A Preface by the Board President
Hi, this is Judy Gilbert Levey. I’m the President of the Board of Flying V. We are currently in the
transition away from a founder-led company. We’ve made several decisions in meetings of the board in the months of June and July.
One of those decisions was to appoint Katherine Offutt as the Executive Director of the organization. We are both excited by and confident in her leadership.
Her statement follows and she will share with you some of the decisions that we’ve made to rebuild and improve our company, and the steps we have in process, as we make this very difficult transition.
Please feel free after you have listened to Katherine’s statement to send us a note, let us know how you feel.
I’m judy@flyingvtheatre.com and Katherine is katherine@flyingvtheatre.com. Thank you.
A Statement by the Executive Director
This statement got LONG, so before I (Katherine) really get going, let me drop in a “tl;dr” key
points summary for those who may not have the spoons to stick it out til the end with me:
1) Company Leadership. We’ve eliminated our Producing Artistic Director / Managing Director dual-headed structure. Flying V now has a single executive leader, the Executive Director—reporting directly to the Board of Directors. This fall we’ll begin looking for new artistic leadership.
Whether that is in the form of an Artistic Director, multiple ADs, or something else entirely is up for discussion. Additionally, we are discussing, with Company Members, the role of our Company and ways to generate power for them as stakeholders in Flying V and as catalysts for creation, not just as a toolbox of skills for one person’s artistic use.
Flying V’s current leadership is predominantly white, straight and male. At all levels, that must change. Our staff, company, and our Board must better reflect the full range of our community, and by the end of 2020 you will see at least the beginnings of that change.
2) Learning and Doing Better. We need a top-to-bottom review of how Flying V has operated in the past and how it needs to transform for the future. First and foremost, we need to understand how the company’s culture and practices must change to ensure that Flying V is a safe and welcoming organization for women, BIPOC, trans and gender-nonconforming people and everyone else. That assessment will include the feedback the community has shared with us over this past month.
We also are reaching out to outside experts who can provide an independent assessment of how we got where we are, including how the company handled the concerns raised in 2017, and how we can do better.
3) What’s Next? As we go through our review, we’ll continue to seek out feedback from all the
communities we serve and are part of about what you want and need from a new Flying V. And we will in turn be transparent about what we’re doing to ensure we’re making real progress. We’ll have more public updates later this summer and fall.
The Statement:
We promised a statement about further plans for the future of Flying V by July 15 th . When we made that promise three weeks ago, it felt like eons away. Having that time in the rearview mirror has crystalized many things, but two most stand out:
First, the work we have to do isn’t just about responding to allegations of harassment against one leader in our organization, and the culture the organization may have bred under that leadership – it’s fundamentally about breaking down the power structures, known and unknown, that created a space for those things.
The second thing is: that is not a small task, and we have a lot to learn. Three weeks ago, I really wanted a beautiful, like, “15-step plan to justice and rebuilding” to give folks in this letter. And now, as I’m writing it, I’m deeply steeped in the reality that that’s just not how these complicated, messy, human things work.
There are tons of unknowns still. Tons of “okay, here’s what we want to do, and how should we approach it’s”. There has been a lot of straddling the line between radical transparency and the realities of nonprofit governance. I am constantly playing phone tag with folks to try and figure out the right people to be talking to about the right facets of the things we’re looking to build and change. People have been amazing at providing me with lists of people and organizations for consultations and guidance. This has personally been an exercise in admitting what I don’t know and leaning in to uncertainty.
That intro aside, I can start with the things I do know. One of the reasons I’m writing this letter, first person voice from me, is because on Saturday, July 4, the Flying V board of directors restructured the organization from a two-headed leadership model (a Producing Artistic Director and Managing Director both of whom reported directly to the board to a more standard “Executive Director reports directly to the board and oversees all of the day to day” model.
This is another foray into the unknown. Is this restructuring permanent and overall helpful to how the organization runs, or is it a band aid for a leadership vacuum created by the removal of Jason? Time will tell. I am going to do my very, very best to be worthy of what is effectively an unorthodox promotion.
Regarding timeline, the board and I feel strongly that by the end of the year we should, with community input and buy in (as I’ll talk about eventually, I promise), know what feels and is right for Flying V. That doesn’t mean we’ll have accomplished all the goals, but it means we should be on our way with some concrete action steps well behind us, and many still ahead. Our fiscal year ends December 31, which means that I’ll be in the process of budget planning beginning in September.
To plan a budget we have to have general ideas about what we’re doing, at the very least, and I’m hoping that the numerous conversations we’re having now internally and externally will get us to a place that by this fall we can do things like discuss programming and staffing – the actual work of creating art (now in ways that are more keenly aware of who and how we have been benefitting and not benefitting our artists and community).
To that end, a “thing on the table” – the dissolution of Flying V. I am not for it. I think that despite the shadow we find ourselves under, the work of this organization, as a small independent company producing highly-physical “nerd” theatre, is meaningful. That Flying V’s place in the future is about continuing to produce pop-culture infused art that ultimately lets people know that they’re not alone. And that telling stories the way that Flying V tells stories is really, really effective at doing that – at infusing dark narratives and moments with hope and optimism.
