THE RISING TIDE SUMMIT: BUILDING BETTER WORKPLACES
fRIDAY, sEPTEMBER 19, 2025 | 10:00am-4:00pm
Steppenwolf Theatre's Lefkofsky Arts and Education Center
How do we care for our people?
Arts workers hold a lot. We make beauty out of chaos. We build experiences that move people. We connect communities. But so often the people who make it all happen are working in conditions that make it hard to thrive. Arts workers are expected to offer warmth and hospitality while managing tight budgets, navigating complex power dynamics, and making it all look effortless.
Right now, so much feels out of our control - funding is shrinking, systems are strained, and the uncertainty can feel relentless. But one thing we can control is how we care for each other. If we’re the ones holding everything together, who’s holding us? What does it mean to build an arts workplace where people can thrive, not just survive? And how can we show up for each other in ways that are sustainable, equitable, and real?
This full-day gathering invites arts workers at every level - whether you're greeting guests at the box office, drafting donor emails, managing teams, or building budgets - to reflect on the real conditions of arts work and imagine something better.
Together we’ll explore how power, identity, and invisible labor shape our workplaces. Through storytelling, training, and collective reflection, dig into questions like:
What can we make better, even when so much feels out of our control?
What strategies can we use to interrupt harm, even when we’re not “in charge”?
How do we build sustainable internal systems of care?
This summit is for arts administrators, front-of-house staff, managers, artistic leadership, and anyone invested in making the arts a more sustainable place to work.
BACKGROUND
In 2018, 2nd Story began a long, deliberate, and ultimately fruitful journey towards achieving pay equity and increasing arts worker care at our organization. As part of that work, we launched The Rising Tide Project. The Rising Tide Project takes a multi-pronged approach to furthering worker care across the sector, including establishing small cohorts of arts organizations to support their own internal efforts and a series of public events to share learning, cultivate community, and build momentum around pay equity and arts worker care.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The Rising Tide Summit combines storytelling, group conversations, and practical activities to explore workplace power and care. The day will kick off with a full group session, followed by two breakout sessions in the afternoon, where participants will choose their own path for learning, based on their own needs and interests. We’ll end the day with full group work designed to build connection, awareness, and actionable strategies for healthier workplaces.
Lunch and snacks will be provided. Please include any dietary restrictions and access needs via the registration form.
Free parking is available in Steppenwolf’s garage. See https://www.steppenwolf.org/plan-your-visit/location-and-parking/ for more.
Please note that The Rising Tide Summit is in-person. We are not able to offer a hybrid or virtual option, and the sessions will not be recorded.
REGISTRATION
Registration fees help us to offset the cost of food, venue, and paying our facilitators.
In order to increase financial access, we have created a tiered structure for registration fees. Please click “Register here” below to see all available options and choose the level that corresponds to your financial ability. If the lowest tier is prohibitive for you, please reach out to us at info@2ndStory.com. We will not turn anyone away for lack of funds!
FACILITATION TEAM
Dana Britto
Dana Britto (she/her) has spent the past 16 years working with and for nonprofits and foundations across the country to help strengthen their financial and operational infrastructure, practices, systems and strategies to maximize impact and build sustainability. She has a proven track record of building and developing teams with a demonstrated ability to develop relationships and design effective, trust-based engagements with external partners. Throughout her career, she’s maintained a strong commitment to addressing inequities across the social sector and incorporating racial equity into nonprofit management and philanthropic practices.
As a lender and consultant, Dana serves as the Founder and Principal of Cultivar Consulting, which provides training, coaching, and consulting services aimed at helping nonprofit leaders strengthen financial management systems and practices to ultimately empower themselves, their teams and their stakeholders to best serve their respective communities. It is through this work that she became connected with the amazing team at 2nd Story, and she currently serves as the organization’s Board Treasurer.
Amanda Delheimer
Amanda Delheimer (she/her) is an artist, facilitator, and leader. She has been the Artistic Director of 2nd Story since 2007, where she has something something blah blah blah. Her work is based in the co-creation of learning and She was chosen for the inaugural artEquity Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Facilitator cohort, funded by the Mellon Foundation and hosted by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015. Since then, she has actively engaged with the Theater Communications Group as a part of their anti-racism work, including presenting on “White Fragility and Social Location Theory” and “How to Break Down White Supremacy Culture” at their annual convening. For the Michigan Presenters Conference in Detroit, MI, she developed a workshop called “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion—What does that mean for Presenters?” As the Artistic Director of 2nd Story, she has facilitated trainings, workshops, and experiences for partners on a local and national level, including work with Comcast NBC Universal, Motorola, Fifth/Third Bank, Skadden Arps, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, the Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the National Able Network, among others.
Ali Drumm
Ali Drumm (she/her) is an arts administrator, facilitator, and strategic systems-builder with over a decade of experience in the creative sector. Ali is the Manager of Strategy and Operations at 2nd Story where she also serves as the project manager of The Rising Tide Project. In her work, Ali leads cross-sector efforts to operationalize pay equity and center arts worker care, drawing on her expertise in creative operations, stakeholder engagement, and systems design. She implements transparent infrastructure, community-driven programming, and sustainable practices across both independent artist and institutional ecosystems. Previously, Ali managed the development and delivery of e-learning programs and virtual workshops for Fortune 500 companies across sectors including retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and tech. She is skilled at managing timelines, supporting partner organizations, and aligning people and systems toward shared goals. Her work is rooted in care, transparency, and joy.
Vince Págan-Hill
Vince Págan-Hill (he/him) is a native Chicagoan and a strategic operations and communications leader with over a decade of experience supporting nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, and government partners. With a strong background in internal systems design, multimedia storytelling, and cross-functional project management, Vince specializes in building infrastructure that supports equity-driven work. He brings deep expertise in stakeholder facilitation, participatory research, and campaign execution, with a proven track record of aligning people, platforms, and processes for impact. Vince is trained as a teaching artist, and has taught with theatre and social justice institutions all over Chicago, including Goodman Theatre and Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers. An avid storyteller, Vince began working with 2nd Story in 2012.