Rachel Moore on The Music Center, Community, and the Arts within Democracy

Monica Holt: Welcome back to CI to Eye. I’m Monica Holt. What does it mean to lead an institution that truly belongs to the public? Not in some abstract metaphorical sense, but an institution that truly, legally, morally belongs to 10 million people? 

That’s the question at the heart of my conversation with Rachel Moore, President and CEO of The Music Center in Los Angeles. The Music Center is county-owned, which means Rachel isn’t just running one of the largest performing arts centers in the country. She’s stewarding a public trust. And that distinction changes everything about how you lead. 

Here’s what Rachel understands that so many cultural institutions can miss. We exist to make people’s lives better. And when you start from that premise, when you lead with humility instead of hierarchy, when you build proactive relevance instead of reacting to crises, and when you see your role as public service rather than cultural gatekeeping, everything changes. 

Rachel shares how The Music Center weathered the pandemic without pivoting and panic because they’d already spent years asking the hard questions about institutional value. She reveals why she deliberately chose not to create an artistic director position and what that says about whose voices matter. And she offers a vision for collaborative cultural leadership that extends far beyond any single institution. This is a conversation about building institutions that truly serve their communities, about finding joy as resistance in dark times, and about what it means to think in decades rather than seasons. Let’s dive in.

Rachel Moore, welcome to CI to Eye. Thank you so much for being here. I so appreciate you making the time to chat with us today. 

Rachel Moore: I’m delighted to be here. 

Monica Holt: You have such a rich history all across the arts industry, but before we get into the professional career, I’d love to just hear a little bit about what your first experiences with art were growing up.

Rachel Moore: Sure. So I was very fortunate growing up in California because the public schools were full of the arts. And then also my family really enjoyed the arts and specifically music. My dad loved classical music, so that was playing on the stereo back then all the time. But I did not start ballet until I was 11, which is actually nearly geriatric in the ballet world. But I remember I just loved it. The ballet studio was my sanctuary. The chaos outside went away and in ballet there are rules and I could understand them and I loved the music and I loved the moving. And when I was 13, the Joffrey Ballet came to UC Davis to perform, and Mr. Joffrey had a ballet class, masterclass, and I went in and he asked if I would move to New York to join the school.

Monica Holt: Wait, can I just ask, how did that feel? How did that feel in that moment to be –

Rachel Moore: Oh my God. I was overwhelmed. And thrilled. My parents were less thrilled and they said absolutely not, but it was also sort of an external validation that there was some skill. And I went to New York to study at SAB, School of American Ballet, and then went to ABT school. And then before my senior year in high school, Baryshnikov at ABT, they had started a little school year round and I was asked to join that. And my parents were like, no way. And I was really upset. And on reflection it was an incredibly good decision. A, both my parents are economists and they understood the value of an education, and finishing high school was incredibly important. B, I was a very naive kid and I needed an extra year to grow up. At 17, you’re still a kid and having huge pressure is hard. 

I will say that when I went back to ABT to be the executive director and CEO, one of the things that I changed was that no one could be hired into the company until they were 18 or had either finished high school or gotten their GED because my view – and I stick by it – is if you’re talented at 16, you’re talented at 18, but you have more coping mechanisms. As an employer of artists, we want to have artists have sustainable careers, not flame out after a year or two. And I think that that coping as a mechanism is important.

Monica Holt: That makes complete sense to me as you say it, but was that change well received by all?

Rachel Moore: No. Yeah, no, and I was actually pleased. I recently heard that City Ballet has done the same thing. ABT was, when I was dancing, hiring kids at 15 and 16 to perform in the company. And the data became clear that the kids who started the earliest were the ones that had the most emotional problems, eating disorders, substance abuse issues, because they just weren’t prepared to do eight performances a week in a highly competitive and high-pressurized professional context. The name of the game is to have a long and fruitful career, not a short one. And so what we found is that slightly older, more emotionally capable dancers are better for the company.

