Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Lab Design Brief

Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab

The Design

Process The following pages contain three drafts of design documents that have informed the eventual Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab. Herbert Simon wrote that, "Every problem solving effort must begin with creating a representation for the problem". We have included these representations to allow for participants to understand their participation in this program as part of an iterative process over time. The process consists of arcs, of varying lengths and intensity, that precede the time in Banff and that will be sustained beyond the life of the 12-month engagement. Having an ongoing record of our assumptions allows us to trace back decisions and make changes based on an accumulation of evidence rather than reactions in the moment.

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The design process is a community process. Our methodology facilitates innovation and problem solving through collaboration and collective inquiry. We invite and integrate the generosity of various stakeholders. Our convening expertise allows many perspectives to work together more effectively in an act of creation. Our focus is on developing and supporting solutions that reframe problems and target large impact opportunities. A preference for novelty and new pathways to impact suggests risk. Documentation of the design process ensures that we learn from the risks we take, and improve in subsequent iterations.

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Problem Description A number of trends frame the problem statement above.

The Design

Brief Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab

Draft 1

This document is intended as a sketch to shape discussion during the design conversations in Toronto. Following the three days in Toronto, a new brief will be generated and used for the design of both the week-long process in Banff and the longer engagement occurring on the ground in Toronto. The time in Toronto (the Design Studio) will be a structured, time-constrained process of co-creative design. The intent will be to review assumptions that underpin current practices and strategy to generate a ‘sketch’ to begin engaging the broader system in a path forward. We have and will continue to convene core components of the system under examination and augment this with perspectives offered by a number of invited designers to elevate and challenge current thinking. Designs are social entities and sketching is a way to put forward a tentative concept. Through several sketches, we can offer a range of representations that can be considered, compared and integrated. Sketches are disposable and plentiful and include only the detail necessary to render the intended purpose or concept. We believe that complex issues require new perspectives be brought together. And by crossing outside of the boundaries of the leadership development community and engaging other stakeholders, we help organizations and communities move forward.

Problem Statement Toronto’s arts community is diverse and has experienced a sustained period of scarcity. Simon Brault, CEO at the Canada Council for the Arts remarked in November of last year that, “arts and culture are essential components of any journey to empower people and for communities to reinvent themselves. We need artists to interpret, comment on, and decode the state of the world and to point us in a direction of hope”. Arts leaders are currently not developed to build effective coalitions, coordinate activity, or lead systemic change across traditional institutional boundaries.

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1. Complexity of Issues: Current challenges do not reside within existing boundaries or domains. Complex issues tie into multiple aspects of economic, social and cultural activity. Leadership and leadership development too often carries an institutional frame that premature applies limits to action. 2. Digitization: The shift to digital capture and dissemination is challenging existing institutional logics, business models and creative processes. The traditional logics of organizational boundaries argue that firm boundaries make sense because they are cheaper and safer yet evidence suggests that this is no longer the case. 3. Diversity of Interests: Cities like Toronto are defined by a plurality of both fundamental and instrumental preferences (visions of the good life AND means of getting there). Compromise or relying on existing power dynamics are unlikely to provide valuecreating solutions. New approaches and forms of synthesis will be required as more and more voices demand attention in framing the ‘good life’ 4. Lack of Authentic Models: The creative sector borrows approaches based on their business model (government, nonprofit, private) rather than everyday practices and activities. Institutionalized social relations in the sector are misaligned with the three points above. Simply, how cultural organizations organize is defined by power dynamics outside of the sector and the city.

Constraints Although, I would anticipate that this list will grow, some potential constraints are listed below: •

Expectations of the participants around how knowledge will be created/transferred

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Existing assumptions about leadership in the sector

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Access to appropriate thought leaders

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Role of funding institution in framing and delivery of program

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Ability of participants to stop doing some things to allow for new things to be done

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Ability to convene broader system in the room

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Budget

The budget for this program has been established and agreed upon. The Banff Centre is contributing to this work due to the potential for impact and long-term dialogue with the sector. This work needs to tie into broader commitments made by The Banff Centre to justify this investment. Specifically, this activity relates to: 1. Re-charging sessions for senior leaders to reinforce commitment to the field and gain perspective through an independent study project; 2. Small team-based programs for groups from multiple institutions to work on a partnership or regional initiative while freed from day-to day responsibilities;

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identify where solutions will have greatest impact and to allow for new ideas to be prototyped before there is proof that they work;

3. Providing early and mid-career individuals an opportunity to work under guidance of senior staff in a structured, practical format; 4. Multidisciplinary programs across the entire creative and cultural sector;

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5. Developing artists as leaders and helping to position them as leaders in larger global and community dialogues.

