By Alan Brown
In January, Brett Egan, Gary Steuer and I co-organized a virtual convening attended by nearly 350 artists, researchers, funders, advocates, and administrators to brainstorm the future of sector support in the US. I’m pleased to share that the anonymized transcripts from the convening are now publicly available.
As Brett Egan laid out in his opening remarks, the convening sought to accelerate critical and creative thinking about the future of the US arts and culture sector at a moment of concern, opportunity, and heightened interest in collective action.
The effort – recognizing co-existing efforts to advance similar dialogues – did not attempt to develop a unified position, authority, or consensus. Rather, it embraced the complexities, diversity, and, at times, tensions in our field through dialogue on three vital questions:
- Vision 2045 – What is your vision for a more fully realized, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable arts and culture sector in 2045? Why is this important?
- Workflows – What strands of work (or “workflows”) would be required to realize the visions described for the arts and culture sector in 2045?
- Leadership and Collaboration Structures – How might the work required to achieve a stronger arts and culture sector be organized and mobilized across the field?
Participants, who met via Zoom, were randomly assigned to one of 13 concurrent breakout groups for dialogue on each of the three questions. An additional group of 25 sector representatives gathered in person to help facilitate and reflect on the discourse. We are incredibly grateful for the collegiality and vigorous participation of all who contributed to this effort.
None of the organizers, facilitators, or participants were compensated for their involvement. The dialogue sought to engage participants of diverse background and perspective known to be involved in similar discussions in other forums. Understanding its limitations, the convening did not profess to be “representative” of the field and understood its role as just one point in an ongoing national discourse on the future of the field.
The event was produced as a volunteer exercise, with no foundation or other financial support – both out of a sense of urgency and to reduce any conflicts that might arise from sponsorship or underwriting.
In essence, it was an experiment in crowdsourced future-casting, and it yielded a rich data set.
What Resources are Available?
After light editing (for anonymity and clarity), and a period of review by participants, transcripts (i.e., raw qualitative data) are now available.
Participants, meeting under a modified Chatham House Rule, provided permission to the co-organizers to publish these transcripts of 13 concurrent sessions in anonymized format.
They are as follows:
How Might This Information Be Used?
The organizers submit this information to the field for critical examination, in hopes of supporting serious discourse about potential futures of the American arts and culture sector. (The dialogues acknowledge the problematic complexity of the term “sector”).
We invite the public to identify themes, patterns, or tensions across the discussions; share interpretations, syntheses, and responses in their own forums; develop new frameworks, proposals, or lines of inquiry informed by the material; contest the theses of the convening; and otherwise connect these insights to related work in their community or field.
Given the volume of data, we’ve provided links to preliminary AI outputs below, without bias for the prompts developed. The links below are provided simply to illustrate the power of the approach and encourage other similar, or divergent approaches to analysis. AI Summaries:
- An AI summary of National Discussion Session 1 (Vision 2045)
- An AI summary of National Discussion Session 2 (Workflows)
- An AI summary of National Discussion Session 3 (Leadership and Collaboration Structures)
What Comes Next?
July 15 Briefing. The co-organizers will hold a follow-up, online meeting on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, from 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET. Register here. This session will feature a review and recap of the January virtual sessions, a discussion of key themes that emerged in the session transcripts, and dialogue on how to advance the work and broaden the scope of participation.
Substack. To continue this discourse, we’ve set up a Substack feed, where, in time, additional publications relevant to the discussion will be posted. Join the Substack. The platform will remain active for one year to support the advancement of the dialogue.
Contact. We welcome your involvement, feedback, and collaboration. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at ArtsPathsForward@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
Alan Brown, Managing Principal WolfBrown
