As we inaugurate this new online column, ARTS Action Research is proud to be celebrating 22 years of collaboration with A.R.T./New York’s staff, board and extraordinary membership. When we started this work, then newly appointed Executive Director of A.R,T./New York, Ginny Louloudes, set out to reframe the role of a theatre service organization, setting in motion a pattern and pace for two decades of unprecedented growth and impact in New York City theatre that have followed. We like to think that it was more than just good fortune that our vision and work at ARTS Action Research were in acute alignment and measured syncopation with Ginny’s vision. We have recently shared our experience of that defining period of growth and change in New York theatre in our latest Special Report Leading from the Center.

What is this new online column? As we begin a new cycle of work through the Theatre Leadership Program and Nancy Quinn Program, we have been thinking about what we learn in the process of working with A.R.T./New York’s group of diverse and accomplished theatres and how we might reflect this learning back to you. This column provides a unique opportunity to do that.

Central to our approach is a commitment to work with each theatre’s own design. We don’t engineer. We concentrate our focus on what works for that theatre rather than what we believe should, could or ought to work. We work on understanding more than explaining because getting the right question is fundamental to getting the right answer. It is in that spirit that we are dedicating this new column to questions. The kinds of questions that we ask the theatres we are working with, the questions they ask us and the questions we ask ourselves in the process of doing this work.

We are always mindful that the answers to yesterday’s questions can sometimes become the unknowns of today. None of us can be satisfied simply in questions-well-answered in the past – question and how we think about and answer them in the moment form a necessarily dynamic and developing conversation. Our intention is not to provide definitive answers but to share, understand and consider the questions that are part of our dialog with the arts professionals with whom we work. We invite you to read along with us, offer your questions and your insights as we question and learn together.