I have been enjoying all of the rich dialogue that has been going on all week through this Blog Salon from some very articulate individuals. Like most of you, I do what I am passionate about. I am passionate about the arts, and have been since High School when the arts helped me find my voice, my confidence and a group of friends that I still have today.

I am also passionate about sports. I am not able to work within sports but I do keep active with three sports blogs that I write and manage on a daily basis. This allows me to engage in both of the areas that I find the most passion and excitement.

It is with that unique lens that got me thinking about the path to leadership in the arts. In fact, the way that I often describe our emerging arts leader network, genARTS is as "a farm system for arts leadership."

Think about it, you've got Single A (new to the field), Double A (a couple of years of experience), Triple A (established emerging leaders, ready to step into a leadership position) and the Major Leagues (leaders of arts and cultural organizations).  

The more I think about it, the more the comparison makes sense. And, this model got me thinking about our genARTS Silicon Valley network. Right now, our network is made up of more Triple A leaders. They are ready to step up into leadership roles given the chance and a little bit of seasoning and professional development opportunities.

But, where we are currently lacking is in the Single A and Double A areas. Any baseball fan knows that to have sustained success, you have to stock talent in all levels of your farm system. If you have a great Triple A team, then your team might be good for the next couple of years but you can then expect a big drop off from there. So, it is critical for us as we build our network that we look to identify talent and future leaders on all ends of the spectrum.

So our mission is to build the Silicon Valley arts leadership farm system from Single A on up. And, to get the community to buy into the idea of trading people to different teams... well, maybe not the last part but it would make things pretty fun.

Play Ball Emerging Leaders!!