Continuous change and renewed challenges. Opportunity and uncertainty. These have distinguished the recent environment for cultural organizations and will continue to do so in the years ahead. Since its founding in 1983, Management Consultants for the Arts (MCA) has helped cultural organizations of all sizes and disciplines, throughout the United States, successfully deal with these complex issues.
What sets MCA apart from other consultants? We are not simply in the business of doling out general management advice or of recruiting new leadership. We are in the business of understanding and serving the nation’s cultural community. This exclusive focus derives from the insight our staff has gained through many years of arts management experience – in organizations as diverse as museums, orchestras, public broadcasting stations, theatre and dance companies, and other performing and visual arts organizations in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors.
We believe this first-hand experience gives us a deeper, more insightful view of the cultural community and a richer understanding of our clients’ dynamics. We bring this experience to bear on every project. These may include seeking new leadership through executive search, formulating a strategic plan or assessing the efficacy of your organization’s structure, leadership and management system. Each of our projects begins – and ends – with the client’s mission: defining it, supporting it, and validating that it is met.
Our role is to serve as your counsel. We don’t make decisions for you. We raise questions, provoke different points of view, and present options you may have not considered. The end result is your mission has been furthered and your organization is stronger – in staffing, leadership, structure, strategic outlook, and in its inner workings and external relationships with constituent communities.
How do we maintain our own vitality as consultants? We are immersed in the industry and stimulated by our clients – more than 1,700 to date. We have seen what works. And what doesn’t.
In sum, MCA has an abiding interest in nurturing the overall health of this nation’s cultural community. Our aim is to help each client crystallize a vision of itself and its future, and then help ensure that vision is realized.