We are really excited to be heading to Seattle for the 2009 Annual Convention. Although Americans for the Arts hosts the convention, it is really YOUR convention. You are the presenters, participants, and consumers of this event. You are the ones who make it successful. We just set the stage for you to connect, listen, and learn from one another.
We are currently accepting proposals to present. DEADLINE: AUGUST 1.
Below are some suggestions for what separates a good proposal from a weak proposal.
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Tagged with: Americans for the ArtsArts-EducationBusinessConventionCultural DevelopmentEmerging LeadersEventsLeadershipPartnershipsPolicyPublic-Art
July 14th, 2008 at 10:13am
Rebecca Borden
There are moments where you sense things so intensely they have a texture and vibration all their own. One experiences joy and humility in the same breath and it brings a lump to your throat even though you are smiling broadly. I had many grateful moments like these over the course of Convention. To me, our Convention is a graduation experience of sorts (true confessions from a former high school teacher). It happens in June. It’s a culmination of a year’s worth of work. And, when it happens, you forget all the hard times in between and fall back in love with your work all over again. If we did a yearbook, this text would be on my senior page.
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Tagged with: ConventionEmerging LeadersEventsLeadership
July 3rd, 2008 at 09:42am
Rebecca Borden
For reasons I’m too embarrassed, exhausted or simply unwilling to discuss, I’m seated at the Phoenix Airport at 7:00 a.m. on my way home to LA. I’m not a fan of overnight flights, and I’m extremely un-fond of three hour airline delays - especially when I could have stayed at the airport hotel and swam in the pool or worked out. Oh well. Time for a recap.
This conference rocked. For those that have been reading my posts, I can be a bit of a tough love kind-of-guy. (more…)
Tagged with: ConventionEmerging LeadersLeadershipPartnerships
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:44am
Terence McFarland
I can’t help but view this whole conference experience through the lens of its arrival in my hometown next year. What will we do differently? What worked and what didn’t? What does ‘Metro Natural’ mean? I really want to be able to show off the ‘Authentic Seattle’ character, but also be realistic about what we will be able to do…I didn’t even make all of the sessions I wanted to this year, and I had far less responsibility than I will next time around.
I really enjoyed the presentation I just saw about uwishunu, and am totally blown away by how smart, savvy, and authentic that project seems to be. I hope they come to Seattle next year. I also really enjoyed the panel that Ra and Lisa from Illinois Arts Alliance hosted on succession planning; I did manage to step on a small land mine during that discussion when I suggested that hiring young, capable staff and training them up through the organization was a way to protect yourself from succession crisis…apparently it sounded like I was saying don’t hire people over 35 (I wasn’t). It made me think about a few things for next year:
-Multigenerational Leadership dialogue: It gets a little too ‘us vs. them’ for me…I think we would all be served by being able to hear and learn from each others stories, regardless of age or institution.
-Combined panels with Economic Development and Leadership: In both tracks it was sometimes hard to tell which was which. I think these two areas are closely linked (uwishunu is a good example).
-I have 3 staff under the age of 25, all running different aspects of our program…I’d like to put them on a panel next year and explore what works/doesn’t work about distributed leadership, and what their view of organizational structure is. A lot of people wonder aloud what young people think/want; I suggest we ask them.
-Youth Voice: There is so much dialogue about arts education, but I haven’t seen any youth as presenters. I think that would be really informative
-Sustainability: It appears that this is out theme, and I hope we can explore a wholistic view of the idea of sustainablility…Organizational, environmental, career, operating structure. I have some great ArtVenture ideas for the conference that adress this idea. I also think that susatainability naturally lends itself to crossover between tracks.
I’m just sayin’
I love the people from Tuscon!!!
See you next time…
Randy
Tagged with: Arts-EducationConventionCultural DevelopmentEmerging LeadersEventsLeadership
June 23rd, 2008 at 06:28am
Randy Engstrom
Following a hugely inspiring coaching session with Coach Julia, I will be spending this morning engaged in a bit of retreat, reflection and goal-organizing. I figure I’d better get on it while I’m motivated to do so, and while I’m here, in Philadelphia, and still outside of my Minneapolis routine. Feel free to take some time today to tele-retreat with me :) … below are the questions Julia and I laid out during my session.
Questions for Reflection….
1. Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years? What does your life look like in your ideal scenario? Work? Family? Artistic?
2. What is your vision of a balanced lifestyle, right now? What would that look like for you?
3. Make a list of any barriers to your visions-what is stopping you? What changes could you make in the next month to remove one of those barriers? In 6 months?
4. What are your core values? In your personal life? In your professional life? Where do they overlap, and where are they different?
5. Create a mission statement for yourself. What is your mission personally? Professionally? How do they relate?
Tagged with: Emerging Leaders
June 22nd, 2008 at 09:14am
Julie Bates
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