In the summer of 2020, as the world reeled from the pandemic and the shockwaves of George Floyd’s murder spread across the globe, a courageous group of artists, board members, and staff at the Penland School of Craft came together with one goal: to imagine the future of their organization.
This wasn’t a typical strategic planning process. It was a reckoning. A confrontation with hard truths. A creative act in the midst of isolation, grief, fear, and uncertainty.
But most of all, it was a values-driven response to disruption.
Sitting in the Circle
Before Penland defined a single strategy, we spent two months doing something deeper: We talked about values. We didn’t workshop them. We listened…to each other, to the organization’s legacy, to the pain and possibility embedded in its history.
We named what needed naming and we surfaced the pride and the wounds. We made room for the uncomfortable. And slowly, a circle of ideas began to take shape.
The five values that emerged—Space & Time, Generosity & Connection, Justice & Equity, Belonging & Transformation, and Immersive Experience—didn’t just reflect who Penland had been. They pointed toward who Penland aspired to become.
These values were not abstractions; they were commitments. And as we began to share them more broadly across the community, something inevitable happened: resistance.
Some asked if the values were too radical for a school rooted in tradition. Others wondered if they were too soft, too vague, too politically charged. One person pushed back on the strategies that emerged from these values, saying they didn’t feel bold or innovative enough for the moment.
The Hardest Choice Is Often the Truest One
Here’s what that initial team of artists, educators, and trustees did: They listened. Carefully. Respectfully. And then—they went deeper.
They made the bold decision to center their strategic plan around these values, not just as a list on a page, but as a filter for real choices.
That meant embracing Access, Inclusion, and Sustainability as strategic imperatives—from piloting new programs and redesigning pricing models to investing in staff and dismantling barriers to participation.
A Lesson for Every Nonprofit Leader
At Creation in Common, we’ve worked with many organizations on their values. Penland showed us what’s possible when stakes are high. They showed us that living your values is not the easy path—it’s the only path forward that creates integrity, community, and change.
They reminded us that when disruption shakes our foundations, it doesn’t diminish our values, it reveals them. And they taught us that courage doesn’t always look like heroism. Sometimes, it looks like a circle of people listening deeply, disagreeing honestly, and deciding—together—that who we are and what we believe matters.