Delaware Arts Summit

Monday, October 27

8:45 – Registration and Breakfast

9:30 – Welcome Remarks

Jessica Ball, Director, Delaware Division of the Arts

Mack Wathen, Chair, Delaware State Arts Council

 9:50 – Performance

 10:30-11:45 – Concurrent Workshops

• Strategic Budgeting and Scenario Planning, Kristine Alvarez
• Getting in Touch with Your “Why:” Articulating Arts Impact (Part 1), Susannah Laramee Kidd
• Culture as Capital, Keri Mesropov
• Building a Digital Marketing Strategy 1, Francesca Olsen
• Cross Sector Strategies at the Intersection of Arts and Health, Ryan Stubbs, Capt. Moira McGuire

12:00-1:00 – Lunch, Remarks, and Performance

1:00 -1:45 – Keynote Address – Deborah F. Rutter

2:00-3:15 – Concurrent Sessions

• Strategic Budgeting and Scenario Planning, Kristine Alvarez
• Are You Achieving Your “Why?:” Evaluating Your Impact (Part 2), Susannah Laramee Kidd
• Culture as Capital, Keri Mesropov
• Building a Digital Marketing Strategy 2, Francesca Olsen
• Cross Sector Strategies at the Intersection of Arts and Health, Ryan Stubbs, Capt. Moira McGuire

3:30-4:30 – Networking Reception

Mix and mingle in style with cool and classy food and beverages in the exclusive Christina Room.

Strategic Budgeting and Scenario Planning

Kristine Alvarez, Senior Director, Nonprofit Finance Fund

To effectively plan for the future, nonprofit leaders must imagine possible scenarios and determine how their organizations would respond. This workshop will walk leaders through the process for integrating scenario planning into their organization’s operating budget, helping their team and board to understand budget implications for various “what-ifs” and create plans of action. NFF will help participants quantify the unknown, develop budget scenarios for possible future crises, identify key drivers of change, assess revenue and expense variability, and prepare for both best- and worst-case scenarios.

This training series aims to (1) provide leaders with a common understanding about what scenario planning is and isn’t, and how it can connect to the annual budget process (2) identify approaches for mitigating risk in the budget process; (3) walk through the steps of developing a scenario plan.

Strategies for Impact and Evaluation

Susannah Laramee Kidd, PhD, Independent Consultant

Part 1: Getting in Touch with Your “Why:” Articulating Arts Impact

Getting in touch with the “why” of the work you are doing can help you get clear on what’s important about your efforts and what impacts it might have. In this workshop you will learn the difference between outputs and outcomes, explore arts impact frameworks, and become acquainted with logic models and theories of change. Then, you will craft an impact statement about why you are doing your work and what you hope to achieve through it that you can use as the foundation of your evaluation, grant writing, or storytelling efforts.

Part 2: Are You Achieving Your “Why?:” Evaluating Your Impact

Once you are clear on your “why” and the impacts you hope to achieve, evaluation is the process of learning from your work and understanding whether your efforts are successful. This workshop is an introduction to the evaluation process, including crafting an evaluation question based on your why, identifying stakeholders, selecting the right evidence, and communicating your impact. Participants will draft an evaluation plan based on their impact statements from part one, so this workshop builds on the morning’s workshop, but part two can also be taken on its own.

Culture as Capital: The Multigenerational Investment That Pays Dividends

Keri Mesropov, Founder, Spring Talent

Culture isn’t just a vibe, it’s an asset. A strong, intentional culture fuels retention, engagement and ultimately, the bottom line. But in arts organizations, where resources are constantly constrained and artistic influences create unique pressures, culture can either be your greatest strength or your biggest challenge. Add to that a multigenerational workforce, each bringing distinct values, expectations and unique ways of working, plus a world of work that is changing rapidly, and the need for culture to be both purposeful and adaptive becomes clear.

