From the Farmhouse Table: January 2023
A headline, hope, and radical gratitude
Just before the year ended, a New York Times headline riveted and relieved the leaders of struggling arts nonprofits across the country. “Pandemic Woes Lead Met Opera to Tap Endowment and Embrace New Work: Facing tepid ticket sales, the company will withdraw up to $30 million from its endowment and stage more operas by living composers, which have been outselling the classics.” (link to full article. Please note there is a paywall.)
The article felt like a vindication.
Hedgebrook Board members emailed the article to me. A friend who runs a literary nonprofit in the Bay Area forwarded it to her finance director. A Memphis-based accountant sent the story to her arts client in Portland, Ore.
“Every time I see an article like that I do feel ‘we’re all in this,’” said Rebecca Hoogs, executive director of Seattle Arts & Lectures. “It’s cold comfort, but everyone is in the same boat.”
I’m christening that boat The Pandemic Woes. For mission-based arts nonprofits like Hedgebrook, 2020, 2021 and 2022 were years on the Sea of Changed Funding. We made it safely to 2023 (thank you, Team Hedgebrook!!). But this year, our 35th anniversary, can’t be like the old ones.
The Hedgebrook question that keeps me up at night is this: how do we chart our way to a sustainable model of funding that offers stability in the face of calamity, and resilience as we look ahead?
In that NYTimes piece, I saw the Metropolitan Opera asking itself the same question. Perhaps the answer is focusing, not on the boat or the sea, but on creating a setting that works for the people.
Here at Hedgebrook, we believe we have a setting that works for the people we serve, and we know you believe it too. Thousands of women-identified writers and counting have found harbor here and through our smart, thoughtful online programming, and as we prepare to welcome more this year, we have not found words adequate to express gratitude for all of you who contribute to the future of this space.
Thanks to you, this new year will not be like the last.
-Kimberly A.C. Wilson | Executive Director, Hedgebrook