Center for Social Innovation

20Under40 is a collection of essays about the future of the nonprofit arts sector and its next generation of leaders. Editor Edward P. Clapp assembled the collection to understand “why a career in the arts seems to be particularly challenging for younger professionals.”

The 20 essays are all by writers under age 40. Some are practicing artists, others are arts administrators; there are essays by academics, management consultants, bloggers, screenwriters, educators, and, in one case, an MIT-trained physicist who hosts the Discovery Channel show Time Warp. Clapp wants to disseminate these viewpoints because he believes that the arts sector is in crisis—that it “suffers from an insecurity complex and operates from a position of fear.”

The most compelling essays are those