With some exceptions, commissioners lack a process for commissioning innovation and managing/sharing the risk;

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Funds for innovation are fragmented to such a level as they can’t achieve systemic change. The risk profile of innovation in the creative and cultural sector is low;

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Leaders will need to be accountable for establishing and communicating where their organization should be and how the world will be a better place as a result of their success;

Needs of the Problem

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The design days are intended to address this question. We are broadly organizing the design around three core questions:

Models of leadership must enable action and better access the inherent strengths of boards, leadership, staff and the public.

Goals

1. How do leaders need to show up?

Although goals are still open, some initial thoughts are listed below:

2. How do leaders need to navigate relationships and the solution space to move forward?

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Meaningful Projects – projects and enterprises that generate meaningful impacts in advancing cultural and creative goals;

3. What do leaders need to do to make progress?

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Related research funded by Great West Life surfaced some broader needs of the creative and cultural sector

Capacity and Training – increased capacity by participants to support future collaboration and change efforts;

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Stronger Enterprises – increased impact of investments made to support creative and cultural activities;

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New Approaches – successes will be seen and adopted by others, creating broader changes in the system;

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New Stories – broadcast of stories and successes through The Banff Centre and other broadcast channels.

Time The initial design will occur from February 24 – 26, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario at the Toronto Arts Council offices.

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Too many assets are frozen in social structures - those that can break into more nodes have more opportunities;

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People have developed new preferences for consuming culture;

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Many see a lack of big dreams about the future;

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There is significant criticism of professionalization of sectors, particularly given how convergence is driving a greater need to span boundaries;

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Mid-career professionals identified a lack of personal agency and a struggle to express themselves in work;

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Insularity within some sectors and inadequate connections with communities make relevance an ongoing issue;

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Interconnectedness is on the rise and trying to address the issues of a sector without considering the broader creative ecology would offer only temporary and local solutions;

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Most innovation takes place within the frame of the existing system. That means that although solutions may be innovative, they often serve to bolster an approach that is already out of date;

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Many solutions are not designed for scale at the outset - they have begun as community-based initiatives and their ability to grow is dependent on context and personality;

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There is little investment into the earliest stages of innovation - into processes that

Due dates A new brief will be prepared following the February design to inform the design of program elements.

Solution Analysis Metrics will need to be established to track success. This will likely relate to qualitative measures of participant activity as well as broader measures of impact. Broadly, we will know that this program has been successful when we see •

Breakthrough results including new partnerships and initiatives, changes in policy conversations, altered resource flows, new programs or enterprises, or significantly new business models;

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A cohesive learning cohort to co-ordinate impacts across the sector now and in the future

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A cohesive network as careers unfold, and participants take on increasingly senior leadership positions with a high potential for influence in the system

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New narratives about leadership in the sector in both media and within the industry

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Program Description (advertised)

Eligibility

Toronto Arts Council is seeking enterprising creative individuals to participate in the inaugural Cultural Leaders Lab.

This program is open to professional arts workers living and working in Toronto. TAC recognizes the diversity of artistic, administrative, generational and cultural leadership styles and backgrounds that make up the Toronto arts sector.

This exciting pilot program has been created by TAC and The Banff Centre to enhance leadership capacity in Toronto’s arts and culture sectors. The program is designed for mid- to senior-level arts professionals who have demonstrated the potential to lead change in their organizations, communities or arts sectors. Participants will be selected in a competitive process managed by TAC (COMPLETED). The ideal candidate will share a deep desire to elevate Toronto’s arts sector and will embrace the open exchange of ideas in a cross-disciplinary environment. TAC Cultural Leaders will make a commitment to attend a one-week intensive leadership retreat in Banff in April, 2015. Following the retreat, the Leaders Lab will be engaged in a series of activities and exchanges in Toronto over a minimum period of one year.

Program Goals (advertised) The goal of the program is to build a network of creative problem-solvers and innovative thinkers from across arts disciplines, who will exchange ideas and strategies for meeting some of the most pressing challenges facing the arts sector today. The TAC Cultural Leaders Lab aims to invigorate and inspire one of Toronto’s most vital assets – our arts leaders – and to ensure their future capacity to drive innovation in the sector.