Monica Holt: That’s very interesting to think about, but what a wonderful change to be making for the future and the growth of everyone’s careers, really. For you, I mean, you referenced this already. You were at ABT. Ultimately, you sustained an injury. You had to retire from dancing when you were 24, I believe, and then you made a pivot into being a leader, being on the stewardship and leadership side of the arts rather than the onstage side. How did you navigate that transition? What did that feel like?

Rachel Moore: So I think when I got my injury, I had surgery done and I was in a cast and so I was sort of out for a year and I hadn’t gone to college. Obviously I hadn’t taken my SATs. I hadn’t done any of that stuff. So while I was in a cast, I figured I need a plan B if I can’t get back to dancing. And I was able to get back to dancing somewhat, but still in significant pain. That was a sign to me that I needed to do something else. 

So I went to undergraduate at Brown University. But I will tell you, that first year was incredibly hard. I remember very clearly my last performance with ABT. We were at the Kennedy Center, and I remember walking home to the hotel and sitting on a curb and just sobbing. And it was sobbing both around, “Tomorrow I’m not going to hurt,” but “tomorrow I’m also a nobody” because my identity had been so wrapped up in being a dancer. I just assumed that I was nothing.

That was an interesting and difficult journey. And then also going to a place like Brown where you have people who’ve gone to prep schools, which – I didn’t even know what that was. And I hadn’t written a paper in seven years. And I just – total imposter syndrome. I was quite sure that somebody was going to leap out of the bushes and tell me, “Go home, you don’t belong here!” And I needed to find my voice again. And it took me a couple years. 

But my first internship, I was at the NEA in the dance program, and then I spent a summer at the NEA in the Congressional Liaison office. And both of those experiences were really critical to my next steps because I got to see dance on a national level. And understanding sort of this landscape was incredibly important. So I was going into my senior year at Brown and I thought, well, I’m going to become a First Amendment attorney and I’m going to do freedom of expression work for artists.

And a good friend of mine, who at that time was the executive director of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, gave me some of the best advice I ever got, which was you’re not going to be around the arts if you do that. You’re going to be in courtrooms, you’re going to be working for someplace like the ACLU, you’re not going to be directly helping artists. That’s fine if you understand that, but if you really want to help artists, which I did, he said, how about making sure that the places that they work are run well so that they can have fulsome careers? So that’s why I ended up going to Columbia University for my master’s degree in arts management to get the technical skills to do precisely that.

Monica Holt: What an incredible moment of advice and clarity of purpose coming in that intersection. And so in that context, you went from having, as you said, experienced an organization as a dancer to eventually being the CEO of that same organization. What was that like to see an organization you had grown up in through completely different eyes, and what did you learn about the resilience and discipline as you had experienced it in ballet versus as you were coming to it as a leader?

Rachel Moore: Before I went to ABT as the executive director, I was at Boston Ballet running their school and also all their outreach programs, and that was a wonderful experience too. Loved Boston Ballet, still friends with all of them, but I remember that somebody called me and said, oh, ABT’s going through a rough patch and they’ve had a number of executive directors and why don’t you throw your hat in the ring? And I was like, what’s the downside? So I submitted my application and they invited me down for the first interview and my goal was, don’t make a fool of yourself. I figured if I’m triumphant than that’s great. I go home and I didn’t make a fool of myself. And I walked into that room and there were 18 people on the search committee, and within the first five minutes, I knew that I knew more about the company and more about the art form than anyone in that room. 

Monica Holt: How about that? 

Rachel Moore: Because I didn’t think I had a shot, I was completely relaxed and highly opinionated.

Monica Holt: Well, we should all aspire to be completely relaxed and highly opinionated. That’s just perfect. 

