They Told Me Not to Take that Job by Reynold Levy

Description

They said Lincoln Center was hopeless. He raised a billion dollars and rebuilt it anyway. Reynold Levy — the celebrated nonprofit leader who served as president of Lincoln Center for eleven years — delivers a gripping insider account of one of the most ambitious cultural turnarounds in American history (PublicAffairs, 2015).

When Levy took the helm in 2002, Lincoln Center was mired in debt, discord, and decay. Over the next decade he raised more than a billion dollars, oversaw the physical rebirth of the sixteen-acre campus, and forged an uneasy peace among the Center’s famously fractious constituent organizations.

With candor and wit, Levy recounts the boardroom battles, the betrayals, the unlikely heroes, and the moments of high drama behind the transformation — both a masterclass in leadership under pressure and a love letter to the performing arts. Essential for arts administrators, nonprofit leaders, and anyone fascinated by the high-stakes world behind the curtain.

Reynold Levy, the celebrated nonprofit leader who served as president of Lincoln Center for eleven years, delivers a gripping insider account of one of the most ambitious cultural turnarounds in American history. They Told Me Not to Take That Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center was published by PublicAffairs in 2015.

When Levy took the helm in 2002, Lincoln Center was mired in debt, discord, and decay — New York Magazine famously described the situation as nearly hopeless. Over the next decade, he raised more than a billion dollars, oversaw the physical rebirth of the sixteen-acre campus, and forged an uneasy peace among the Center’s famously fractious constituent organizations.

With candor and wit, Levy recounts the boardroom battles, the betrayals, the unlikely heroes, and the moments of high drama behind the transformation. His memoir is both a masterclass in leadership under pressure and a love letter to the performing arts.

Part business memoir, part cultural history, this book offers hard-won lessons on managing change, building coalitions, and leading institutions through crisis — essential reading for arts administrators, nonprofit leaders, and anyone fascinated by the high-stakes world behind the curtain.