What to Expect (advertised) Through a facilitated process led by distinguished arts professionals and educators, participants in the TAC Cultural Leaders Lab will enhance the skills, tools, networks and knowledge that will support the potential implementation of transformative ideas. Participants of the program can expect to: •

Engage in an intensive leadership process in Banff aimed at reframing your perspectives on the work you do and its context in the Toronto arts ecology;

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Identify key challenges in your work and steps to address these challenges;

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Exchange information and ideas related to change strategies, creative place-making, community engagement, and best practices in arts leadership;

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Create an active network of Toronto peers working in different disciplines;

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Share opportunities for participation in the activities of Culture Lab participants;

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Hear from innovative leaders from the arts and other sectors about change-making and transformative initiatives.

Costs All program costs will be covered by TAC and the Banff Centre and include the following: •

Return flight and transfers from Toronto to The Banff Centre for one-week retreat;

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All meals and accommodations at The Banff Centre;

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A stipend of $500 to cover business and personal costs during the program;

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All applicants must: •

Be a permanent resident of Toronto;

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Be a professional arts worker;

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Be willing to commit to one week in Banff from April 26 to May 2, 2015 and bimonthly meetings and/or events in Toronto over a minimum period of one year.

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Have demonstrated leadership qualities in the arts and culture sphere;

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Have demonstrated experience with community engagement.

Selection Process (COMPLETED) Phase One: a multi-disciplinary jury will adjudicate all applications and recommend a short list of candidates. Phase Two: an interview process will be conducted with short-listed candidates. Phase Three: 15 applicants will be selected to participate in the TAC Cultural Leaders Lab. Applicants will be notified in late December 2014 as to whether they are included on the short list. The final list of selected participants in the TAC Cultural Leaders Lab will be announced in late February 2015.

Designer Profiles Milena Vujanovic Milena’s background as an Experience Architecture has allowed her to redefine audience experiences for global giants MTV, Intel, The Vancouver Olympics, Corus Entertainment, Yahoo, SONY, Bruce Mau Design, top defense agency Zel Technologies and, most recently, Kid’s CBC. Her background spans traditional architecture and design, digital media, software design, interactive (web+mobile), as well as cultural branding, visualization, communications and business strategy. Her most recent success was designing the overarching experience flow for Babar and the Adventures of Badou with WMTV/Corus Entertainment, which won a Gemini for Best Kids Cross-Platform; a Gold Award in the Children’s website; and, a Silver Award Winner for Television website by W3. As an educator, she teaches a MBA course on Creativity and Innovation at Schulich School of Business, York University.

Ross Curtner and Scott Baker Scott Baker was raised on wind-licked west-coast of Vancouver Island and has since been working at the intersection of climate policy and civic engagement with the Canadian and European Green Parties, Leadnow, and Tides Canada. Currently Scott is a StudioY Fellow at MaRS Discovery District and the co-founder of Adjacent Possibilities. Ross is a Studio Y Fellow and co-founder of Adjacent Possibilities, an initiative that seeks to spark innovation by connecting unlikely sectors to enable new conversations and

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approaches to complex challenges. At heart, Ross is a facilitator, convener and purveyor of purposeful play.

to engage professionally as a director, as well as teaching acting. He lives in London with wife and son.

Adjacent Possibilities in art+energy is a first of its kind exhibition, showcasing the works of three emerging artists (Li-Hill, LeuWebb Projects, and MAKELAB) responding to a call to creatively showcase the possibilities that are being developed to address climate disruption. Informed by leading entrepreneurs in the cleantech energy sector (Morgan Solar, Hydrostor and MMB Networks), these pieces explored themes of inspiration, determination and human innovation.

Jennie Winhall (offsite)

Jacob Zimmer Jacob is the director of Small Wooden Shoe Theatre Company, and is a consultant and coach. Jacob also works extensively in dance as a dramaturge and is co-director of HUB 14, a rehearsal and performance studio in Toronto. As a featured speaker he gave the keynote address at Performance Creation Canada in Halifax (2008); spoke at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary (2010); Performance Creation Canada in Armstrong BC (2010); and has been an invited panelist for the Literary Managers and Dramaturges of the Americas, Canadian Stage, Canadian Dance Association, Society for Dance History Scholars and the Toronto Fringe Festival among others. With Misha Glouberman, he organizes the UnConference on the Future(s) of Toronto Performance. He has facilitated unconference like events for Harbourfront Centre and LMDA as well as Small Wooden Shoe and Dancemakers.

