133. The 3 Step Formula to Creating Lasting Social Change - Taneshia Nash Laird
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Overview
Meet Taneshia. She's a social change agent and community developer who centers cultural equity in her work. As the President and CEO of Newark Symphony Hall, a historic performing arts center, she's using arts and culture as an economic development tool for the resurgence of Newark, N.J. She's also talking about how employing an entrepreneurial mindset for social change has created jobs, community engagement, and - of course - fueled donations for her nonprofit. We are cheering her ingenuity and creativity as a disruptive leader in our sector!
Today’s Guest
Taneshia Nash Laird, President and CEO, Newark Symphony Hall
“Other people might have looked at all of these things as barriers, I looked at them as opportunities for additional investment, up-skilling, additional opportunities to close that wealth gap, and to bring some of the people in the community from below the poverty line into a living wage.”
Episode Transcript
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Episode Highlights
Taneshia’s background and journey to where she is today (4:09)
Taneshia’s work with Newark Symphony Hall (7:50)
$50 million renovation campaign and using arts and culture as an economic development tool for the resurgence of Newark (15:00)
Investing in your staff members (16:00)
Casting visionary leadership (22:00)
Taneshia’s advice for dreaming bigger (27:18)
Taneshia’s 3 step formula to social change (30:00)
1. Start with your mission. How can you really embody your mission?
2. What are your values? How can you really kind of live those values?
3. Model humanity
Building a legacy and living life on purpose (35:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Taneshia’s life (41:00)
Taneshia’s One Good Thing: Your current situation is not your final destination. (43:00)
Powerful quotes
“The institution was not meeting its potential - even the mission had been shifted from performing arts per se to utilizing Newark Symphony Hall for the economic revitalization of the Lincoln Park neighborhood.” -Taneshia
“One of the things that I noticed immediately is that the staff that I inherited, had not been invested in either. So there was some things that I was asking them to do that they couldn't do.” -Taneshia
“We created a professional development plan for every full time staff person.” -Taneshia
“Other people might have looked at all of these things as barriers, I looked at them as opportunities for additional investment, up-skilling, additional opportunities to close that wealth gap, and to bring some of the people in the community from below the poverty line into a living wage.” -Taneshia
“What I saw was an opportunity to use the restoration of Symphony Hall, the revitalization of the building and our programming, as an opportunity to really revitalize and bring up the whole community, not just that Lincoln Park neighborhood.” -Taneshia
“It's not about the building, you saw past that you saw this as a chance to reinvigorate the community. And so the vision is getting people to be invested in it to be believers in what this building can do.” -Jon
“If you start small from within, culturally, that's going to push out that's going to push out into your donor base that's going to push out into your community and to your patrons.” -Becky
“For social change, I think it's really just three steps. How can you really embody your mission? And then what are your values? How can you really kind of live those values, and then just model humanity.” -Taneshia
“If you break it down to its simplest form, you're caring about people, and you're seeing people. And I honestly think that if, if that's a value that's baked into the culture, I think the money's gonna follow because it creates a culture that people want to come into. It's vibrant, it's inclusive. And it just feels good.” -Becky
Connect with Taneshia
Website / LinkedIn / Instagram / Twitter
Connect with Newark symphony hall
Website / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / YouTube
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Jonathan McCoy, Taneshia Nash Laird, Julie Confer & Becky Endicott
