Why unsuccessful projects are the best curriculum for your future success.
To lead a grassroots arts organization is to live in a state of constant experimentation. And the reality of experimentation is that not every test results in a breakthrough.
Sometimes, despite our best intentions and our late-night shifts, we lose. We lose the grant, we lose the venue, or we lose the audience’s attention. In these moments, it is easy to feel like the work itself is a failure. But for the scrappy creator, a loss is never just a loss. It is a form of tuition. It is the most honest feedback the world can give you.
The principle is simple: your value is not defined by the success of your last project, but by the speed at which you learn from it. In a resource-constrained environment, we often feel like we cannot afford to get it wrong. We think that one bad show or one rejected proposal is the end of the road. But this mindset actually limits our growth.
If you only ever do things you know will succeed, you are not actually being creative; you are just being safe. True creativity requires the willingness to stand in the wreckage of an idea and ask, ‘What part of this actually worked?’
Why does this matter for small organizations? Because your agility is your superpower. When a large institution fails, it’s a public relations nightmare that takes months to navigate. When you fail, you can gather your team in a living room, order a pizza, and figure out what happened by the end of the night. This feedback loop is your greatest asset.
The information you gather from an unsuccessful project is often more specific and more useful than the praise you get from a successful one. Success often masks your weaknesses; failure puts them under a microscope.
To apply this mindset, you need to develop the Curiosity First approach. When a project doesn’t go as planned, resist the urge to find a scapegoat or to wallow in frustration. Instead, conduct a diagnostic. Look at the data points. Did people hear about the event but choose not to come? That’s a messaging problem. Did they come but leave early? That’s a content problem. Did they love the content but hate the venue? That’s a logistics problem. When you break a loss down into these component parts, it stops being an emotional weight and starts being an instruction manual for your next attempt.
This also means decoupling your identity from the outcome. You are the person who makes things happen; you are not the thing that happened. If you take every rejection personally, you will eventually burn out. But if you see yourself as a researcher in the lab of community arts, then every ‘no’ is just a data point telling you which direction to turn next. This shift protects your mental health and ensures your organization’s longevity by keeping you focused on the process rather than the validation of others. It allows you to maintain your artistic integrity even when the external response is lukewarm.
It takes courage to be unsuccessful. It takes even more courage to look at that lack of success and refuse to give up.
Remember that every great organization you admire today is built on a foundation of discarded drafts and failed pilots. They didn’t get it right the first time; they just stayed in the game long enough to learn how to get it right.
Keep your head up, keep your notes detailed, and keep moving. Your next breakthrough is being built on the lessons you’re learning right now.
Every setback is just setting the stage for a more informed and powerful comeback.
Northern Arts and Regional Innovation
This is a collaborative initiative by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners art collective, supporting artists and creative projects in Melgund Township, Northwestern Ontario. Our groups champion rural arts development, community programming, Indigenous arts partnerships, and cultural innovation—strengthening the local and regional arts sector through mentorship, exhibitions, digital media, and sustainable creative entrepreneurship. Our events and activities include artists from Melgund Township, Winnipeg, Ignace, Sioux Lookout, Dryden, and beyond. You read more innovation-focused posts here.
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