Rachel Moore: And I didn’t know the politics of those board members. I knew nothing, and I was just, this is what I see. This is the history, this is why this works, this is why this doesn’t work, all this stuff. I remember that the chair of the search committee leaned over to me and said, oh, you’re doing really well. And I was like, oh, great, I’m doing really well. And I thought nothing of it. And so I walked out and I was like, I didn’t make a fool of myself. I was really proud, but I figured that was it. So then they called me back and I met with them again a few weeks later. And once again, I did not think I had a prayer. So I walked out of that interview and I remember very clearly walking up Fifth Avenue and getting a call from the search firm saying, can you meet the chairman of the board at the Four Seasons at five o’clock?

And that was when it dawned on me that they were going to offer me the job. And I completely flipped out. Going from running a school in Boston and being at ABT, which is a fishbowl, you’re under a microscope, the New York Times, the whole nine yards. It is a very different thing. And I went back to the hotel room and I called my husband and he said, if you really don’t think you can do the job, then it’s okay to say no. If you’re simply scared, that isn’t a good enough reason to say no. And so I went up and I met the chairman of the board and lo and behold, I was hired. 

And I think that when I went into ABT, some of the things that I had going for me – ‘cause I was 39 at that point, that’s young for that position – is that I knew the company, I knew the culture, but I also had been in the corps de ballet. And so the dancers knew I knew what it was like to do eight shows of Swan Lake a week at the Met or on tour. I felt that my role was to be the bridge between the business community and the artistic community; that I understood both languages and that I did a lot of translating. 

One of the early things we did was replace all the floors as new sprung floors because they were 25 years old, and we expanded physical therapy, and all these things that were really meaningful for dancers. Things like, we changed the maternity policy because nobody really thought about it and I was like, talented young women are leaving here because we are providing no flexibility. So those sorts of things I tried to bring to the table. 

I also, when I was at ABT, one of the things we started up was a program with Long Island University where professors would come to the studio on the day off to provide dancers with entry level core curriculum, Survey of English Lit, whatever, so that they could get a couple credits and some sense of confidence about the next path. Because dancers’ careers are very short and can be truncated in any moment and you need to have exit strategies. And that was never talked about in my era, never. So once again, I really never wanted the dancers to go through the fear and anxiety and lack of knowledge that I had.

Monica Holt: Well, it’s a powerful motivation, but I think it really speaks to this sense of giving back always and growing something that may continue to be there for the future or then the next generation if they have a different way to evolve it. But the point is, keep moving forward, keep making it better for everyone who’s living that experience. I also see you as you do that not just for the company or the staff, but also for the community around that organization. Then Rachel, about 10 years ago, you came to LA to lead The Music Center. The Music Center of course is home to the LA Phil, LA Opera, Center Theatre Group, LA Master Chorale, all of these important organizations. But for folks who may not know, can you give a little bit of background on The Music Center and its role in the LA arts ecosystem?

Rachel Moore: So The Music Center is one of the largest performing arts centers in the country for sure. We have four theaters including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Ahmanson Theatre. We also have a 12-acre park and a big plaza. We are importantly a county facility. So the county of Los Angeles owns the buildings and the land, and we have a long-term lease with the county to manage and operate and activate these spaces on behalf of the people of Los Angeles County. 

The Music Center was built in 1964. Mrs. Dorothy Chandler, she made it happen. She was the wife of Otis Chandler, the family that ran the LA Times. She was quite a force and built this because she really felt that a city cannot be great unless there’s great art. And then, at the opening day of The Music Center in ‘64, she famously said, “We now have these buildings and now it’s our job to give them a soul.”

I think I feel more astutely than perhaps when I was running ABT that we have a moral obligation to serve everybody in Los Angeles County. That taxpayer dollars go for this. They don’t pay for our programming, but they pay for other things. Yes, there’s a legal obligation, but it’s much more deeply felt that there’s a moral obligation of serving everyone. So being part of the civic infrastructure is core to who The Music Center is. The opportunity to come here, I had been at ABT for 11 years at that point, and being a Californian, coming back to the West Coast was appealing. But also I got my undergraduate degree in ethics and political philosophy with a minor in public policy. And so the civic life of a community has always really interested me, and The Music Center has both hats. It wears a civic hat as well as an artistic hat, and both are really important in my mind. And this job allowed me to lean more into, what does it mean to really be a performing arts center of the 21st century that serves your community? And getting away from being a single discipline. A producing institution allowed me to explore those questions.

