Amplifier Workshops
About Amplifier Workshops
The Amplifier Workshops are a series of professional development workshops and gatherings providing local arts and cultural administrators access to expertise on specific topics that may otherwise be difficult to access. These workshops give organizations and arts workers the opportunity to directly engage with local and national arts experts on topics such as marketing, audience development, and fundraising.
Upcoming Workshop Details Coming Soon!
Recent Workshops
Thu, Oct 17, 2024 at 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Tuesday, March 18, 2025, from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Join us for a moderated discussion over lunch with North Texas arts leaders like yourself on emerging trends, new approaches, and what has (and hasn't) been working in marketing and audience development.
This will be an interactive format with candid conversations among peers on marketing strategies. Free to attend, and lunch is included.
Suggested attendees: executive directors, marketing directors, communications directors, and other mid- or senior-level managers who are responsible for marketing and audience development planning and execution at their organizations.
James Ryan Jillson - Facilitator
Director of Analytics, Dallas Symphony Orchestra | Adjunct Lecturer, SMU Meadows School of the Arts
James is a musician-turned-arts administrator with a passion for helping cultural institutions take data-driven approaches to developing strategy, navigating change, building audiences, and strengthening revenue.
In 2023, James joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the largest performing arts organization in the southwest, as Director of Analytics. There, he leads a new department created to help drive audience and revenue growth through data strategy.
Additionally, James teaches as part of the Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship graduate program at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.
Most recently, James served as the Director of Development at the Nasher Sculpture Center, a nonprofit modern and contemporary art museum, where he led the team in achieving record growth in revenue and engagement. In recent years, he’s also led numerous workshops and presented research on arts marketing and fundraising at industry conferences nationally and internationally.
James earned an M.B.A. with an emphasis in Marketing, an M.A. in Arts Management, and a B.A. in Music from SMU.
2023 Amplifier Workshops Sponsor
Catalyzing Your Culture: Creating Organizational Change
This two-part, interactive workshop is designed to help organizations prepare for and implement changes in organizational culture to create spaces of belonging for leaders, staff, audiences, and stakeholders.
Suggested audience: CEOs/Executive Directors, Executive and Board Leadership Teams
Part 1: Barriers to Change
October 26, 2023, 10am to 12pm
What’s getting in the way of the change you’d like to see in your organization? Change happens in non-profit organizations either too quickly or too slowly, but the process often isn’t managed well. Learn more about tools that can assist in creating the change you’d like to see. In this session, we will learn more about the Immunity to Change process by Harvard professors and authors Kegan and Lahey as well as the work of Ronald Heifetz on Adaptive Leadership. Prepare to discover how our unconscious beliefs hold us back from moving forward!
Suggested Pre-Read: The Real Reason People Won’t Change, by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey (Harvard Business Review, November 2021)
Part 2: Facilitating Organizational Change to Create Spaces of Belonging
November 9, 2023, 10am to 12pm
To create an organizational culture of belonging, we must create spaces that are intentional for everyone to be affirmed, seen, heard, and valued. The culture of your organization has an impact on your internal operations affecting staff, morale, well-being, and productivity. It also has an impact on your external relationships in the community that can limit your board recruitment and outreach efforts. This session builds on the first workshop and examines how your organization’s culture could be a barrier to change and ultimately, your growth.
Location of both workshops to be announced shortly.
Meet the Instructor
Dr. Froswa’ Booker-Drew
Building meaningful and fruitful collaborations for the betterment of the community is what Dr. Booker Drew has spearheaded for years. Froswa’ Booker-Drew, Ph.D. is a Network Weaver who believes relationships are the key to our personal, professional, and organizational growth. She has been quoted/featured in Forbes, Ozy, Bustle, Huffington Post, Modern Luxury, and other media outlets, due to her extensive background in leadership, nonprofit management, philanthropy, partnership development, training, and education.
She is the CEO of Soulstice Consultancy, LLC providing belonging and inclusion support, leadership training, community engagement strategies, and philanthropic/partnership guidance for local and national institutions, and the CEO of R2 Foundation (Restoration and Reconciliation Foundation) providing support for Black-led nonprofits.
Formerly the Vice President of Community Affairs for the State Fair of Texas, Froswa’ was responsible for grantmaking, educational programming, and community initiatives. More than 70% of organizations funded were led by people of color. As the previous National Community Engagement Director for World Vision, she served as a catalyst, partnership broker, and builder of the capacity of local partners in multiple locations across the US to improve and sustain the well-being of children and their families. She is also co-founder of HERitage Giving Circle, one of the first Black Women Giving Circles in the state of Texas, and co-founder of both Power in Action-Dallas and the South Dallas Employment Project.
