About Us

NAS has been working with leaders in arts and culture for over twenty-five years. We've seen that a dynamic, sustainable arts community comes from the vision and effort of skilled professionals. In our organizational leadership programs arts leaders explore the toughest challenges facing organizations today, and learn from some of the leading business school faculty in the United States. The experience is always interactive and engaging, respectful but demanding. And it brings the best thinking from outside the arts sector into the community, challenging arts and cultural leaders to take a fresh look at their organizations.

History

NAS has been a key contributor to capacity building in the arts and culture sector. Our initial focus on financial capacity building, from 1983 to 2002, was realized through a national network of stabilization programs. The successful legacy of this work includes a now standard focus on balance sheet strategy and asset-building in arts and cultural organizations, the universal use of liquidity measurements as a metric for organizational health, and the incorporation of capitalization initiatives as a priority in funder driven programs across the United States.

Our mission expanded beyond financial capacity to help build overall leadership capacity beginning in 1998. NAS has developed the premiere executive education program for the arts and culture sector, using content developed with faculty at the leading business and graduate schools in the country; a unique team-centered classroom experience that brings together top executives, key staff, and key board members; framework-based models that can be readily adapted to each leader's specific circumstances; and a focus on application throughout the experience, in the classroom and in follow-on services, to enable real organizational change.

Our organizational leadership programs reach organizations from all disciplines, and our underwritten tuition and travel expenses make events accessible to organizations of all budget sizes. This investment in leadership capacity has produced the sector's most diverse leadership community of alumni and faculty. It has also generated changes in the language and core management frameworks used by grantee organizations; partnerships to advance the full range of educational services available to the field; and policy discussions with leading grantmakers to enhance field capacity building.