The FY 2021 – 2023 CAH Strategic Plan is the result of months of research, interviews, focus groups, and public feedback, conducted amidst the collective push to dismantle institutionalized racist systems, and set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 public health emergency. It was a tall order successfully delivered by the consultants on this project, David Galligan Consulting and Lord Cultural Resources. As the designated arts agency for the District of Columbia, the Strategic Plan is a required component of our partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. It will serve to guide the agency's work in serving the needs of our constituents across the city through FY23.
There are five focus areas and goals of the Plan, each with a set of accompanying strategies:
1. I.D.E.A.
Commit to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) in every aspect of Agency grantmaking and other programs and operations, including governance and administration
2. PANDEMIC RECOVERY
Lead the post-pandemic recovery of the nonprofit arts and culture sector in the District and play an important role in the District’s broader economic and social recovery efforts
3. COMMUNITY AWARENESS AND CONNECTEDNESS
Improve communications, raise awareness of CAH programs, strengthen community connections and networks between and among stakeholders in the field, and elevate the role of the arts and humanities throughout the District
4. DISTRICT GOVERNMENT ALIGNMENT
Strengthen alignment with both the Executive and Legislative branches of District government
5. GOVERNANCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Rethink governance and administrative protocols to improve Commissioner and staff relationships and morale and improve the CAH brand within District government and in the broader community
We invite you to read the full Plan below to learn more about these five goals and their strategies. To help follow the Plan's progress, CAH will post annual updates on the implementation of these strategies online. The Response to Comments document below provides feedback to some of the more common questions and comments that were received during the development of the Plan.
2023 Update: Expanded and Extended Plan
This Plan was originally submitted in July 2021 by David Galligan Consulting and Lord Cultural Resources. The period of performance for the Plan was set to conclude at the end of FY 2023 on September 30, 2023. CAH subsequently commissioned Jon Stover & Associates to study and report on the economic impact of COVID-19 on the arts and cultural sector in Washington, DC.
Many of the recommendations from both the Strategic Plan and the COVID-19 study continue to have a pressing contemporary relevance in the ongoing work of the agency towards the recovery and stabilization of the arts and cultural sector in the District of Columbia. At the July 24, 2023 regular monthly meeting of the CAH Board of Commissioners, the Board voted unanimously to both expand the original Strategic Plan by incorporating the recommendations from the COVID-19 Study and to extend the period of performance for the Plan through the end of FY 2024 (September 30, 2024).