Elena Bird Elena Bird is dedicated to enhancing the cultural and creative life of the city. She is passionate about maps and involved in developing municipal cultural mapping as it relates to municipal cultural planning best practices and strategies. Elena works as a Senior Policy Advisor, Economic Development & Culture, City of Toronto. She completed her M.A. in Cultural Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Before this she studied Economics at Ryerson University and Arts Management at the University of Toronto. Currently she is President of the board of the Creative City Network of Canada (CCNC), and advisor to the UBC Centre for Cultural Planning and Development program. In the past she chaired the Municipal Cultural Planning Incorporated (MCPI) Municipal Cultural Mapping Guidelines Working Group, and served on the board of an artist-run organizations YYZ Artists’ Outlet and Pleasure Dome.

Ian Prinsloo (offsite) Ian Prinsloo is a creative inquiry facilitator, helping individuals and organizations discover the space of possibility. Having worked for over 20 years as a professional theatre director, Prinsloo focuses on how to use the alternative ways of knowing developed through actor training by people outside of theatre to meet organizational challenge and change. Prinsloo routinely supports teams in high-stakes, high-pressure environments and helps them see their work in new ways. He works across both the private and not-forprofit sectors including the Drop-In Centre in Calgary, Propellus, Calgary Counselling Centre and through programs and consulting with Shell Canada, Calgary Co-op, Quest Theatre and ThoughtWorks, Inc. Prinsloo is a faculty member with Leadership Development at the Banff Centre, a regular lecturer with Kaospilots in Denmark, continues

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Jennie Winhall is a founding member of Participle, an influential social innovation catalyst in the UK that develops new public services and launches them as social enterprises. A leading social innovation specialist, Jennie is responsible for the design and prototyping of services which tackle society’s most intractable problems. To do this she leads multidisciplinary teams to create solutions which are at once engaging to people themselves and financially sustainable. Services launched include Circle, a new model of eldercare now live in six UK locations (circlecentral.com, southwarkcircle.org.uk), LIFE – a programme for families living in chronic crisis (alifewewant.com), and Backr, a social network that enables unemployed people to grow their employability (backr.net). Jennie’s aim through this work is to change the market for solutions in the public sector.

Julie Huffaker (offsite - advisory) Julie is a cultural anthropologist with an MBA who started asking questions about how change happens - hers and everyone else’s - and just can’t stop. She’s now knee-deep in a doctoral program, reading ridiculous amounts about the relationship between individual and organizational change. Past lives include working for Starbucks to help create their experiential marketing approach; doing ethnography for technology companies as a senior researcher for Gartner Consulting; and crunching numbers in an undercover vice/ narcotics safe house investigating motorcycle gangs.

Afternoon Advisors (confirmed) Nova Battacharya is TAC’s President and was a panelist for the Leaders Lab interview process. Nova has been acclaimed as one of Canada’s most captivating dance artists. She has trained with some of bharatanatyam’s most esteemed teachers including Menaka Thakkar, Kalanidhi Narayan and Kitappa Pillai. She was a member of Menaka Thakkar and Company for eleven years, appearing as a soloist and company member for many national and international tours. Seema Jethalal is on the TAC Board and Strategic Initiatives Advisory. She was a jury member for Leaders Lab. She is the Managing Director of Daniels Spectrum, a cultural hub in Regent Park. Seema sits on the Board of Directors of Manifesto Community Projects after having worked there as the Managing Director. She is a member of Civic Action’s Emerging Leaders Network and the Neighbourhood Arts Network Advisory Committee. Jane Marsland has been an articulate advocate for the arts for many years and has served on a wide range of boards, advisory groups and committees. She has been a freelance consultant since 1999, and worked with over 100 organizatioms. Jane was a co-founder of For Dance and Opera, co-founder and Director of Technical Assistance of The Creative Trust: Working Capital for the Arts, as well as co-founder and director of ARTS 4 CHANGE. Jini Stolk is Toronto Arts Foundation’s Research Fellow. She was founding Executive Director of Creative Trust, a $6.4 million program to improve the financial health and

