Jeanne Sakamoto

Supporting Leadership Programs

Posted by Jeanne Sakamoto, Apr 08, 2010 0 comments


Jeanne Sakamoto

In an ideal world, well-funded arts organizations set aside a week or more every year for their emerging leaders to attend professional development workshops or conferences tailored specifically to address the key issues and trends they see in their disciplines. Sounds like a smart thing to do, right? And yet we all know that while the demand exists for these types of professional development programs, they are typically one of the first things to be sacrificed when budgets are cut and revenue is scarce.

At Irvine, we began researching next generation leadership development issues as a way to help advance the arts field in California. Now, given the impact of the recession on the arts, it seems even more important to us that we help prepare the next generation of leaders.

You might argue that leadership development is a luxury that the sector can’t afford right now, but we feel that there are more reasons than ever to support these vital programs. Throughout the recession, we have heard many tales of our grantees having to make severe cuts in staff and programs, typically after they decided to eliminate any possibility for professional development activities. Those employees that did survive the layoffs were often asked to take on additional responsibilities, sometimes for less money, and without adequate training to do so. Needless to say, morale at many organizations was low and the overall situation created a perfect storm for emerging arts leaders to leave the field, either by choice or by pink slip.

Given Irvine’s role as a major supporter of the arts ecology in California, we felt it was important for the health of the field as a whole to invest in the development and retention of the future leaders of the sector. We also wanted to make this investment as efficiently as possible, distributing professional development funds directly to emerging leaders as quickly as possible. Fortunately, we found strong grassroots efforts already underway. By providing support to networks led by the emerging leaders themselves, we could enhance and expand the good work already being accomplished and help spotlight their efforts within the arts field.

And rather than create a new mechanism for providing the professional development training that these emerging leaders need to do their current (and often expanded) jobs, we decided to support the Center for Cultural Innovation’s existing and effective model to efficiently distribute professional development funds to emerging leaders across California, thereby getting the money on the ground that much faster to support these leadership development efforts.

The question of whether or not to provide this leadership development support at a time when so many of our grantees were struggling to meet basic needs was debated. Ultimately, we decided that this was an investment that could pay huge dividends for arts organizations in the near and long-term future. I hope you agree, but am interested to hear your reaction. If you have stories of dwindling (or non-existent) professional development funds, please share them as well. Do you have other ideas for how to support emerging arts leaders?

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