Monica Holt: As you think about the scale of impact that a place like The Music Center can have, you have the privilege of operating in a really supportive climate in California, even in these divisive times. There’s a blue blue California that has civic leaders who want to back the cultural work. But I know you’ve also talked about how that privilege really creates responsibility too. How do you really approach the responsibility that comes with the privilege of being where you are and being both empowered but also shouldering the burden of what The Music Center is meant to be to its public?

Rachel Moore: When I was hired, the board of The Music Center had made an existential shift that this position would not be about just being a landlord, but also about being relevant for Los Angeles County, which is, by the way, the size of Connecticut with 10 million people and arguably one of the most diverse in the country. I think that when I started, we reexamined our vision and mission and we’d reframed our focus to be on deepening the cultural life of every resident of Los Angeles County. The core thesis that we live under is that the arts make people’s lives better. We are here to make people’s lives better. We do not deserve to exist in a vacuum. We are not so special and rarefied that we get to have different rules apply to us. And by framing it as we use the arts as a tool to make people’s lives better, then we can be allied with our colleagues in education where they’re using the tool of education to make people’s lives better. Or healthcare, they’re using medicine to make people’s lives better.

We are doing the same thing simply using a different set of tools. When you hear that, the people who are afraid that we’re the white castle on the hill and all that stuff, their shoulders go down because that’s a very understandable thing. And when you talk about the joy of the arts, of music, of dance, and it’s not just what we do on the stages – that is an important piece, but equally important is, we serve 150,000 kids in the public school system every year. We have 2 million visitors. We have huge free and low cost programming. And when you see that this is a place that can be your home, then it’s not a question of why we should be supported. Our job in the arts is to make sure that your community understands what your value is to them, not to some theory or philosophy or what have you. We need to demonstrate our value to our community every single day, regardless of where you’re at.

Monica Holt: Incredibly well put. How do you identify what makes an institution essential to its community? How do you get a sense of that impact and understanding that’s coming from the local community?

Rachel Moore: I controversially have said that I think that people’s audiences are merely a reflection of the institutional values. You may have lots of pretty statements, but if you’re not living your values, your audiences aren’t going to change. And so looking at who your audiences are, who your participants are, what do they find interesting? And we talk about economic impact a lot in the arts, and that’s a very important piece. But what we’re really interested in is, how are we changing lives and how are we measuring how we change lives? And we’ll be publishing our first annual report that has a comprehensive look at, how do our programs make people feel like their identity is strengthened? How do our programs increase a sense of community? Are we welcoming? Do people learn something new about somebody else or something different? That ability to be empathetic and understand the value of your community are the core constituent pieces of a functioning democracy. In this moment where we’re not talking to each other and we can’t listen to each other, having a place where you can learn is a way to help us strengthen our democracy, which is in jeopardy.

Monica Holt: That’s right. Yeah. The measurement that you talk about, I think that builds right on those themes of community and belonging that as you allude to are so important now more than ever, but also building a kind of proactive relevance is something that’s been really key about The Music Center. That was true in terms of how you were able to navigate COVID because that already existed, and the values that were so ingrained were there and so strong. What advice would you give to other arts leaders or organizations across the country right now that want to be building this proactive relevance? Maybe it’s for them in response to the current atmosphere that’s happening, but really as they look to their future, where to begin for an organization that maybe isn’t already as deeply entrenched in community and the civic structure as The Music Center is?

