The challenge
Southwest Contemporary is the leading source of journalism for the contemporary art community in six Southwest-American states. Founder Lauren Tresp has grown her team from one employee to three over the past two years, and needed help managing her geographically-dispersed team of employees and freelancers, as well as exploring better ways to track their performance toward goals.
Southwest Contemporary is primarily funded through grants, but Lauren was ready to start making money through larger events and membership revenue. While she knew she needed more operational processes in place to serve her growing team, she was also wary of “corporatizing” Southwest Contemporary and losing the authentic team-based decision-making that she values.
“The Employee Handbook Is Where A Lot Of That Policy Work Came To Life. It Outlines Both Hr Policies And Journalistic Policies, And Then Includes Some Unique Things To Us As An Arts Publication Like How We Deal With The Arts, Like Difficult Subject Matter Or Sensitive Imagery. And, You Know, Hopefully Creating A Safe Space For All Of Our Contributors And Employees To Talk About Those Things.”
Lauren Tresp
Founder, Southwest Contemporary