In this interactive session, we’ll explore: 

• What culture really is and why it’s more than just a mission statement
• The tie between values and culture and how alignment creates sustainability
• The unique impact each of the four generations working today bring to the formation of a company culture
• How to actively shape culture, with practical tools you can take home and apply

Attendees will develop strategies to strengthen your organization’s culture through: 

• The discovery of your institution’s origins and how these contour and color its current day culture
• Embedding values into daily operations
• Norms and rituals that reinforce understanding and embodiment of culture
• Onboarding and recognition programs that engage all generations

Building a Digital Marketing Strategy: Essentials for Growth, Structure and Authenticity

Francesca Olsen, Writer and Consultant

Being an artist or arts/culture practitioner is already a lot of work, and the pressure of marketing that work can often feel like a huge lift. How can we honor our work and balance promotion with practice? What’s important to focus on in a world where our time and capacity is limited?

In Session 1, we’ll get to the heart of these questions and explore the basics of branding, building a marketing strategy, and using social media platforms and other digital communications tools to promote artistic individuals, partnerships, and organizations.  We’ll cover digital marketing best practices around audience building, effective social media, SEO optimization, and websites.

In Session 2, participants will begin building a comprehensive social media strategy based on a supplied template. We’ll also open discussion and workshop solutions to individual marketing questions, brainstorming content creation ideas and more, aiming for everyone to walk away with actionable steps to improve and grow their digital footprints.

Cross-Sector Strategies at the Intersection of Arts and Health

Ryan Stubbs, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and Capt. Moira McGuire

State arts agencies continue to grow and develop initiatives to leverage the positive impact of the arts on health. They form strategic partnerships with health-sector agencies and nonprofit organizations to strengthen social connections, build resilience, aid in healing from trauma, and extend the benefits of the arts to all residents. Based on lessons learned from NASAA’s cross-sector research and Arts and Health Professional Learning Community, this workshop will highlight state level arts and health partnerships, opportunities, and case studies to help participants think through strategies relevant to their organizations and communities.

There are hotel rooms available at a discounted rate for Sunday night, October 26 and Monday night, October 27, for anyone who would like to stay in Wilmington.

Special group rate is $259/night (available Sunday and Monday nights). Discount cut off is September 26, 2025.

Reservations can be made by:

• Visiting their online reservation portal here.
• Calling the Reservation Department at (302) 594-3125 or (800) 441-9019 and asking for the Delaware Division of the Arts, Arts Summit special group rate.

Deborah F. Rutter

 is an internationally respected arts executive with over four decades of leadership at premier cultural institutions. From 2014 to 2025, she served as the first female president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — the nation’s preeminent cultural center — where she led a period of transformative growth while centering artists in all aspects of the institution’s work.

A fierce advocate of artistic voices, Rutter believes artists hold a mirror to society, and her role is to uplift their work. She has collaborated with and established strong artistic collaborations with renowned artists throughout her career, including Renée Fleming, Jason Moran, Q-Tip, Mason Bates, Gianandrea Noseda, Carlos Simon, Riccardo Muti, and Yo-Yo Ma. During her tenure at the Kennedy Center, Deborah expanded the institution’s artistic and educational programming across genres and audiences including the introduction of Social Impact programming in 2019. She also developed an innovative exploration of arts and well-being in collaboration with National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as establishing the Hip Hop Culture Council to create new pathways and deepen public knowledge of Hip Hop, while strengthening the burgeoning Hip Hop Culture.

Notably, Deborah led the planning, design, construction and celebrated 16-day opening festival of the Center’s first physical expansion — The REACH — encompassing 72,000 sq. ft. of indoor space and 130,000 sq. ft. outdoor green space to accommodate an increased number of festivals, exhibitions and community impact initiatives. Deborah led the REACH capital campaign which surpassed its $250 million goal, raised entirely through private contributions. During her tenure, Deborah was also responsible for increasing the Kennedy Center’s endowment by sixty-two percent to $162 million.

Beginning her career at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deborah went on to lead such esteemed cultural institutions as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2003–2014), where she secured Riccardo Muti as music director and cemented the CSO’s reputation as a top-tier orchestra. As executive director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra (1992–2003), she oversaw the construction of Benaroya Hall which accommodates two performing halls in a complex that now defines the landscape of downtown Seattle, occupying an entire city block in Seattle’s downtown core.

Deborah serves on the boards of Vital Voices and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including honorary doctorates at American University and Duke University, among others.

A pianist and violinist, Rutter earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Southern California (USC).