For Dr. Booker-Drew’s full bio, please visit the event page or the Soulstice Consultancy, LLC website.
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Succession Planning & Leadership Transitions: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Presented by TACA, Sammons Center for the Arts, and Social Impact Architects
Changes in organizational leadership can bring both tremendous opportunities and challenges. Many founders or long-time leaders struggle with the decision to leave, with worries about their legacy and the organization’s future. For Board Members, identifying the qualities they need in a new leader and managing search can be daunting. Every organization eventually has to confront the decision of how to change leadership, and thoughtful planning can ease that transition, whether it’s in six months or five years.
In this workshop, Suzanne Smith, Founder & CEO of Social Impact Architects and Adjunct Professor – UTA/SMU, will present some best practices for succession planning, followed by a fireside chat with three organizations that are in the process of very different leadership transitions. We will learn about how they decided to take this important step, the strategies they employed, the pitfalls they encountered, and the successes they earned.
In-person panel participants included Joanna St. Angelo, Sammons Center for the Arts, Robyn Flatt, Dallas Children’s Theater, and Mara Richards Bim, Cry Havoc Theater Company.
In Person: Wednesday, February 15, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Virtual: Wednesday, April 12, 2:30 – 4:00 pm
WATCH ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD SLIDES
Many thanks to our partners:
The Comeback Collection: 4 Sessions to Reignite Revenue and Relationships
Over the past year, economic fallout due to the pandemic has been catastrophic for arts and cultural organizations. The good news? 98% of organizations are planning to perform for a live audience by the end of 2021. And with this, we have an opportunity to make a comeback – but only if we prepare for it!
Over the next 10 months, we’ll dig into strategies and tactics to building stronger relationships with patrons and colleagues to drive results. Working collaboratively, across departments, to understand what your patrons want and need will ensure you create high-impact, empathy-rich, results-oriented campaigns.
We’ll gather four times for formal learning – where takeaways include new frameworks, relevant examples from the sector, shared vocabulary (linguistically and in data), and peer connection. Each session will balance teaching time, full group discussions, and breakouts to give you tools and time to put work into action (none of those 5-minute breakouts here, you’ll have real time to dig in with your peers). Additionally, we’re hosting monthly office hours where you can bring your questions directly to TRG consultants to meet you where you are to keep the work progressing.
Session 1: Re-Igniting Sales
May 27, 2021 | 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. CT
We’ll introduce a replicable 4-step process to build agility into your campaigns, thinking, and processes.
WATCH HERE DOWNLOAD THE SLIDES
Session 2: Cross-Departmental Metrics and Goal Setting
August 12, 2021 | 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. CT
We’ll talk through ways you can de-silo your departments through data and goal setting so you can measure progress along the way.
Session 3: 21st Century Listening
October 28, 2021 | 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. CT
Listening may just be the single most effective tool in relationship-building—with your audiences AND your teams. Listening is all about opening feedback loops, digesting new information, and closing the loops—likely with a commitment for change or improvement. In this session, we’ll do a deep dive into one organization’s approach, give an overview of listening tools, and go through an exercise that will support you AND your colleagues in focused listening and productive conversations. This is the work of 21st Century arts organizations, and this session will give you strategic provocations and tactical support to hone your listening skills.
WATCH HERE DOWNLOAD THE SLIDES
Session 4: Re-Thinking Stewardship
January 20, 2022 | 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. CT
In our final session, we’re diving into stewardship – your strategy for building relationships with your audiences, visitors and, of course, donors. So often, when we talk about stewardship we’re really talking about how we keep our major donors close to us. Yes, we need to do that, but we also have an opportunity, a responsibility!, to think about how we’re planning to keep all of our patron relationships active. You’ll have time with your peers to discuss, you’ll hear from folks in your community on how they’re approaching this work, and TRG will walk you through how to craft a mini-stewardship campaign for ONE of your key segments.
Meet The Facilitators
Caitlin Green, Senior Consultant and Client Engagement Officer
Caitlin joined TRG Arts in 2017. Based in Pittsburgh, she works with new clients to identify opportunities for partnership and serves as senior consultant on a portfolio of North American clients. Prior to TRG, she was the marketing and development director for THEATREWORKS, and the director of the Galleries of Contemporary Art. At THEATREWORKS, she led efforts that resulted in a doubling of contributed revenue and increased earned revenue by more than 50%. She holds an MA in Art History, an MPA in Non-Profit Management, and has more than 15 years of experience working to build audiences for arts and culture in communities across the country.
Chitra Kalyandurg, Client Success Manager
Chitra Kalyandurg joined TRG Arts in 2019. As a Consulting Analyst, she uses data to help arts organizations find the results they need to be sustainable and create impact. Previously, Chitra was the director of engagement and arts partnerships at Kalanidhi Dance, where she led the organization’s fundraising and communications efforts and worked to increase the company’s reach throughout the D.C. area.
