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On Wednesday, First Lady Michelle Obama continued her show of support for arts and culture by honoring recipients of the Coming Up Taller Awards, given out each year by the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities. The Coming Up Taller Awards recognize and support outstanding community arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of America’s young people, provide them learning opportunities and chances to contribute to their communities. Mrs. Obama recognized the importance of these programs in her remarks:

“Ultimately, each of your programs is using achievement in the arts as a bridge to achievement in life.  And you see all this every day, each and every one of you working so hard.  You see this in your students as they become more confident and more engaged and more willing to take risks and to take responsibility for their futures.  You see it when their academic performance improves, when you see improving attitudes and higher GPAs.  And you see young people who never saw themselves as college material, you see them getting those acceptance letters and you see them going on to pursue their degrees.  So we all know in this room the power of the arts to change young people’s lives.”

To read all of the First Lady’s remarks, click here.

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That’s the question asked in a 2006 presenation at the TED Conference by Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D, an expert in creativity, innovation, and human resources (and a presenter at Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in 2009).  In a recent CNN article, Robinson discusses his earlier presentation and argues why he thinks schools stifle creativity, despite the fact that, as he believes, all humans are born with incredible creativity and talent.  So why and how does he believe schools and teachers discourage students’ creative abilities?  From the article:

“In education, this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors. They include a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programs from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests. Read the rest of this entry »

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I want to express my appreciation to my fellow Salon bloggers last week and everyone who has commented—you’ve given me a lot to think about. Before I go, though, I want to make what seems to me like an essential point. We’ve spent a lot of time in this salon so far talking about problems, but solutions have been somewhat elusive. I think part of the reason is contained within a comment I wrote earlier last week on my Generation Y and the Problem of “Entitlement” post but didn’t realize the true significance of until later:

I think the generational shifts are a related, but separate phenomenon from the concentration of power in our field at the top and the frustration that many feel as a result of it, regardless of generation.

There are really two separate issues we’re talking about here, and that’s why our wires keep getting crossed. On the one hand, we have genuine ways in which Generation Y is different from all the generations that came before, particularly with regard to how technology has impacted our communications habits, our work ethic, our social norms, and most importantly, our expectations for ourselves and others. However, this is NOT the same thing as the second issue: the concentration of power in a few individuals that pushes out other voices, both at an organization level and in the wider field. THAT is not new at all, and in fact is probably in a better place now than it ever has been.

Read the rest of this entry »

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I want to congratulate the Emerging Leaders Network, the leaders of the 20UNDER40 project, and other stakeholders who helped make last week’s Emerging Leaders Salon possible. As one of the thousands of visitors reading these Salon posts on ARTSblog last week, I can say I am heartened not only by the keen level of discussion, but also by the great diversity of participants and readers who have commented. I find it striking and encouraging that the arts field always comes together in a united front to make our community stronger, despite the challenges of the economy and changing cultural landscape, as well as strong differing opinions.

These kinds of insightful dialogues between powerhouse voices in the arts field such as Eric Booth and Ramona Baker and vigorous burgeoning leaders such as Edward Clapp and Ruby Classen, make me feel proud of the inherent community the arts bring to us all. I am also humbled at the enormous amount of work so many members, stakeholders, and staff of Americans for the Arts have played over the last ten years to advance new voices in the arts. It was in 1999 at a Winston-Salem Convocation focused on the future of the arts that the Emerging Leader program was born. In just ten short years the Emerging Leader Network has grown from an idea and then a Council to a full-fledged collection of over 1,000 leaders and stakeholders of all levels who are looking to ensure the health of arts leadership. Where our staff once had conference calls with a few emerging leader representatives scattered across the country, our Network now hosts dozens of Creative Conversations from coast to coast—hundreds of emerging leaders deeply engaged in their own communities. Read the rest of this entry »

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As this week-long web salon comes to a very successful close, I’m sure a lot of people are amped up about the potential we have to impact conceptual change in the field of the arts and arts education. One big question on folks’ minds may be “this is so exciting—what’s next?” I think this is the wrong question.

We’ve generated a lot of discussion, but exciting dialogue of this variety (perhaps, though, not in this quantity) has been generated before. Rather than ask what we do next, I want to know what we do first.  And by do I mean DO.  Actively do something that puts the gears of change in motion. Something we can see. Something tangible. Something that actually begins to change the purposes, procedures, and principles that influence leadership and practice in the arts. Read the rest of this entry »

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I have spent the better part of this morning and afternoon reading through the comments on this blog salon, and am thrilled at the amount of energy, excitement, and dialogue that this week’s online event has generated. This week alone, we’ve questioned the term “Emerging Leaders”, defined (or attempted to define) what Leadership is, and debated with ourselves whether we have had enough success to really qualify us to lead. On the other side, veteran leaders have told us to stop our whining, complaining, and discussing. We need to start doing our jobs, make ourselves and our communities matter, and start seeing the bigger picture. And – honestly, we need to hear that.

