lessons from a career in arts consulting

Interesting post on the lessons learned from a career in arts consulting

Just because an employee works for an institution does not mean he is an “arts leader.” Somewhere along the line, institutional leaders have been automatically designated as community leaders, but this designation should stop. There is no correlation between a person who works at an institution and leadership;​​ nor does it naturally follow that institutional employees are any better at their jobs or somehow more enlightened than someone who works for an arts corporation or is a member of an organized collective. In addition, artistic directors of institutions are no more visionary or gifted than their colleagues in organized collectives and arts corporations. By embracing this notion, we open the possibilities for the identification of relevant leadership and broaden its definition.

The challenge is to assumptions we hold dear – creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation reside in many more quarters than just the arts….those of us consulting to organisations need to challenge our own methodologies and taken-for-granted ways of working to ensure that we are not simply perpetuating old models and old thinking.  Much to think about in this article