The Flynn Asks Vermonters to Help Create Its Strategic Plan 

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• File: Luke Awtry
• The Flynn marquee during the pandemic

The Flynn is inviting all Vermonters to a three-day meeting — as much or as little of it as they'd like — to help shape the future of the state's largest arts organization.

"The arts in Vermont are at risk," Jay Wahl, executive director of the downtown Burlington theater, wrote in his invitation to Vermonters. "There are growing barriers to access for all communities and our costs are rising while our revenues are not."

Wahl, who joined the Flynn on January 1, 2021, also acknowledged major shifts in Burlington, in the theater's organizational makeup and in programming trends since the pandemic. While the Flynn is back to pre-pandemic levels of staff, performances and audience members, Wahl told Seven Days, the arts world has changed. Performers, for example, used to book a year in advance. Now it's months.

Audiences have observed many of the shifts. Wahl's invitation noted that he has "heard concerns and questions about programming choices, diversity, safety in Burlington, costs, parking, staffing changes, the jazz festival, and how people across the state can have meaningful opportunities to participate in our work."

This weekend's 21.5-hour public meeting, running Saturday, January 27, through Monday, January 29, is one such opportunity. Attendees will set the agenda and lead the conversations. Ideas generated will inform the Flynn's next strategic plan.

"It's Vermont's Flynn," Wahl told Seven Days, "and so when you start thinking about what might the future look like, the only natural place to ask are all the people who live here."

Vermonters have disparate ideas about the Flynn because they experience it differently, he explained. They may attend performances by comedians, Broadway touring companies, dance troupes or the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Some perform onstage with Lyric Theatre. Others chaperone their kids to student matinees. Some people never set foot inside the Flynn's historic building but attend the Flynn-produced Burlington Discover Jazz Festival or participate in off-site arts education programs. For the past two years, the Flynn has brought 12-foot-tall dancing puppets to schools as part of a multimedia event called Playing Fields.

"If we're going to think about what our strategic plan is and make some decisions over the next five to 10 years about all the ways in which we can serve communities, we have to sort of understand all these different perspectives," Wahl said.

click to enlarge

• File: Luke Awtry
• Jay Wahl

The meeting will employ a format called Open Space Technology. It will start with participants in a large circle. They will be invited to write down a question, issue or idea and assign it a time for discussion. With that, the agenda is set. A breakout session is scheduled for each topic. Participants can choose which to attend, how long to stay, and whether to speak or just listen.

The only rule, according to Open Space World, is "the law of personal mobility," which says that if "you find that you are not learning or contributing, you have the right and the responsibility to move — find another breakout session, visit the food table, take a walk in the sunshine, make a phone call — but DO NOT waste time."

Notes from all sessions will be posted on the Flynn's website.

While it's not necessary to attend all three days, organizers encourage participants to be present at its opening on Saturday morning to best understand the process and help set the agenda. Asked if people can add items to the agenda on subsequent days, Wahl said organizers plan to be flexible.

Organizational consultant Harrison Owen created the Open Space method 39 years ago after acknowledging that the real action at a symposium he'd help run took place during the coffee breaks, not the formal sessions.

"It's about maximal, participatory agency," said Wahl, who has attended Open Space meetings. This is the first he has organized.

No one will be in charge, by design. British artist Seth Honnor will facilitate. The founder and artistic director of production company Kaleider has experience running these meetings, Wahl said, and his art "engages communities in dialogue around what communities want."

The Flynn brought Honnor's production "The Money" to venues throughout Vermont in fall 2022. The interactive game show/social experiment invites ticket holders to be "players" who decide how to spend a pot of real cash. If they can't agree within one hour, the money rolls over to the next production.

At this weekend's community planning meeting, attendees could hold similar sway over the Flynn's future.

"I'd like to know what impact Vermont would like the Flynn to have," Wahl said. "If the Flynn is the best Flynn it can be, what will Vermont look like?"