SPEAKERS

Kristine Alvarez, Nonprofit Finance Fund, Philadelphia

As a right-brain person who avoided business training of any kind in college, Kristine never imagined she would spend more than fifteen years working with nonprofit leaders to use finance to achieve their mission. In her role as a senior consultant on NFF’s Advisory Services team, Kristine coaches organizational leaders to build their confidence and skills in financial management in service of communities. From her previous experience working with a small, AmeriCorps program in Philadelphia, Kristine understands the reality of nonprofit leaders wearing many different hats – from training volunteers and stuffing annual appeal letters, to writing grant proposal, to setting up and breaking down special event venues. In addition to consulting one-on-one and leading group trainings on finance, Kristine contributes to thought leadership in the sector, including authorship of NFF’s 2015 report, “Overcoming Financial Barriers to Expanding High-Quality Early Care & Education.” Kristine previously served as a business planning consultant to Washington DC nonprofits seeking to launch earned income ventures, Communications Director of City Year Philadelphia, and Volunteer Coordinator for a congressional campaign in Bethesda, MD. She holds a Master of Business Administration from George Washington University, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional Certificate from Fiscal Management Associates.

Outside of work, you can find Kristine line-dancing, practicing mindful breathing with her two school-aged daughters, or preparing her Glenside garden for summer vegetables and 14-foot sunflowers.

Susannah Laramee Kidd (she/they), Independent Consultant, Philadelphia

Susannah is an ethnographer turned evaluator, community-engaged researcher, facilitator, strategist, and reflection partner. Her expertise includes all aspects of qualitative, mixed-methods, and community-based planning, evaluation, and research, with a special focus on public art, public spaces like parks and community gardens, social connectedness, place-based arts and cultural community development strategies, and art for social change. As an independent consultant, they work with artists, government agencies, nonprofit and community development organizations, and community members to generate learning and planning for social change using the lens of systems thinking and participatory processes. She holds a Ph.D. in Religion and Comparative Literature and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University. Laramee Kidd is in love with uncovering the social, natural, and built layers of places and is happy to be based in the place that shaped them, the southern part of Lenapehoking, also known as Philadelphia. You can find out more about her work at www.larameekidd.com.

Captain Moira McGuire, Retired, US Public Health Service

Captain McGuire is a retired nurse officer with the US Public Health Service who has worked for over 25 years advocating for Arts in Health programs in support of improved health, prevention, resilience, and well-being in both clinical and community settings. She has extensive experience in program design and evaluation, strategy development, and generating collaborative partnerships and networks. She established the Arts in Health Program at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a first-of-its-kind in the Military Health System and founded the National Initiative for Arts & Health Across the Military in partnership with Americans for the Arts.

Since retiring from uniformed service, she has been providing community-based arts engagements for active-duty service members, veterans, and military-connected communities and curating veteran art exhibitions. She is an adjunct lecturer at George Mason University’s Arts Management Program and the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine, is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH); and serves as Co-Executive Director of the US Public Health Service Music Ensemble. She is the daughter of a Marine veteran opera singer/voice teacher father and pianist/painter/playwright mother who studied Irish Dance, ballet, piano, violin, flute and harp. The focus of her professional work lies in the belief that creativity and expression are not only essential elements in the treatment of illness and injury, but in the prevention of them as well.

Keri Mesropov, Founder, Spring Talent Development, Denver

Keri is the Founder of Spring, a talent development agency launching young careerists and cultivating multi-generational workforces. Data, research and results driven in its practice, Spring exists to help organizations optimize the generational diversity of their teams toward not-yet imagined future success. Delivering culture assessments and consulting, one-on-one advisories and skill-building workshops, Spring’s work today spans the business landscape of corporations, hospitality, entertainment and social non-profits. Her expertise has been featured in such publications as Newsweek and SHRM’s podcast, Honest HR.

Prior to launching Spring, Keri was the Chief Talent Officer for TRG Arts, one of the world’s most influential consulting firms dedicated to the arts, where she created unique organizational culture initiatives that optimized productivity and creativity while motivating and retaining top talent.