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sustainability of Toronto’s creative performing arts organizations. Before that, she was Managing Director of Toronto Dance Theatre and Executive Director of the Toronto Theatre Alliance/ Dora Mavor Moore Awards; at the TTA she acquired and revitalized Toronto’s half-price ticket booth, T.O. TIX. Jason Ryle is the Executive Director of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, as well as a programmer, writer and filmmaker based in Toronto. Jason also sits on the Board of Directors for Vtape, one of Canada’s largest independent video distributors, and he was previously a programmer for the Native Cinema Showcase in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As an award-winning writer, Jason has written for the Smithsonian Institution and numerous publications throughout North America. He is also a script reader for The Harold Greenberg Fund, which provides financial aid to Canadian filmmakers. Diane Davy is the Executive Director of Work In Culture and the President of Castledale, a consulting company specializing in the business of the cultural sector. With over 25 years experience, she brings senior level expertise and well-honed judgement to her clients needs. Her areas of expertise include strategic business planning, corporate structure and management, marketing strategies, revenue generation (including fund raising and sponsorships), board governance, project management and other related topics. She frequently works with government departments providing research and recommendations on policy and programming that impact the sector. Davy also teaches a course on the business of book publishing as part of the Humber College Creative Book Publishing Program and is part of the travelling consultants programs runs by both Magazines Canada and the Association of Canadian Publishers.

Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab

Draft 2 Toronto Arts Council

As a granting agency, Toronto Arts Council is responding to the changing needs of Toronto’s arts landscape, and growing and innovating alongside with Toronto’s artists. This is being done in many ways through new programs that were introduced in 2014. Artists in the Library and Animating Historic Sites and Museums places artists in new venues, and connects them to communities outside the downtown core, while the introduction of theatre and dance Multi-Year Project grants are a direct response to the needs of artists and organizations who do not receive operational funding, but need committed resources that will facilitate the development of creative projects, from inception to completion. Open Door Funding operates as a new model for funding arts activities in all disciplines, which encourages innovation, collaboration and growth among the arts sector as a whole. The process was designed to respond to important and timely arts sector initiatives outside of discipline-specific funding streams. Another exciting program is the Cultural Leaders Lab, created in partnership with the Banff Centre, with the aim to enhance leadership capacity in Toronto’s arts and culture sectors, in recognition of the great role arts leaders have in shaping Toronto’s arts community. The first Leaders Lab will take place in April 2015.

The Banff Centre The Banff Centre is the world’s foremost centre for the exploration of creativity and innovation. The Centre is located in Banff National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Treaty 7 territory that has been a gathering place for many First Nations throughout time. The Banff Centre proudly honours this natural and cultural history by offering the Centre’s unique setting as a site of learning and sharing between people from across Canada and around the world. A highly creative, multidisciplinary environment is fostered by the annual convergence of up to 7,000 artists, leaders and innovative thinkers, as well as up to 20,000 conference participants who recognize the Centre as a powerful place of inspiration, learning and solution building. This diversity of participants allows for a cross-pollination of ideas and approaches, and for unique collaborations to occur. For leaders in particular, the Centre acts as a generative space to explore how the application of creativity can give rise to innovative ideas and solutions that are shaped by collaborative approaches, diverse perspectives and forward-thinking ideas. Through the Peter Lougheed Leadership Institute, The Banff Centre is working to further leverage its creative assets and generative space to develop exceptional leaders. The Banff Centre believes that artistic and creative institutions are essential to the wellbeing of vital and sustainable communities. For almost 80 years, The Banff Centre has been a professional and creative support for the creative and cultural industries. Several major cities have successfully included the arts and culture as part of their revitalization

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strategies. Studies and research continue to uphold the economic impact and social importance of this investment in the arts. All of this is distinct from the cultural value of these institutions, the creative engine of our collective prosperity. While training opportunities for the creative industries do exist – from degree-granting programs to short courses – the initiatives tend to be discipline-, genre-, or regionspecific, rather than offering training for creative industries professionals across boundaries. Initial results from an environmental scan of existing creative industries programs commissioned by The Banff Centre found that these programs are often limited in size, with demand generally far exceeding capacity. There remains a critical need for programs to develop existing professionals in the creative industries as leaders. The Banff Centre is beginning to address this need.