That’s where I am right now. Artistically, I believe we have a space in the future of this community. And I’m hopeful and optimistic that we’ll figure out how to get Flying V to a space where those things are not just, as KJ Moran so beautifully stated in her piece, for the white men; that exploring the imagination should no longer be a privilege for the traditionally privileged.
So, what does THAT look like? A complete organizational assessment. Like, complete complete. I’ve broken it down as best I can into 6 action areas, with the understanding that pieces of each of these inform things about each other.
1. Mission and Values: What do we give a crap about? What are our down-in-our-bones goals? Is this mission actually in service to our community? How can we potentially refocus our mission statement—the guiding text of our whole organization—to be more aligned with the values we want to move to the center of the organization? What values do we espouse that are not represented in our mission statement that need to be clearly stated and prioritized? This values assessment should be the anchoring piece of the puzzle as we look at the other areas.
2. Community and Culture: Historically, what has been the culture of Flying V? What invites
people in, and what has kept people out? Where do artists feel connected to us, and where have we created barriers? What makes Flying V valuable to our community? What makes our art meaningful? What do artists and other community members want from a Flying V future?
3. Programming: We want to seriously evaluate the direction of our programming. How do we scale our growth sustainably, in a way that doesn’t place undue burden on artists? We’d like to look at the places Flying V really excels artistically and figure out realistic production goals for the coming years.
4. Production Practices: We learned, in the past few weeks, that not only were our spaces
unwelcoming for women and BIPOC, they could also be tumultuous for collaborators and artists – that many were burning out on Flying V productions or feeling that their product was valued, but they as artists were not. So, this piece effectively, this piece feels to me like a collective post-mortem. Its goal is to get an understanding of the experiences people have had working with us on productions; and what things we need to fix; and what policies/procedures we can put in place to make sure that our production experience is one in which everyone is actively valued in a way that makes them feel legitimately valuable as creators, and not just valued for their product onstage. This also examines things like compensation, and revisits ideas of sustainable arts creation. Artists are not expendable.
5. Leadership: Flying V’s leadership is predominantly white, straight and male. That’s gotta change. We’re currently gathering advice and expertise on board recruitment and will also begin a search for new artistic leadership for the company this fall (though we are not wedded to any one model of what that will look like). Additionally, we’re looking into what types of board educational resources are out there regarding not only DEI but general board best practices. Board members are amateur volunteers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do more to enable them to really thrive as a governing body. I personally have been reading a whole bunch about the inherent pitfalls to the current nonprofit board structure, and the expectations arts nonprofits have baked into ideas of growth and governance (i.e. the board’s role as fundraisers, versus oversight, versus long-term vision, etc.) I will make sure that these conversations are a
part of this chunk of review as well.
6. Policies and Procedures: With 3rd party oversight, we will be evaluating our policies and
procedures, as well as filling in the gaps where we are lacking. This will include a review of all the
“written stuff”— contracts, bylaws, code of conduct, whistleblower policy, and production handbook. It will also include the creation of an employee handbook (though that may take a while to complete). As I am hoping to hold us accountable in how we treat and compensate creators, we have to also be providing real, useful information to them about the ins and outs of what is expected at Flying V— whenever possible no more “other duties as assigned.” Moreover, this assessment should also include whether or not these documents and policies are effective and open – do they do the things they’re designed to do and benefit the people they’re supposed to benefit?
It’s my hope that each of these segments will include both a Retrospective Review (How did we get here? What decisions were made in the past about each of these things and why? What are the concerns people have about Flying V and how can we do real work to mitigate these as well as promote healing?) and also a Prospective Assessment (What is the vision for Flying V moving forward, culturally and operationally?).
So, those are the goals. How do we get there? Right now it’s admitting we’re not experts, and for this and other reasons, we can’t let this be a strictly internal assessment process. We need outside input and expertise. I, and other members of our task force are reaching out to local and national folks who are experts in order to help us safely and effectively do things like engage community focus groups, organize mediated interviews, and facilitate both open and public as well as sequestered surveys.
Future plans include things like scheduling time with leaders of other non-equity theatres in DC to learn more about their current best practices, and also working with artists, artist representative organizations and equity in the arts organizations to develop action items that are meaningful and long lasting.
For the immediate future: we don’t stop listening. For the distant future: we keep fucking listening.
The arts manager in me is reconciling with the idea there’s fog ahead, and that I know some of that fog includes addressing real pain—which is also a thing that arts leaders aren’t necessarily trained to do, but that I want to make sure we’re doing respectfully and effectively.
I don’t believe in “ends justify the means” artwork. If you’ve heard me talk about production
management, you’ve probably heard me say that. What I mean is: the process of making art is as
important as the art we’re making, because art isn’t just in service to an audience–it’s part of a deep individual need we all have to be heard and understood. What the audience sees or hears is the final piece, but the way it is made is the service that it is our duty as arts organizations to provide to artists. I refuse to let our product be the only thing we value going forward.
Flying V, and myself, are committed to the transparency of this whole process. Transparency right now looks like letting you all know that these are our goals and our unknowns, and that as we move forward, I promise we’ll keep everyone informed.
Look for more public updates later in the summer and fall, and if you have direct questions or thoughts (or resources/nonprofits we should be researching out to and/or collaborating with) please let me know.
Here we go,
Katherine