Before becoming TRG’s first-ever Chief Talent Officer, Keri served as Vice President of Client Service and as a senior consultant for TRG, leading teams for consulting, database management and business intelligence services. As consultant and VP, she advised theater, ballet, orchestral and Broadway producing organizations on how to build resiliency through data-driven strategies in consumer relationships, financial stability, organizational frameworks and people-centric teams. She led a VIP portfolio that included New York City Ballet, the Chicago Symphony, Toronto International Film Festival, Boston Ballet and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Known for her expertise in developing Gen Z professionals, Keri was a Professional in Residence at her alma mater, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications’ new Experience Lab, where she worked with students to build their leadership skills. She currently serves as an Advisory Council member for the Nebraska Women’s Leadership Network as well as on the board of The Dance Archive at the University of Denver. In 2022 she received the prestigious Woman of Courage, Character and Commitment award from UNL’s Women’s Center.

Keri’s thirty years of experience in administration has included executive leadership roles at Colorado Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Washington Performing Arts and the Trey McIntyre Project.

Francesca Olsen, Independent Consultant, Massachusetts

Francesca is a writer and consultant with 15+ years of experience in marketing and communications, from branding to digital strategy. It’s her job to find the golden threads in people’s stories: the values, experiences and touchpoints that fuel their work and connect it to others. She works with artists, creative professionals, nonprofits, and businesses on branding, narrative, and digital strategy. She gives regular workshops on digital marketing and social media. In addition to her professional work, she is a textile artist who focuses on storytelling, heritage, ritual, magic, and the power and significance held in objects and stories.

Ryan Stubbs, Chief Program and Strategy Officer, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Washington, D.C.

As chief program and strategy officer, Ryan Stubbs oversees NASAA’s programs and services to the field, including research and community learning activities. He ensures strategic alignment among NASAA’s mission, planning and program priorities to serve and strengthen state arts agencies. With deep knowledge and experience in the field, Ryan serves as a key leader and communicator to advance state arts agencies and NASAA.

Ryan served for 13 years as NASAA’s director of research and senior director of research. In these roles, he significantly contributed to NASAA’s organizational effectiveness and mission by spearheading research articulating the value of state creative economies and the impact of the arts across sectors, and visualizing the reach of state arts agency programs and activities. Ryan stewarded revisions to state arts agency data taxonomies and contributed to national technical working groups in areas such as arts impact data, arts education data, arts service organizations and more. He contributed to and led large-scale projects in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Governors Association, ArtPlace America, the National League of Cities, the Community Opportunity Alliance, Grantmakers in the Arts and others.

In addition to his experience at NASAA, Ryan’s prior work in state government, local government, politics and the arts have made him uniquely qualified to understand the complex policy and political environments of state arts agencies.

Prior to joining NASAA, he served as research director for Creative West, where he developed data and technology frameworks for a national creative economy index. Before that, Ryan worked for the Colorado Department of Higher Education as a capital analyst, authoring legislative submittals for statewide higher education capital construction needs. Ryan has experience in local economic development, working as a business development manager in Adams County, Colorado, where he implemented state tax incentives along with business attraction and retention programs. He served as deputy director for a state senate campaign fund targeting high-priority races in Colorado. Ryan holds two master’s degrees, in public administration and urban and regional planning, with an emphasis in economic development planning, from the University of Colorado, Denver.

PERFORMERS

TBA

Anyone working in, or interested in, the arts should attend! This includes artists; organization staff, board and volunteers; community leaders; program planners, educators; local and state officials; and arts patrons.

Where will the Summit be held?

The Summit will take place at the Hotel Du Pont conveniently located at 42 W 11th St, Wilmington, DE 19801. The hotel is within easy driving distance of Wilmington, Delaware beach resorts, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Salisbury, MD.

What are the registration details and deadlines?
Please complete the online registration forms and submit payment electronically. Registration must be completed by the deadline of September 30. Note: If paying by intergovernmental voucher or check, contact Dana Wise, Delaware Division of the Arts at 302-577-8278, or by e-mail: Dana.wise@delaware.gov to make payment arrangements.

Registrations submitted without payment are incomplete and cannot be processed.

What if I need to cancel my plans to attend?

Your registration fee will be refunded if you notify the Delaware Division of the Arts in writing of your cancellation. Notice must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, October 10, 2025. Send your cancellation request to Dana Wise, Delaware Division of the Arts by e-mail: Dana.wise@delaware.gov.

Who sponsors this event?

The Arts Summit is produced and sponsored by the Delaware Department of State and the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency committed to cultivating and supporting the arts in Delaware. This event is also made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.