Chitra has more than a decade of experience working at the intersection of arts, nonprofits, and policy, including administering education programs at Arena Stage and managing policy fellowship programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also served as a consultant to the National Endowment for the Arts, where she conducted a qualitative analysis of their Folk & Traditional Arts Art Works grant program. As a dancer and choreographer, Chitra is committed to raising awareness of classical Indian dance through performance and education. Chitra holds a bachelor’s degree in communications studies from New York University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Jenny Cohn, Client Success Manager
Jenny was a professional properties designer and stage manager in theatre for a decade before shifting her focus to patron services. She is thrilled to be joining TRG Arts after 10 years in marketing and communications with Boston Court Pasadena. Jenny lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jon, and their 3-year old son, Wilmont.
This TACA Resiliency Workshop Series is made possible by
The State of the Sector: Dallas Arts & Cultural Landscape Through the Early Stages of the Pandemic
Presented on Thursday, July 22, 2021 | 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Join director and researcher, Dr. Zannie Voss for a deep-dive look into the landscape of Dallas’s arts and culture sector from pre-pandemic into the early impact of COVID-19. These data-driven findings can be used to better understand and tell the story of how your organization fared throughout the crisis and help to inform funders where support may be needed now. You will also learn about recent changes made to the Cultural Data Profile that provides a more streamlined experience in the data entry process as well as the analysis and benchmarking tools available after your data is entered.
This webinar was produced in partnership with SMU DataArts.
Arts Industry Data Analysis: Pandemic Response
Ask CI Anything
Presented on Tuesday, March 16th, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. CST
Let’s face it – we’re officially living in a new era of art-making and community engagement. This turning point presents obvious challenges for each of us, but could we all be overlooking a big opportunity to reshape the image of our organizations for the better? Join us as we unpack the real impact of the pandemic on arts marketers with Erik Gensler, president and founder of Capacity Interactive. Erik and members of the CI team will lead an interactive group discussion our North Texas arts community.
In this session, we’ll dive into key takeaways from CI’s Arts Industry Data Analysis: Pandemic Response, including evolutions within the broader digital and media landscape. You’ll also have an opportunity to ask the Capacity Interactive experts all of your digital marketing and research-related questions.
Fundraising During A Pandemic: #RealTalk with Local Development Professionals
Presented on Thursday, February 4, 2021, via Zoom
Fundraising is tough. Fundraising during a pandemic can be even tougher as tried-and-true “best practices” may be in flux. In this panel conversation and Q&A with Dallas development professionals, we candidly explored strategies and tactics that are (and aren’t) working locally at arts institutions and what that means for “best practices” and “new practices” moving forward.
Ariana Cook
Panelist
Managing Director
Cara Mía Theatre Co.
James Ryan Jillson
Moderator & Panelist
Director of Development
Nasher Sculpture Center
James Leffler
Panelist
Vice President of Development
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Sandra Session-Robertson
Panelist
Senior Director of Communications and Philanthropy
Dallas Children’s Theater
This TACA Workshop was made possible by
Don’t Wait – Collaborate! Collaboration as a Path Forward
Presented on Thursday, October 1, 2020, via Zoom
Today’s changing landscape may require nonprofit arts and cultural leaders to consider new and different ways of adapting to today’s financial and programmatic realities. In many instances, collaboration may be one of the ways to maximize impact and ensure sustainability. In this workshop, led by Jess Cavagnero of SeaChange Capital Partners, the conversation will center around the different types of collaboration available to arts and cultural organizations and the necessary steps that need to be taken before entering one of these collaborations. The workshop will also feature case study examples of effective collaboration, a safe space to ask questions, and local funding opportunities designed for nonprofit collaboration.
Special guests during the workshop will include Margaret Black (Director, Lyda Hill Philanthropies & Better Together Fund) and Arnaldo J. López, Ph.D., (Managing Director, Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater).
Jess Cavagnero leads SeaChange’s activity in nonprofit mergers and sustained collaboration as well as its work in helping nonprofits analyze and develop financial strategies to refine their business models, including scenario planning, risk assessment, and restructuring. She is responsible for two grantmaking funds, The SeaChange-Lodestar Fund for Nonprofit Collaboration and The New York Merger, Acquisition, and Collaboration Fund, which each support nonprofits that are exploring or planning mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, administrative and programmatic partnerships, etc. She is a proud native New Yorker and graduate of Cornell University. She spends her “free” time encouraging her sons to be Mets fans, much to her husband’s dismay. Learn more about Jess by clicking here.
Share Your Ideas
We’re currently in the process of creating new workshops. If you’d like to suggest a theme or topic, please let us know!