Cultural Leaders Lab Public Description This exciting pilot program has been created by TAC and The Banff Centre to enhance leadership capacity in Toronto’s arts and culture sectors. The program is designed for mid- to senior-level arts professionals who have demonstrated the potential to lead change in their organizations, communities or arts sectors. Participants were selected in a competitive process managed by TAC. The ideal candidate shared a deep desire to elevate Toronto’s arts sector while embracing the open exchange of ideas in a cross-disciplinary environment. TAC Cultural Leaders have made a commitment to attend a one-week intensive leadership retreat in Banff in April, 2015. Following the retreat, the Leaders Lab will be engaged in a series of activities and exchanges in Toronto over a minimum period of one year. Program Goals: The goal of the program is to build a network of creative problemsolvers and innovative thinkers from across arts disciplines, who will exchange ideas and strategies for meeting some of the most pressing challenges facing the arts sector today. The TAC Cultural Leaders Lab aims to invigorate and inspire one of Toronto’s most vital assets – our arts leaders – and to ensure their future capacity to drive innovation in the sector. What to Expect: Through a facilitated process led by distinguished arts professionals and educators, participants in the TAC Cultural Leaders Lab will enhance the skills, tools, networks and knowledge that will support the potential implementation of transformative ideas. •

Participants of the program can expect to:

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Engage in an intensive leadership process in Banff aimed at reframing perspectives on the work participants do and its context in the Toronto arts ecology;

•

Hear from innovative leaders from the arts and other sectors about change-making and transformative initiatives.

Broader Trends A number of trends seem to be defining the opportunity space for this program. 1. Complexity of Issues: Current challenges do not reside within existing boundaries or domains. Complex issues tie into multiple aspects of economic, social and cultural activity. Leadership and leadership development too often carries an institutional frame that premature applies limits to action. 2. Digitization: The shift to digital capture and dissemination is challenging existing institutional logics, business models and creative processes. The traditional logics of organizational boundaries argue that firm boundaries make sense because they are cheaper and safer yet evidence suggests that this is no longer the case. Digital disintermediates creative activity. 3. Diversity of Interests: Cities like Toronto are defined by a plurality of both fundamental and instrumental preferences (visions of the good life AND means of getting there). Compromise or relying on existing power dynamics are unlikely to provide value-creating solutions. New approaches and forms of synthesis will be required as more and more voices demand attention in framing the ‘good life’. 4. Lack of Authentic Models: The creative sector borrows approaches based on their business model (government, nonprofit, private) rather than everyday practices and activities. Institutionalized social relations in the sector are misaligned with the three points above. Simply, how cultural organizations organize is defined by power dynamics outside of the sector and the city.

Design Days – February 24 – 26, 2015 These days were a structured, time-constrained process of co-creative design. The intent was to review assumptions that underpin current practices and strategy to generate a ‘sketch’ to begin engaging the broader system in a path forward. Designs are social entities and sketching is a way to put forward a tentative concept. Through several sketches, we can offer a range of representations that can be considered, compared and integrated. Sketches are disposable and plentiful and include only the detail necessary to render the intended purpose or concept. We believe that complex issues require new perspectives be brought together. And by crossing outside of the boundaries of the leadership development community and engaging other stakeholders, we help organizations and communities move forward. The process generated four sketches for a potential program design through the following process:

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Identify key challenges in his/her work and steps to address these challenges;

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Exchange information and ideas related to change strategies, creative place-making, community engagement, and best practices in arts leadership;

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Create an active network of Toronto peers working in different disciplines;

2. Mapping the mindsets and attributes inherent in the sector – what is core to leadership in the arts sector?

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Share opportunities for participation in the activities of Culture Lab participants;

3. Identifying behaviours that would activate the mindsets/attributes in a positive way?

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1. Articulating the opportunity

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4. What kinds of experiences would support the demonstration of new behaviours (program elements)?

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If you do formal pathing then you usually end up in a larger institution (AGO) because otherwise you can’t pay off your loans

5. De-coupling how work happens, how people relate, and the aesthetics of work in the arts sector in Toronto

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Forever taking risks

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Often there’s no one else to do the work of leadership

6. Identify desired outcomes at the systemic level and current state of the system

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Leaders are so dedicated, burned out, but don’t want to leave

7. Working with arts leaders and Lab designers to map out 12-month narrative of experiences that move system from current state to desired state

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Fear of what the next job will be

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Similar to world of design

1. Articulating the opportunity

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Take your most talented ‘x’ and take them away from ‘x’

Note: all responses and threads are captured here and are not intended to demonstrate a general support for any of the positions presented

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Valued poorly - but by whom and by what criteria

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Leaders are not rewarded

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Q: Are we conflating creativity and culture too much with the arts?

