“How are you? How is your team? What are you reading?”

That’s the Post-it sized agenda Tessitura President & CEO Andrew Recinos used in daily calls to arts and culture leaders at the start of the pandemic. By the end of the year, their answers filled a stack of notebooks. They joined information gleaned from a bedside collection of management books. Inspiration came in the poetry of Rumi, Jorge Luis Borges and Lao Tzu.

Together these poets, professors and peers became Andrew’s pandemic pillars. Their lessons, punctuated with success stories from the Tessitura community, inspired his closing session at three global Tessitura events this year.

With an eye to moving forward, Andrew also took a moment to look back at what he learned during that time. His takeaways paint a picture of varying paths to thriving in the face of ongoing uncertainty. No single answer is right for every institution. At the same time, the options are not as mutually exclusive as they may appear. Andrew shares three routes:

1. Run forward

“When the odds are against you, but you believe deeply in what you’re doing, dare to have an extraordinary vision to run forward with faith that the way will spring open to you.”

2. Build all your roads on today

“Companies that thrive in turbulent times have the ambition to achieve and the self-control to hold back, valuing consistent progress over huge peaks and valleys.”

3. Find wisdom in ordinary people

“Ordinary people can become extraordinary together. Put your trust in your community and watch their energy surge.”

“Companies that thrive in turbulent times have the ambition to achieve and the self-control to hold back.”

“The biggest lesson is the one we already knew,” Andrew says. “We at Tessitura know that we succeed because our community, all of you, are the artists of our mission. The Tessitura community is a huge, positive current surging through the world of arts and culture, making the world better.”

This presentation was recorded at the Tessitura Learning and Community Conference in Denver, Colorado, in August 2022.

Top photo by Josh Power Photography