Fractured Atlas team in 2011, she completed internships with the National Symphony Orchestra at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and with the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. Theresa is an active member of the Oratorio Society of New York and holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Syracuse University. The Team Ian David Moss | Executive Producer Ian David Moss is the founder and CEO of Createquity, a virtual think tank and online publication investigating the most important issues in the arts and what we can do about them. As Senior Director of Information Strategy for Fractured Atlas, Ian works with his own organization and the wider field to promote a culture of learning and assessment and support informed decision-making on behalf of the arts. Evidence-based strategic frameworks that he helped create have guided the distribution of nearly $100 million in grants to date by some of the nation’s most important arts funders. In addition to Createquity, Ian founded the Cultural Research Network, an open resource-sharing forum for self-identified researchers in the arts, and C4: The Composer/Conductor Collective. He holds BA and MBA degrees from Yale University and is based in Washington, DC. Malcolm Evans | Producer Malcolm Evans is a Program Associate at Fractured Atlas. He graduated from Trinity College (Hartford) in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater & Dance. He also carries a minor in Studio Arts and has studied with the London Dramatic Academy Program. When he’s not hard at work at Fractured Atlas, he is hard at work at home, writing screenplays. Follow him on social media @malxavi. Katherine Gressel | Assistant Producer Katherine Gressel is an NYC-based freelance artist, curator and writer focused on site‐specific and community art. She was a 2011 Createquity Writing Fellow and now helps spearhead new public programming for the organization. She has also published and presented with Americans for the Arts’ Public Art Network and Public Art Dialogue, among others. Katherine is currently the Contemporary Curator at Brooklyn’s Old Stone House, and has also curated for Brooklyn Historical Society, FIGMENT, No Longer Empty, and NARS Foundation. Katherine has painted community murals internationally and exhibited her own artwork throughout NYC, and currently runs an award-winning business, Event Painting by Katherine, creating live paintings of private events. Katherine has also held programming, grantwriting and teaching artist jobs and internships at such organizations as Smack Mellon, Arts to Grow, Creative Time and theBrooklyn Museum. Katherine earned her BA in art from Yale and MA in arts administration from Columbia. Jason Tseng | Engineer Jason Tseng has devoted his professional and personal life to empowering ordinary people to make extraordinary change. Splitting his time between serving the arts and queer communities of color, he has worked for organizations like Theatre Communications Group, Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and currently serves on the steering committee and chair emeritus of GAPIMNY, the second oldest queer Asian community organization in the nation. Jason currently serves as the Community Engagement Specialist at Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit technology company that serves artists. Before moving to New York, he grew up outside Washington, D.C., in Maryland and graduated from the University of Richmond studying Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Theatre. In his spare time, Jason creates plays, stories, comics, and illustrations (usually about queer people and people of color). He now lives in Long Island City with his fiancé and their rabbit, Turnip Cake. Other Suggested Reading The BFA’s Dance with Inequality— Shawn Lent, Louise Geraghty, Michael Feldman, and Talia Gibas Who Can Afford to Be A Starving Artist?— Shawn Lent, Louise Geraghty, Michael Feldman, Talia Gibas, and Ian David Moss The State: A Friend Indeed to Artists in Need? — Shawn Lent, Michael Feldman, Talia Gibas, and Louise Geraghty Createquity is a virtual think tank and online publication investigating the most important issues in the arts and what we, collectively and individually, can do about them

The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, which generously makes my Arts & Technology Policy fellowship possible, recently connected me with an organization that shares the Fractured Atlas mission to eliminate barriers to artistic expression. Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts — or MdVLA for short — protects the legal rights of Maryland-based artists through pro bono legal referrals and education. Adam Holofcener, MdVLA’s executive director, has a background in policy work and graciously agreed to answer a few of my questions. You’ll find our conversation, which has been lightly edited for the sake of brevity, below.

Every week, we find the most interesting and important stories at the intersection of the Arts, technology, and business and share them with you. (If you’d like to get these in your e-mail inbox you can subscribe to here). Check back every week for insightful and eye-opening stories that peaked our interest, and hopefully yours too. OPINION: How to Build a Better Board. The first thing we have to do is recognize and embrace the basic fact that leadership for nonprofit arts organizations must come from the board, not the staff.” Pokémon Go Is a Massive Art Happening and You’re All Invited. The app’s number of daily users is set to surpass Twitter’s, somewhere around 140 million people, and they’re spending at least 43 minutes a day in-app. It’s a cultural phenomenon to say the least, and it’s also an art happening. Lawmakers Restore $7.7M in Funding for Massachusetts Cultural Council. This funding allows the Massachusetts Cultural Council to continue their crucial programming including […] support for Springfield’s new cultural district, and arts and music programming for thousands of school-aged kids’. Canada Pursues New Approach to Arts Funding. In Canada, by contrast, the arts are elemental to what the prime minister has called the emergence of Canada as the ‘first post-national state. What Instagram Reveals About Inequality in New York City. Their analysis shows that more than half of all visitors’ photos are concentrated in 24 tracts, which cover just 12 percent of Manhattan’s total area. Pressure Mounts for US Museums to Increase Diversity at the Top. Two recent studies paint a stark picture of the lack of ethnic and racial diversity among top museum staff in the US. While people of colour represent 38% of the country’s population, they make up only 9% of museum boards and 16% of the administrators, curators, conservators and educators who make decisions about what is exhibited and preserved as culturally important. Former Met Tech Maestro Named Chief Digital Officer of New York City. Sreenivasan, who was responsible for the creation of a Met smartphone application and a redesigned website, will now head the Office of Digital Strategy, which is in charge of engaging the public and representing city government through technology.

Guest post by Jamie Hoffman, Home Decor and Garden Buyer at UncommonGoods Jamie Hoffman — Uncommon Goods As a buyer for UncommonGoods, I spend my days scouring craft fairs and trade shows looking for new items to sell in our online shop. I meet a lot of talented artists who’ve worked hard to perfect their products, but who are struggling with how to break into the commercial market. Sometimes it’s because they haven’t figured out how to scale their production capacity in a way that inspires confidence. Other times it’s because they’re neglecting to frame their work in a way that shows how special it is — be it through photography or written product descriptions. Because of my experience and perspective as a retail buyer, I know that every aspect of developing and showcasing product is an opportunity to share it with the customer.