Everywhere in the world non-profit organizations are challenged to pursue their mission, none more so than arts and cultural organizations like museums, ballet and opera companies, and theaters. Present circumstances with arts funding being cut exacerbates perennial struggles. Arts based non-profit organizations have always sought ways to grow their audiences efficiently, sell more tickets and build sustainable sources of funding. Now, this quest is mission critical.

Our guest this episode is Eric Nelson, Vice President, Global Partnerships at TRG Arts, an international change agency committed to building thriving arts and cultural organizations. Experts in the arts sector for over 25 years, TRG Arts has earned a reputation by successfully shaping for-profit and non-profit business models to focus on consumer relationships, financial stability, organizational frameworks, and people-centric teams.

In this episode, Eric talks about the need for non-profit arts and cultural organizations to be better storytellers as well as dispelling myths about growing, surviving and thriving in tumultuous times.

To learn more about TRG Arts: http://www.trgarts.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest this episode is Giovanni Boivin, the proprietor of The BookLoft, a 50-year-old independent bookstore in Great Barrington Massachusetts in the US. A “Storyteller turned Storyseller”, Gio (as he is known to staff and customers) turned a grade school love of story to a career that has manifested in creative writing and then relating the stories behind a tourist destination as a tour guide, at an historic house in the Berkshire region of Western Massachusetts he calls home. Since 2022 Gio has been the owner of The Bookloft, where he started as a clerk and wore many hats for years before becoming its steward and proprietor.

The Bookloft serves locals and visitors as an alternative to the big box retailers who have rendered many indie bookstores extinct. But fear not if Western Mass is not on your itinerary anytime soon. Gio presides over a healthy online business as well, that will locate and ship titles domestically for your reading pleasure and gifting needs. https://www.thebookloft.com/

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Our guest this episode is Malu Halasa, a prolific and passionate observer of the Middle East through the lens of art and culture. Our conversation explores how she provides readers with a unique window into the changing mores of the region, having written and edited over 8 anthologies, and several novels and short stories of her own.

Born in Oklahoma, to Jordanian and Filipino parents, raised in Ohio, a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, Malu now lives in London, where she is currently a Literary Editor at The Markaz Review.

As a journalist, Malu’s contributions include music journalism for Rolling Stone, and writing for Huffington Post, and The Guardian.

Anthologies she has edited include:

· “Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline”,

· “Culture in Defiance: Continuing Traditions of Satire, Art and the Struggle for Freedom in Syria”,

· “Transit Tehran: Young Iran and Its Inspirations”

· “The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design”,

· “Woman Life Freedom: Voices and Art from the Women’s Protests in Iran”,

· And a new book coming out in January called “Sumud: A New Palestinian Reader”

Her debut novel “Mother of all Pigs” is an epic Jordanian family saga chronicling the comedy and pathos of the patriarchy in decline.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.