My First Emerging Leaders Council Meeting

Posted by , Feb 22, 2011 2 comments



You know those surreal professional moments where you're overwhelmed with the coolness of the situation but have to act like you travel to Washington, DC, for conferences all the time? You have to focus extra hard to avoid doing a happy dance, and say things like "I love your city's public art policy" instead of "THIS. IS. AWESOME."

I had one of those moments on January 13. After being elected to the Emerging Leaders Council (ELC) in December, I’d traveled to Americans for the Arts’ offices for my first council meeting.

The Emerging Leaders Council Overview

The Council represents emerging leaders (ELs) in the field of arts management nationwide. The term "emerging arts leader" gained popularity in the 1990s, as the field identified a need to foster the next generation of high-level arts leadership. Americans for the Arts defines ELs as arts administrators under the age of 35 or with fewer than five years of experience. Many ELs also facilitate the creation and guidance of local Emerging Leader Networks.

Since 1999, the Emerging Leader Council has served as a bridge between Americans for the Arts and emerging leaders throughout the country, using local networks to disseminate information and resources.  Although the missions of the 30+ networks nationwide vary, most focus on professional development and networking activities.

I'm proud to say Los Angeles had one of the first Emerging Leaders networks, Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles, which included several people who are now the bosses of their own crop of EAL/LA members. In fact, my executive director and boss extraordinaire at Arts for LA, Danielle Brazell, was involved in that original EAL/LA.

EAL/LA was revitalized in 2006 by John Arroyo, who recently finished his term on the ELC, and core member and Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Project Manager Letitia Ivins is in her second year on the Council. EAL/LA has just finished a strategic planning process to establish leadership and increase capacity—very exciting stuff.

Back to the Winter Meeting…

The 15 ELC members identified focus areas for 2011-2012:
•    Growing the connections between Americans for the Arts and local networks.
•    Advising Americans for the Arts on emerging leader involvement in its major events and in Creative Conversations, professional development events held by most local networks every October.
•    Developing resources for the field.
•    Seeking out exciting ideas and strong young leaders, and sharing them with Americans for the Arts and the field.

All four are focused on the core principles of capacity/scalability (how much we could realistically accomplish), listening to the field, supporting innovation, and utilizing available resources to make the greatest impact. I came away from the meeting with a strong desire to ask Emerging Leader networks how the council can help them fulfill their missions and extend services.

Emerging Leaders: What Do You Think?

•    What would you ask people from other networks?
•    Are there resources or information you'd like to get from other emerging leaders, networks, the national council or Americans for the Arts?
•    If you're an emerging leader and an Americans for the Arts member, have you taken advantage of their resources for Emerging Leaders?

I hope those questions will be jumping-off points for fostering dialogue and resource-sharing between local and national emerging leaders groups. Please use the comments section below to tell me what you think.  I'll share responses with my colleagues on the ELC.

If you’re not involved in a local network, you might want to check it out. If the first EAL/LA group is any indication, in ten years you and your fellow ELs will still be working together... just with different titles.

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2 responses for My First Emerging Leaders Council Meeting

Comments

February 22, 2011 at 11:52 am

I'd really love to start a dialogue with people from other networks. I've been interested in dialogue around relevancy lately and how or what emerging leaders can do to put more attention on how the arts can jumpstart communities.

It's hard to know what resources or information I'd like to get from other networks or AFTA. Sometimes the flow of information between groups sparks an idea that is useful. I wish I could say that I've accessed the resources available on the AFTA sites for emerging leaders, but I haven't. Largely in part because sometimes the things worth searching for you have to drill-down pretty deep into the site. I'd highly recommend that AFTA create mini-sites for ELs, Advocacy, etc.

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February 22, 2011 at 3:02 pm

Thanks, Jorge!
The ELC is working on a teleconference with reps from Emerging Leader networks across the country this May. Should be fun.

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