Larger arts and culture organizations can often afford experienced marketing staff. For smaller organizations, especially now, that's rarely an option. Funding is harder to come by. Audiences have more choices than ever. So they hire someone earlier in their career, someone with energy, potential, and a genuine desire to do good work, and then wait for results that the situation was never set up to produce.

The person in the role feels like nothing they do is ever right. Leadership grows frustrated that marketing isn't performing. Everyone wants the organization to succeed. But wanting it isn't the same as doing the things that make it possible. And while everyone tries to figure out who's to blame, the mission suffers.

Here's the thing about experience: it's mostly just mistakes you made and learned from. Senior marketing professionals got good at their jobs by getting things wrong, figuring out why, and doing better. Early career staff in demanding roles don't have that luxury. The stakes are too high.

That's what Closing the Experience Gap is about. Giving someone the benefit of experience they haven't had yet.