Field Notes Vol. 6 no 3: Creating a Culture of Abundance

To start off, apologies to those who have been awaiting a continuation of the discussion of “value” that I teed up for you with my previous entry. We’ll get back to that, I promise! But in the meantime, I want to share with you a wonderful experience that kicked off my New Year—and the many thoughts it inspired. (I had anticipated getting this out a month ago when everything was fresh in my mind, but you know how that goes…)

The experience in question was the annual meeting of the National Opera Association, a gathering of directors, composers, librettists, performers, producers, and program leaders from throughout Canada and the U.S. Unlike Opera America, which serves the big professional houses, NOA’s constituents are mostly university opera programs and regional professional companies (with many attendees having a foot in more than one camp). The reason I went is that I’m finally (!) beginning work on my first opera and my colleague, Leigh Holman (Director of the Eklund Opera Program here at CU-Boulder), urged me to attend. “You need to start meeting folks,” she said matter of factly. 

I had one concern, though: “Given the profile of attendees, won’t it be a bit…Shark Tank-y? Is everyone going to be on the make?” I pictured a bunch of artists-in-need, scrambling to get what little scrap or crumb they could, like a squabble of seagulls descending on a discarded bag of french fries.

“Oh, gosh no!” Leigh assured me. “These are great people who are there to help each other.”

“Okay, then. Let’s do it!” Networking Function…ACTIVATED.

The stunning ballroom at the historic Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston...

Leigh’s characterization of the conference was spot-on. Every person I met was genuinely interested in what I was up to, and many offered their support and assistance. A spirit of generosity permeated every session and every interaction outside the meeting rooms. And the interesting thing about that is the way that kind of energy builds on itself in a self-reinforcing cycle. 

It was exactly what I needed.

See, I had ended my 2025 with three “thanks but no thanks” letters from funders I’d approached about supporting a workshop of the opera—a necessary first step to have in place before I begin a multi-year, multi-multi-multi-hour quest: I don’t work on spec (not with projects this big anyway). So, I was really quite discouraged. (And, educator colleagues: please let’s not pretend that we don’t all get discouraged sometimes. I don’t ever want my students to think that a successful career means you don’t get beat up by the world from time to time. Instead, let’s model how to deal with that in a healthy way!) Anyway, as we began the New Year I was seriously wondering if I should shift my focus to other projects that are actively spinning around in my head and could be more easily realized. That’s my pragmatic side, which can sometimes be a good thing. But pragmatism can also be a trap that keeps us from reaching for Big Things, so I went to the conference in a spirit of openness and without expectations. It was way too early to give up! 

I returned home energized, inspired, and ready to dive into the opera project with both feet. 

Beyond the dramatic personal impact the conference had on me, the experience also got me thinking about a larger question: How did they create such a positive and generous environment? Creating a space with over 400 people that maintained a culture of abundance is almost unheard of in today’s America, where “me first” and “everyone for themselves” seems to be the prevailing religion. To find it in the arts world, which is positively suffocated by a scarcity mindset, like a coral reef overrun by sea urchins, is even more extraordinary. What was their secret?

I observed two things that shed light on the question. And while I don’t see these as comprehensive, I do see them as essential elements in creating and supporting a culture of abundance, of cooperation instead of competition.*

Love for the Thing above love for the Self: One sentiment I heard over and over again during the conference was that people were there because they loved opera and wanted it to continue to thrive. Period. That doesn’t mean that self-interest was not present at all; it simply means that the desire to serve the genre was greater. And if you think about it, any situation in which cooperation thrives has that element: the individuals involved are committed to something beyond themselves. 

Empathy: The other thing I noticed over and over again was that there was a shared and sympathetic understanding of the challenges of being a performer/director/composer/etc. We all understood that it’s not easy being a creative these days; rather than simply commiserating, though, folks wanted to help make things better. For the elders in the room, they wanted to help those coming up in hopes that their wisdom and experience might make the journey a little easier for the next generation than it was for them. In short, we’d all been in the trenches, we’re all still in the trenches, and going forward we are going to be in the trenches together. As a first-time attendee and first-time opera composer, I was on the receiving end of this empathy. Rather than acting like gatekeepers whose job it was to stand in the way of anyone coming up through the ranks, the more established figures who were there saw it as their responsibility to help this newbie find his way. 

In the end, my time at NOA accomplished two things: one personal, one…something else. On the personal side, I was inspired and enriched by being in a group driven by a spirit of abundance and generosity. In fact, I was kind of stunned by how it felt, being so rare in today’s world. That, in turn, inspired hope that maybe, just maybe, humans have the capacity to emerge from these dark times and build a better world. The “something else” was nothing short of an earthquake for my view of entrepreneurship: If we view competition as a fundamental element of entrepreneurship, then I see now that it has a very serious problem. But what if entrepreneurship could be cast in a different light? Haven’t we already done that with how we frame entrepreneurship in the arts, social welfare, and non-profit worlds? What if that’s just the beginning of a transformative view of what entrepreneurship can accomplish? 

*Cooperation vs. Competition… For years now, my good friend Kieren has been promoting the notion that cooperation is a superior form of social and economic order, and that there’s abundant research to back that up. So, I have reading to do, because I think I’m on to something. Stay tuned… 

Next time, back to the “Value Dilemma”!