Right now, it seems like we are working in silos. We have silo’d our communities, our art forms (read John Steinmetz’s comment to Edward’s early post), our generations, and in turn – ourselves. The great thing about the 20UNDER40 Project is that it has generated so much discussion and some of these silos are beginning to break down. It’s clear from this weeks’ posts and comments that the arts field needs ALL of the ideas that we ALL bring to the table – the veterans and the emerging leaders. Collectively, we are only as strong as we are individually.

I believe veterans do have the responsibility to mentor and pass down knowledge to the next generation, and not cast generalizations that their younger colleagues are lazy and impatient. I also feel like a great supervisor listens to those around them, and truly values the opinion of their colleagues. On the other side, Generation X and Y should respect the positions of the veteran leaders above them, learn what they can, change what they can, and accept what they can’t change until it’s their turn to jump into the leadership position. This doesn’t mean Generation X and Y can’t be leaders.  (Check out the audio podcast interview I did with Ruby Classen to hear her advice on leading in your organization and community from entry – middle level positions).  It just means that sometimes, you have to wait your turn to affect all the changes. Read the rest of this entry »

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In response to Victoria Saunders’ “A Lonely Place to Be,” my advice as a former first-time executive director is to have an (un)official group of advisors. I began the practice of having my own personal board of advisors when I too realized that being an executive director was a lonely, isolating experience. Individually each of these people were mentors to me on various topics and levels. When I needed a partner to brainstorm wacky program ideas and new technologies, I called Anne Bray at LA Freewaves; for public broadcast questions, I emailed Eddie Wong at the Center for Asian American Media. The list goes on and on. I had an amazing network of support which helped in not feeling so isolated.

Since moving on from my position as executive director, my professional and personal needs have changed and my cabinet has evolved to match these needs.  I currently have a vacant spot that I’m trying to fill, a working mom who can lend advice on work/life balance.  Any suggestions?

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So when are all of those baby boomers working in the nonprofit arts sector going to retire? I keep reading about the fact that they are all retiring and there will be lots of opportunities for those who are younger, and that in fact, there is going to be a great need for new leaders.

Never mind that:

• Boomers’ retirement funds lost 30-50% of their value, and the very concept of organizations providing retirement dollars in the nonprofit arts sector wasn’t even thought of by the organizations they worked for then, or now, until they were into their ‘30s;
• These boomers decided to stay in a profession at lower pay when many of their colleagues quit the nonprofit arts sector in their late ‘30s and ‘40s, so now they don’t think that they will be able to afford retirement;
• The boomers’ kids are struggling to find work if they have finished college, or are in graduate school, and their younger kids are just starting college;
• Some boomers who would have become CEO’s lost out when it became fashionable a few years ago to hire people who had retired early from the for profit sector to be the new CEO, rather than an experienced, career professional in the arts;
• It seems that the only boomers who are able to retire are those who worked in state government or higher education which are part of larger retirement plans – rather than independent nonprofits.

I’m sure the boomers can find a few more items to add to the list.

Why would people want to step aside – when they have bills to pay, passion for their work, and years of productivity ahead? Why would they step aside “when they are,” as Degas said on his deathbed,” just starting to get it” (‘it’ meaning a better salary, the opportunity to do the work they have always dreamed of doing, being able to balance personal and professional time after years of long work weeks, or however you define ‘it’)? Read the rest of this entry »

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When I was a little girl I would watch cowboys on TV on Saturday mornings. Besides the dust, the visual images I most remember were that the good guys had white horses and the bad guys wore black hats.

This seemed like a great idea to me at the time.  I felt too inexperienced to reach those conclusions on my own, so the fact that someone else decided for me seemed like a great plan. As I acquired more worldly experience I also developed stronger feelings of independence and a much greater desire to reach my own conclusions about everything.

Words, gestures, labels, symbols — their meanings are sometimes so personal that I have no idea what they mean to someone else.  Sometimes they are destructive and other times they become a helpful kind of shorthand. Read the rest of this entry »

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Some observations about this set of blog exchanges.

1. Very little heat or disagreement. When Edward introduced 20UNDER40 to a dialogue on NECAP’s (New England Consortium of Arts-Educator Professionals) blog, there was a lot of reactivity against the very notion of the book. It was the most active blog outburst in their history. The anger seemed to come from some over-40 teaching artists who felt under-heard themselves and felt dissed by a book dedicated to younger voices.

Since this AftA blog appears under their Emerging Leaders banner, the participant pool seems much younger, and entirely accepting of Edward’s concept and project. Even the over-40s (I know some of you who are!) who have posted seem in support of the book. This blog-population seems entirely in support of the book.

2. Stephanie Evans at Americans for the Arts has been telling us that the participation in this blog has been extraordinarily high by their norms–not just the number of posts and responses but a huge number of page views that didn’t post messages. Even without controversy or burning issue. This suggests to me that we are looking at a lot of untapped energy around this topic. I have been calling it “a movement” with Edward to try to capture my amazement at the size and quality of the submission response to his call for chapter proposals.

So, young leaders, what are you going to do about it? Read the rest of this entry »

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