A punchy, outspoken argument for how nonprofit arts organizations should be run.
An example-driven new map to success in the realm of nonprofit theater.
“What good is a program without results that show impact?” asks theatrical director and producer Harrison, a 30-year industry veteran who’s spent decades thinking about the essential questions people involved in nonprofit theater should be asking, such as, “What can my nonprofit theater do today to make my community a measurably, quantifiably, and tangibly better place to live?” In this latest installment of his Scene Change series, the author once again looks at various organizations that are pursuing what he views as the essential mission of community arts, which is to improve the community, using theater and other arts as means to that end. Harrison contrasts this vision of nonprofit arts organizations with the way they’re too often seen by the people who run them as for-profit commercial enterprises in which box office revenue is the most important thing. In these pages, he first breaks down the logistics of how nonprofits work and should work, from the nuances of marketing to the nitty-gritty of IRS filings. The author then examines the working methods and cultural impact of some nonprofits that’ve shaken off what he views as wrong-headed priorities and are both serving and challenging their communities. The Louisville Orchestra receives a good deal of attention, with Harrison noting that “The music is dynamic, contemporary, and bespeaks the lives of the people of the commonwealth in ways that cannot be adequately described as words on a page.” He also discusses other programs, like Out of Hand Theater (“there is no better example of using theater as a tool for community impact”) and Out of Hand’s Creative Kids program (“They’re not bussed to some fancy, frighteningly off-putting monument”), in detail.
Harrison is glowingly enthusiastic about all of this, the perfect ambassador for introducing the world of nonprofit arts to newcomers; he’s also the perfect blend of cheerleader and tough-love coach for those already in the nonprofit world who may not be keeping their priorities straight (or may not quite know what those priorities should be). Harrison’s prose reflects his expertise but is often light and humorous. He can sometimes get hung up on trivialities, as when he notes that, “for a real debate to happen and to expose local and American issues for what they are, it would have to include the niggling disagreements such as how close the word ‘niggling’ is to a vulgar one.” But the author is refreshingly willing to ask hard questions about the realities of nonprofit art groups today, reminding readers that, in addition to their missions, nonprofits have their own rules and responsibilities. Harrison’s analysis of the root of nonprofit problems—he believes they too often devolve into entities to please big donors (which “begets toxicity among donors, executives, and board leadership, and provides an elitist barrier to participants”)—is astute and characteristically pulls no punches. The author is equally frank in addressing the social issues that affect community projects, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the Covid-19 pandemic. Anyone involved in the nonprofit arts world will gain immeasurably from reading this book (and its two enjoyably opinionated predecessors).
A punchy, outspoken argument for how nonprofit arts organizations should be run.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781803419770
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Changemakers Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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