From the Field

In 2010, the Oakland Museum of California was facing devastating budget cuts from the City of Oakland. Oakland Museum of California director Lori Fogarty transformed this threat into an opportunity to re-invent the museum's organizational structure from scratch, in collaboration with her staff. The result: what started as a "rake" of institutional silos became a "flower" of cross-functional teams emphasizing transparency, input, and communication. The flower structure better positioned this civic-minded institution to continue serving and engaging its community.

Fogarty shared the story of the transformative restructuring of the Oakland Museum of California at ArtsFwd's National Innovation Summit for Arts & Culture. Video of her talk "Silo-Busting: Transforming the Rake into the Flower" is available here, beginning at the 34:16 mark.

Photo of Lori Fogarty by Terry Lorant. Image courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.