Rachel Moore: Well, I think it begins with humility. Just because you have a fancy title or work for a fancy organization doesn’t mean you actually really understand your community. And so we have done a lot of work and actually built a department of sort of civic relations and partnerships and real partnerships. We have started something called the Partnership Network Initiative where we have long-term relationships with community partners and we co-create programming as opposed to having it come just from us. And I think that listening and co-creation and really deeply respecting and honoring other points of view and other ways of engaging is crucial. And it goes back to, what is your value to your community? If they feel like they’re being talked at or talked to, as opposed to being part of joint creation of something that is joyful and meaningful and celebrating community. So I think at the end of the day, it starts with being humble enough to really not assume that you know.

When I came here, I deliberately did not create an artistic director position. There’s lots of baggage that goes with that title. The notion that a person’s biases are, if they have the say in everything, that their biases do get replicated throughout the institution. So instead of having an individual’s point of view, we have a philosophy through which all of our programming has to be measured. And it goes to that deepening the cultural life of every resident of Los Angeles County. That doesn’t mean that every program has to deepen everybody, but it needs to be leaning into that. 

And I think that the topic of artistic directorships and how much control and how much conversation they have is evolving. And I see it in companies that are much more egalitarian and listen more than when I was growing up, which was, it was my way or the highway. I think that that very old school, white, male, European point of view isn’t going to get you very far in a country that is incredibly diverse on lots of different levels. And if your goal really is to make people’s lives better through the arts – all people’s lives, not just a couple.

Monica Holt: Yes, you and I are in lockstep on that understanding. And I think the way that leaders right now are speaking about that more is really helpful for folks who are rising up and looking at structures and will have the opportunity to rethink them. The impresario model is just one that isn’t sustainable for contemporary culture and also sounds kind of boring to me to live a life through only one set of eyes when you have so many creatives that could be empowered together. 

Shifting gears a little, but looking back to kind of the collaboration, community building, that’s been so key in your leadership at The Music Center right now, you’re leading the Grand Avenue Cultural District, which brings together major institutions in LA. This feels like a lot more… On paper, I think it’s, oh, what an interesting marketing initiative to bring together all of these wonderful institutions. This feels like much more than that, much deeper really re-imagining how cultural institutions can be knit together versus seeing attrition or competition coming from their coexistence. What is your vision for this collaborative effort? How do you build these networks to best serve LA right now?

Rachel Moore: So the notion for a cultural corridor actually started with Eli Broad. We have our organizations on the campus, but we also, on this street, we have this incredible, the original sort of library. We have the MOCA contemporary arts museum, the Broad, Colburn School of Performing Arts high school, the Cathedral, all these different cultural organizations. And we had started something where we did an open house one day with everybody working together and people would come and get to find out what’s going on. It was all free and for kids, and we would have instrument petting zoos and all sorts of interactive… And that was sort of the beginning of getting to know our colleagues up and down the corridor, the street. And I thought during COVID specifically, I was like, we need to make this more formal. And we have such strengths to come together on topics ranging from public safety, we need to be coordinating signage, wayfaring, uplifting each other’s programming. 

One of my board members is very senior at the Boston Consulting Group and we ask them to do pro bono work on what does it mean to be a cultural district? What are the different models? And they went out and they did a great job and we looked to the Dallas Arts District as something that we aspire to become, and we decided that this was not just a marketing initiative. We wanted collectively to create the most inclusive cultural district in the world. That was our big goal, our big hairy goal. 

So we’re still early days, but one of the exciting pieces, we hosted a conference for the Global Cultural District Network, which is an international global districts thing, last May. And to have people who run cultural districts from all over the world come and share and learn what works, what doesn’t work… and these cultural districts can range from very European, civic-run, to very casual. And so where did we fit in this? And we were able to share that. We’ve been working with Bloomberg Connects for the first app for cultural districts. And so the goal is to have one stop shopping where you can get on this single app and buy tickets to whatever, find out what’s going on, understand the walking tours.

Monica Holt: That’s incredible.

Rachel Moore: And Bloomberg, they’ve been doing it for cultural institutions individually but not as a collective. So we are the beta for this, and as we start to build it out, our power is making it a, being an identifiable place, but B, making it frictionless for people to enjoy. And if you have to go onto five different websites to try to figure stuff out, that is a total pain.

