Presented by MHM Director Debbie Spence as part of Rewiring Culture at REMIX Sydney 2026.
Cultural organisations are being asked to do more. More audiences. More income. More participation. More innovation. More social impact.
And, usually, with less.
Every one of those ambitions is worthwhile. That’s precisely the problem. When everything matters, everything becomes a priority and organisations end up spreading money, people and attention ever more thinly.
At REMIX Sydney, Debbie Spence explored a deceptively simple question: what if part of the answer isn’t doing more, but choosing better?
Every strategic ‘yes’ spends four currencies: money, time, attention and trust. Good strategy means deciding where those finite resources can create the greatest audience, cultural and public value and having the confidence to stop, pause or say ‘not yet’ to the rest.
Because being for everyone doesn’t mean trying to do everything.
And perhaps cultural organisations don’t each need to carry every ambition themselves. We can be individually more focused and collectively more ambitious.
This isn’t an argument for less culture. It’s an argument for less institutional exhaustion and more collective ambition.
Download the presentation to explore how sharper choices about audiences, resources and priorities can help cultural organisations do what matters, brilliantly.
If you’re a REMIX member you can watch Debbie’s presentation on the REMIX Sydney 2026 website.
Download the presentation
What does your organisation need permission to stop?
If the presentation raises questions about your own strategy, priorities or resource choices, we’d be interested to hear them.
