WE ARE UNMANAGEABLE

“Nonprofit arts usually focus on giving to organizations. It is a rare opportunity to receive a grant as an artist directly, much less to have an organization help you project manage and cull resources beyond finances.

A future in the arts that does not prioritize profits or name recognition, but love and community. Long live Unmanageable!”

- Abigail Washburn

Unmanageable partners with artists to develop ambitious, community-centered initiatives that might otherwise remain unrealized. Rather than offering one-size-fits-all support, we work alongside artists over months, and often years, to help transform bold ideas into sustainable projects, organizations, and movements.

The work we support spans music, storytelling, scholarship, community archiving, public art, theater, festivals, and cultural preservation. Many of these initiatives uplift historically marginalized narratives, celebrate cultural traditions, and create meaningful opportunities for public dialogue, community participation, and collective care.

Our partnerships are as unique as the artists we support. Whether we're producing a large-scale festival, building the organizational infrastructure behind a documentary, archive, or touring project, or helping an artist launch a nonprofit or develop a long-term fundraising strategy, our role is to meet each project where it is. We provide the strategic planning, fundraising, project management, and organizational support needed to help ambitious ideas grow while ensuring artists remain at the center of the creative vision.

Since 2020, Unmanageable has raised more than $5 million to support independent artists and community-centered cultural projects—building the resources, relationships, and infrastructure that allow visionary ideas to grow and create lasting impact.

HOW WE STAY UNMANAGEABLE

Producing Partner: We partner to produce artist-driven, community rooted projects, festivals, retreats, and events. This work includes helping artists to create and manifest a vision for their large scale events and initiatives, along with budgeting, event planning, fundraising, management, and onsite production. Unmanageable provides the legal and financial infrastructure organizations and emerging initiatives need to receive tax deductible donations, apply for grants, and move their work forward. We offer trusted stewardship and administrative support so artists and partners can focus on nurturing their artistic vision, serving their communities, and advancing their mission. And, we help artists plan strategically for projects over their continued lives. What starts as a theater work may later become a touring piece, an album, or a book. With the artist in the driver’s seat, we help to build a vision for a long-term life of a project and create a scaffolding of support that will help it thrive.

Projects include: Rhiannon Giddens’ Biscuits & Banjos, Farm Aid Family Reunion, We Are North Nashville, Amber Rubarth’s Cover Crop, Rancho La Puerta Artist Retreat and Folk Festival, Breaking the Thermometer, Allison Russell’s Once & Future Sounds, Shockoe Institute

Fiscal sponsorship PLUS: Unmanageable’s fiscal sponsorship PLUS model is designed to incubate and strengthen artist-driven initiatives that may become their own nonprofits in the future. This partnership extends resources and organizational capacity to organizations and collaborative initiatives working to strengthen their communities. Through a variety of targeted resources which might include hands-on fundraising advisement, grant writing, donation infrastructure, and/or strategic planning, we work alongside our partners to understand their needs, and ultimately give time-bound and targeted support that seeks to help them grow their capacity, deepen their impact, and expand their reach to historically under-resourced communities. This is a deliberate strategy for building strong organizations and creating lasting change.

Projects include: Black Opry, Your Song

Pro-bono Consulting and Grant Writing: Our pro-bono consulting and grant-writing removes a significant financial barrier for independent artists who need professional expertise but cannot afford it. By offering fundraising strategy, industry coaching, and career planning at no cost to artists, we ensure that economic constraints do not limit access to the tools artists need to sustain their practice.