Monica Holt: Well, I do – I was recently going out to LA and at a certain point I did. I just had 10 tabs open of all the different venues that I was maybe going to try and find a show at. And it always crosses your mind, there must be a better way. And no, a Google search is not the better way.

Rachel Moore: No.

Monica Holt: This sounds much better.

Rachel Moore: And this all is gearing up for the LA ‘28 Olympics because in my little fantasy, you get off at LAX and you can download a QR code and you can figure out what you’re going to do in addition to the games. It’s a culturally rich place. So it’s definitely early days, but I’ve been so appreciative and grateful to my colleagues because there’s not a sense of competition. It’s: more begets more begets more. And if you come down, enjoy all of it. And the more people that are here, the more people that know about us, the more our restaurants are engaged. It’s better for everybody, whether you’re local or a traveler.

Monica Holt: Yeah, I mean that’s wonderful to hear that that’s the approach because rising tides, it’s the way that we should all be looking at things. You mentioned preparing for 2028. Certainly the Olympics is a big event, a lot of spotlight on LA during that time. A lot of that comes with a lot of opportunity. How is preparing for that spotlight different than just hosting a big event? What does permanent cultural infrastructure that can be leveraged in moments like that really look like in a longer lens?

Rachel Moore: Yeah, so LA ‘28 is a complicated, giant thing that – security will be tight, how traffic will be done, how the games will impact both the Paralympics as well as the Olympics… And just being candid, the arts will not have the same kind of support as they did in ‘84. The finances of the Olympic games is very different. So the cultural institutions ourselves are needing to coordinate among ourselves because there will be no additional money as far as we can tell to help us do additional programming. So we will be pivoting to try to leverage – But I do think that we have an opportunity, certainly through the arts here, to highlight that Los Angeles County is not just the Hollywood sign or Disneyland, it is so much more, and LA does not have a center center the way Chicago or New York have. It’s a constellation of villages that have very different personalities and there are cultural institutions in each of these villages. And so our opportunity is to share, invite people in, to experience other ways of knowing Los Angeles than just what you see in the movies

Monica Holt: To talk about LA in terms of villages, that’s a bit of an unlock for me. I really like that. What’s keeping you energized about the work? I mean, you’re thinking in pretty long segments for the future. We’re beyond just looking at one season at a time here. When you wake up, what are you looking forward to? What is giving you motivation right now, particularly as it’s sometimes hard these days to turn on the phone and see everything happening in the world and yet stay focused on the task at hand?

Rachel Moore: I wake up and I take great pride in the fact that the work we do makes people’s lives better. That every day I get up, I get the opportunity to try to make people’s lives better, and that brings me great joy. We all have good patches and bad patches and the work is meaningful and we are public servants. We’re serving the public in a meaningful way. And I also think during these moments, I think joy is the resistance. We cannot let those who are dark and divisive take away our power and our joy. And through the arts, we can come together and reaffirm that there are people who are aligned with values that celebrate everybody. And yes, this is, in my opinion, a dark moment for this country and I have many worries, but my every day is that if we can bring joy, if we can bring community, that brings strength and the tools to rebuild our democracy. That’s what keeps me going even during the rough patches. 

Monica Holt: Beautifully said. And a theme we should all embrace. What’s giving you hope for the next generation of arts leaders? What are you hopeful that they’re looking to do as they become leaders and managers across the field?

Rachel Moore: Well, I really hope that this notion of, we’re a public service, that we are here to not create arts for art’s sake, but art to benefit others and to benefit our communities, is something that others will find resonates and they can build on. And what that looks like will change radically. That – I think that that is a north star that is sustainable and actually will build a stronger arts ecosystem rather than these silos of either disciplines or locations. If our communities truly feel like we are there to be allies and work with them to bring joy and make a difference in everybody’s life, that itself will make our value proposition. If you have to explain it all the time, that’s the problem.

