Is it time to stop?: Exploring a “death with dignity” process for arts organizations

We’re living through a time of massive transition, a dying of the old ways and a birthing of new systems.

Change is happening so quickly that our bodies can’t keep up, and our organizations certainly can’t. How do we navigate this time of flux as humans and as organizational leaders? I’m increasingly convinced that we need to think more about endings. Our nonprofit culture has been so focused on growth and on sustainability that we have not paid enough attention to life cycles. It’s rare for an organization to decide on its own to close, and rarer still to do it well. 

Rebecca Novick is a Theatre Consultant and Cultural Strategist. Her consulting work builds on her deep understanding of the needs of artists and arts organizations and focuses on finding new ways of working and new structures for our organizations. To learn more about Rebecca click here!

A few years ago, I was approached by a theater company that had made the difficult decision to close. They wanted someone to facilitate the process, both the practical aspects and the emotional ones. They had a space to pass on, a 15-year archive of work, and a large community of past artists and collaborators. We met over several months, sometimes focusing on logistics, and sometimes on the grieving process the founders were going through. Ultimately they created a beautiful funeral performance for the company, a memorial plaque for the space they were releasing, and offered closure to their whole community.

Last year, I had another client close in the way we’re more used to in the arts – first the emergency fundraising appeal, then the layoffs, then silence, then an abrupt end. There was no transparency about what had happened to the funds raised, and no closure for the artists and staff. The contrast was stark, and demonstrated how a good ending can redeem the difficult process of closure. 

Anyone who’s accompanied a parent or loved one through their final days knows this in their bones. The way we go matters. There are more and more options for “death with dignity” for people facing terminal disease. What if we created a process like that for nonprofit organizations?

Here in the US, The Wind Down offers a free closure hotline for organizations engaged in deciding whether to close.  The UK organization Stewarding Loss has been exploring closure processes for several years and offers a wide range of resources to help organizations prepare. Their research illuminates the moment we are in – as a dominant system begins to crumble and new models arise, some of the old organizations must be stabilized and some need to enter into a productive process of “hospicing.” 

Cassie Robinson of Stewarding Loss proposes the Berkana Two Loop Model as a way to understand the system change we’re experiencing:

Image courtesy of Stewarding Loss

In our work at Creative Evolutions, we often arrive when an organization is going through a destabilizing event - a leadership transition, a space issue, a financial crisis.

Robinson’s model illuminates for me the questions we should be asking:

• Does your organization need stabilizing?

• Or does it need hospicing?

• What would meaningful “hospice” support look like for an arts organization?

• How could the resources of a closing organization be “composted” as Camille Acey of The Wind Down states in her work?

• Can we return these resources to the arts ecosystem or does closing mean the inevitable loss of space, funding, and supporters?

• We also need to attend to the humans in the mix. How can we compassionately hold the grief and fear of staff and leadership when their organization is considering closing? 

I would further propose that these questions are not only useful for organizations in crisis. Just as “write your own obituary” is a frequent prompt in coaching processes, organizations should regularly contemplate their own mortality. Planning processes should include a discussion of what accomplishing the mission might look like and lead to a shared understanding of what the ideal lifespan for the organization might be. 

Buddhist teachings propose that we move towards enlightenment when we begin to understand the fleetingness of life; in this moment of multi-system collapse, it is just as important to reach for an understanding of the mortality of organizations. Not every nonprofit needs to reach its centennial, and success is not only measured in longevity. 

Has your organization been contemplating its mortality? How do these questions resonate for you? What kind of support could Creative Evolutions offer that would help you in this kind of process?

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In a season marked by both heaviness and hope, we decided that one way to activate support for the arts & culture ecosystem is by creating space for care.

Join us for the 🌿Compassionate Processing Circle Series 🌿—a space designed for nonprofit and arts professionals navigating burnout, leadership transitions, budget shifts, and everyday overstimulation. 

These 90-minute sessions offer room to breathe, reflect, and connect in community.

CE Co-founder/Managing Collaborator Calida Jones, M.M., and Theatre Director/Cultural Strategist Rebecca Novick will facilitate.

📅 July 31 | August 28 | September 18

⏲ 7:00 – 8:30 PM ET

⏲ 4:00- 5:30 PM PT

💵 Free for CE partner org staff (DM with org name for code) | $5–$30 sliding scale for others

All are welcome. Come as you are.

Learn more and register at https://lnkd.in/gFkeGNXp