“Everything is under construction.”

That’s how Tessitura CEO Andrew Recinos described his observations of arts and culture organizations over the last year. “It doesn’t matter the size of the organization or even the country that it’s in; there are some big themes that just kept coming back,” he noted. 

Andrew shared his reflections in a recent conversation with Monica Holt, host of Capacity Interactive’s “CI to Eye” podcast.

“Andrew spent 2025 visiting 103 arts organizations across 10 countries,” Monica explained, “and what he found gives me hope. Everywhere, people are rebuilding, re-imagining and asking hard questions about what comes next.”

“Maybe the most important or almost existential [type of construction] is rebuilding the business itself,” Andrew noted. “How we structure our organizations is being questioned, how we program, what we program, what our role is. There’s a lot of soul searching.”

“How we structure our organizations is being questioned, how we program, what we program, what our role is. There’s a lot of soul searching.”

Construction, he explained, indicates persistence and even growth amid challenging external forces. “Arts and culture has been under a lot of pressure, a lot of funding pressure, a lot of ‘will-audiences-come-back’ pressure, a lot of changing tastes,” Andrew acknowledged. He saw pervasive fatigue among arts leaders continually being asked to do more with less. 

However, Andrew also saw positive signs. “I think that there’s this multidecade pivot away from the purity of the high art to the primacy of community,” he said. “And what arts and culture is doing at the ground level, at the nobody-is-being-left-behind level, is tremendous. And so that gives me amazing hope.”

Listen to the full episode for more insights about today’s arts and culture sector.

Listen to Andrew’s Episode ›