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Too often obsessed with novelty (originality doesn’t necessarily equate to creative artistic product)

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Need to also focus on honing in on better ways of doing things

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Need to be confident in own assets

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Data is doing terrible things to arts enrolments

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Lack of understanding of what you can contribute (in art and design)

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TAC examines what art means to people

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Recognizing new forms – perhaps not funding it

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We are talking about (explicitly or tacitly) about non-profit arts and culture organizations

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We don’t look to arts leaders and they too often don’t look to themselves to solve some of the big challenges facing the sector and the city itself

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Capacity to lead ourselves and communities in reinvention

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Breaking down barriers

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Lifting up spirits

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Lack of sharing and development of abilities in leadership

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Problem solving around scarcity mindset

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Disenfranchised cultural leaders

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Under-resourced sector

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Perception of the arts in society not as high as it should be

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Creativity and culture are not appropriately valued

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Leadership is a way of creating and embedding new value and communicating that value

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People just want to do their work and the model (private vs. nonprofit) can become a distraction

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Finding opportunities to transform that value

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Art as making of problems, design as solving

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Not talking to each other in ways that are productive

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Internally not valuing art properly

Broadening for the purposes of inclusion in the lab is useful (private theatre, advertising, etc.) a

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Linking how you inspire an actor to how you inspire your accountant

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Perception that artists have fame and attention – things the corporate world wants

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How to respond to emails, chair meetings, etc.

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People likely believe that the arts are valued if asked

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Differences among disciplines – more collaboration does/can happen

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Richard Florida ‘creative class’ makes the conversation harder

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Need to break down assumptions

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Artists not necessarily the most creative, just the most likely to try to make a living at it

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Lots of attempts to share/group counselling but they don’t stick

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Isolation and hopelessness – it’s a thing

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Sharing is not a thing to solve but a process

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Not your fault – it’s a part of the structure you’re in?

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Toronto Arts Council funds 420 organizations

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Artists and arts leaders have access to connectedness that is unique and addictive

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401 Richmond allows for easier sharing but generally within disciplines

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Enormous sense of responsibility leads to stress

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Executive Directors are not trained positions, they are sink or swim

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Sector is too often defined by heroic narratives and stories of genius

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How can leaders love others if they can’t love themselves?

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A belief in the transformative power of art – 3

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If I can’t build a company how can I build a city?

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Exploring paradox / finding the edge - 3

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Overbearing assumption that everything else needs to change

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Sense of possibility - 2

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Lab models supposes that participants can be enabled to change the conversation

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Search for questions to answer / search for truth - 2

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Having them recognize their own power and increase it

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Comfort with metaphor / representative systems - 1

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Change the environment and be resilient to the environment as it is

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Comfort with ambiguity - 1

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If you don’t believe you can make a change, you probably won’t

What behaviors extend from above and will support leadership spaces? (votes)

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Belief is catalytic

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Translating / articulating - 3

Articulation of Position

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Seeking out uncomfortable perspectives - 2

Arts and arts-based skills are not appropriately valued or rewarded. Artists and arts leaders benefit when he/she can act autonomously while responsibility is shared, individuals and activities are interconnected, and resources are available to support risk and engagement.

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Adapting resourcefully - 2

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Visualize a future state – 2

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Designing with intent - 2

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Listening deeply - 1

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Acting strategically - 1

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Performing confidently - 1

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Structured reflection - 1

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Evaluation of opportunity landscape

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Trusting intuition

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Nurturing (mentoring, coaching)

Leadership is a way of creating and embedding value, sharing practices, communicating that value and finding opportunities to transform that value into resources that sustain the work. Leadership is a relational activity that allows for sharing, inspiration, support, breaking down of barriers, and synthesis of what is known and unknown. We need to embed leadership in supported individuals, relationships and structures that persist through collaborative dialogue and action. The current sink or swim approach is not sustainable, healthy or effective.

2. Mapping the mindsets and attributes inherent in the sector – what is core to leadership in the arts sector?

What experiences allow for the above two to emerge? Opportunities to experience … (votes)

3. Identifying behaviours that would activate the mindsets/attributes in a positive way?

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Mindset of abundance - 4

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Being valued - 2

4. What kinds of experiences would support the demonstration of new behaviours (program elements)?

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Making a difference – 2

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Being oneself - 2

The goal was to align leadership practice to the distinct relational qualities and assets of their community. Some activities focused on the experiences required to support systemic change, the behaviours that allow for leadership to thrive in that context and the core mindsets and relational assets that need to be accessed for those behaviours to be ‘true’. Other approaches involved identifying the core mindsets of the sector, looking for behaviours that activate those mindsets, and then designing experiences that support practice of those behaviours. Reality is that developmental activities and design must move in both directions.

