“What I found most encouraging and impressive about the RAC model was its ability to expand the capacity and competencies of very small organizations in rural Colorado. Small, rural communities struggle to
sustain arts programming for many reasons, including lack of funding, volunteer or low- paid staffing, limited staff capacity, and isolation from other arts organizations.
The RAC program quite evidently responded to many of these challenges by providing a platform through which small organizations and arts service providers were able to share knowledge and resources, and quite simply support each other through the challenges of operating a small non-profit organization and providing relevant arts programming in a small community. At least two RAC participants spoke at the convening about how helpful it was to them, being new to non-profit management and/ or the arts, to be able to be in constant conversation with other arts administrators. Others shared the value that they got from collaborating with nearby communities to provide more expanded programming. Participants both improved imperative skills and knowledge, such as grant-writing strategies and equity considerations, as well as were able to make more programming available to their communities by pooling resources and collaborating across communities. It was evident in their conversations that each participant valued the experience and that relationships had been built that will continue to sustain their work. I am excited for the findings from this project to be shared, and I think that there is a real opportunity to share this model and its successes with arts funders, including foundations, and state and regional arts agencies and councils. Supporting rural arts programming is a goal of many arts funders; and yet, many struggle to support small rural arts organizations for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include the fact that arts and culture programming is often carried out in rural communities by organizations that are not specifically arts focused or by the hard work of dedicated individuals, the fact that many small arts nonprofit leaders and boards have limited experience with fundraising and grant writing, and the fact that arts programming in rural communities can look and feel very different from more urban arts practices and offerings both in scale and form. I could see the RAC model as an opportunity for funders to support programming and capacity building in rural arts through a model that is perhaps easier to accommodate and more familiar to their existing funding models. The gap that I see at this point is really the question of what a network like this needs to provide to participants to make it worth their time. As we all know, rural leaders wear a lot of hats and aren’t rich in time. I think that the RAC program may have largely been successful because there were funds available not only for the administration of the network (which I think is crucial), but also for participants
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