Americans for the Arts

Emerging Leader Survey Results – What do they Mean to You?

Posted by Americans for the Arts, Apr 27, 2010 1 comment


Americans for the Arts

by Emily Spruill and Stephanie Evans

As the Americans for the Arts’ Emerging Leaders Council started to develop our focus for the coming years, we kept asking ourselves, who is our audience?  What do they need?  So before we start assuming how we can help emerging leaders, we decided to ask you.  The Emerging Leaders Council spent 2009 drafting the questions for an Emerging Leaders Network Field Survey.  By January 2010, 554 of you had let us know about yourself and what’s on your mind.

The survey confirmed a lot of what we thought to be true:  Most of you are very active in seeking out professional development – either within your community or at national convenings.  The majority of you (over 75%) are also very involved with advocating for the arts at the local and/or national level.

While the survey results indicate that emerging arts leaders want and need professional development, only 31% of you indicated that there is a budget line for professional development in your organization’s budget. It is clear that organizational support for employee’s professional development has been reduced or eliminated entirely in 2009/2010 budgets.

Where will this leave our field?  If we are not investing in our own professional development, then what will the leadership of our field look like ten to twenty years from now?  Sure, there is plenty of learning on the job.  However, it is clear that young arts leaders are craving more.

Therefore, the Emerging Leaders Council has identified specific action items to help address the professional development gap.

From the survey, some of the most requested resources by emerging leaders include a mentorship resources toolkit, information on what emerging leaders are reading now and case studies on successful local emerging leader networks.   The Council has heard you and will work on disseminating this information to the field over the next nine months.

Interested in learning more?  Americans for the Arts has made the full results of the survey public, and I invite you to check out the full findings – click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

Or check out the survey’s Executive Summary for a top line analysis of the results.

We hope you will share the results with your networks and let us know your observations.  I found the responses impressive.  The Survey results put real numbers and figures to what we have said all along - we are a well qualified, dedicated force.

Thanks to all who took the time to complete the survey.  Your time and energy will help shape the direction of the Emerging Leaders Council for coming years.   Now, how do you compare to the emerging leader profile?

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April 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by Americans4Arts: Only 31% of surveyed emerging arts leaders have a budget line item for professional development. Read survey results http://bit.ly/bSGk5G...

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