Monica Holt: Completely. Completely. That’s very true. Earlier when you were talking about your last performance, Don Q in DC, and the emotional response to that, sitting on the curb, what would you say to that young dancer about to leave one chapter of her life?

Rachel Moore: I think to believe in myself more. I think that as a dancer, I wish I’d relished the time on stage more. I was not always my best friend in beating myself up and spending too much time on that. I think it is corrosive to the spirit. To constantly question yourself and berate oneself, which dancers – that’s second nature. It’s really not helpful. And to really have the belief, because I now believe it, that I have really strong problem solving skills and we’ll figure it out. I don’t have the answer, but I believe I can figure it out. And you figure it out by talking to people and collaborating and it’s not just on one person. It’s not a sole journey. It’s a collective journey and we’ll figure it out.

Monica Holt: Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. So we have reached our quickfire culture. So what is one piece of culture – a song, a show, a book, a TikTok trend – that you are currently loving?

Rachel Moore: There is a show on HBO called Hacks…

Monica Holt: Yes, there is.

Rachel Moore: …which I absolutely love. And part of it is that it’s driven by women, but it’s also an older woman and her power and it’s incredibly funny and I just think that it is incredibly well done and pokes fun at so much, and I just think that it is a terrific show. I love it.

Monica Holt: A great recommendation if anyone is not watching yet. If you could go back in time, what is one performance or show that you would’ve wanted to attend?

Rachel Moore: So one of my all time favorite ballets is Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. I would have loved to have seen Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland in the leads. I have seen some video, I’ve seen pieces, but that would be an incredible performance.

Monica Holt: That’s a great answer. What is one free resource in any field that you think everyone should avail themselves of?

Rachel Moore: There is a fantastic organization that not enough people know about called the Entertainment Community Fund, formerly known as the Actors Fund. And they provide social services, financial services, to anybody who’s in the arts. Whether you’re a stage hand, a costume maker, in the corps de ballet, it doesn’t matter. They have great resources for teaching people about financial literacy. They have loan programs. They have social workers working for them that can help you if you’re dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues. I just think they are so great and I’ve had the pleasure of being connected with them for quite some time, and people need to know those resources are out there and they’re either free or very modestly priced and you are not alone.

Monica Holt: Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And finally, your CI to Eye moment. If you could broadcast one message to executive directors, leadership teams, staff, and the boards of thousands of arts organizations, what would that message be today?

Rachel Moore: What you do matters. I think that we are told in the arts that what we do doesn’t matter, but it does. Everybody has a different role to play, whether you’re on a board or an artist or an executive or an usher. But every day, know that what you do matters and has meaning, and you’re part of this collective of where we’re going to make the world a better place. So what you do matters.

Monica Holt: Thank you, Rachel. You have provided so much leadership of organizations in your time, but also for the field. And I will say, because we’ve talked about it, for women looking up to other women who are leading as their full selves and not by some prescription that was given by only those who came before them, it is really meaningful to see you continue to be such a shining example of what’s possible and how we can all be working together. So thank you for that. Thank you so much again and more soon. 

Rachel Moore: Absolutely.

Monica Holt: Thank you for listening to CI to Eye with Monica Holt. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, please take a moment to rate us or leave a review. A nice comment goes a long way in helping other people discover the show and hear from leaders in the arts and beyond. If you haven’t already, please click the subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts. We’ve got some pretty incredible episodes coming your way, and I wouldn’t want you to miss them. This episode was edited and produced by Karen McConarty and co-written by Karen McConarty and myself, Monica Holt. Stephanie Medina and Jess Berube are our incredible designers and video editors. Our music is by whoisuzo. Don’t forget to follow CI on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok for regular content to help you market smarter. You can also sign up for CI’s newsletter at capacityinteractive.com and you’ll never miss an update. And you can always reach out to let us know who you’d like to hear next from on CI to Eye.