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Being vulnerable - 2

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Having impact – 1

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Being connected - 1

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Pride in unique personal, practice and community strengths - 1

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Having a voice

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New models

Where does the leadership model draw from? (votes)

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Being understood

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Being rewarded

46

A desire for agency – 3

47

Conversation

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A leadership model based on where they are (art-making/arts leadership)

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Lots of similarities across sectors

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Need to talk about what they think they understand

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A lot of different ways of manifesting leadership

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Look for opportunities to decouple mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics

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Need to pay attention to the patterns and connections of relationships

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We demonstrate mindsets, behaviours and experiences whether we intend to or not

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Diverse leadership styles can be best leveraged through relational mindsets and capabilities

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Artists get to see something from the beginning to the end

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Opening night – It’s a hit! Or it’s not! But at least it’s over – addictive, seductive

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Integrate the diverse strengths of the community

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Lots of praise and thanks in the arts world that is different than other sectors

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Comfort in different ways of representing the world

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Gets to the heart of things – drives you to places that wouldn’t ordinarily go to

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Comfort in the unknown/ambiguity

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There are skills and processes to be owned, but they don’t own you

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Comfort in paradox – what else would it be? ;)

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Arts leaders embrace complexity, others tend to want to simplify

When we borrow tools from other sectors, too often bring mindsets with them (ideas need to have the soil and roots still hanging on them)

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Looking at attributes as the core of leadership practice

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People envy art work

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Using who you are as an artist/arts community to show up

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Work looks like work across sectors (similarities)

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There’s a fear of being open about success/failure – when I see what I do valued in a range of environments and contexts

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Artists schedule their days as if they work in a bank. Why?

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Way we work looks too much like schedules elsewhere

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Fear/challenge of framing/articulating leads to tribalism

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Self-impose structures that are misaligned with a desire for autonomy

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Artists want/need to be understood

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Q: Why do arts leaders act as if they haven’t made a choice about how to work?

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Need to hear “I wish I could access the skills you have. You could make a huge impact on the city”

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The discipline has a huge impact on the work

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Fear and ambiguity is matched by deep cynicism about anybody else telling them what use arts might have

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Need to design for the reality of the work – business processes get piled on

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Q: How do we get through cynicism?

Pay attention to dance and role of the body, theatre and the role of rehearsal and the stage

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Hardest thing in any situation is to be one’s self – different industries have different costumes and particular language – ways of protecting oneself while still being engaged

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What patterns emerge in the absence of a roadmap

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Not making a decision implies a decision

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Is leadership in the arts sector defined by a lack of decisions about how to be a leader?

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What unifies practice for the fellows?

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People have expectations of what a ‘leader’ is supposed to look like and act like

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We all have artifacts / totems /anchors (or should)

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I have tricks to get myself comfortable in a new space “The more I dress up, the more I can swear”

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Everyone’s in drag, some are just better at it

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Entrepreneurship is a new language and a way of talking about organization

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Lots of stories of intersection but rare that a business model emerges from this

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Importance of collaborations to bring conversations to power

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Performance elements are relational

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Listening deeply to self, others, what is not being said

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Need to bring confidence

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Over-attention on autonomy is why there are too many theatre companies in Toronto

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“I’M ACTING AND I CAN’T SEE A THING” – same for leaders

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Need experiences that provide small victories

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New program title “Being Comfortable in Rooms”

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Too many institutions won’t go out of business

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Need to be vulnerable

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How is failure defined? Failure to meet your core mandate? Failure as an institution? Failure of projects?

48

49

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Translating failures in artistic practice to failures in leadership practice

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They are really creative people yet only applying creativity to half of their lives

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Institutions as platforms/national assets

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Need to understand values-based and practice-based

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How do we imagine new platforms? Build new platforms?

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What does collaboration look like/mean in the sector?

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Lots of diversity in projects, less diversity in platforms

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Leaders thrust into being a platform leader struggle and apply logics of projects

Need to want to understand other perspectives – but often too busy to take that journey

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Fastest way to kill your artistic practice is become an ED

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Need to think about “gaps” and bridging and/or closing gaps

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Why aren’t the arts making their own rules about how to operate?

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Getting outside of their territory and embracing new communities/opportunities

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Board Members often don’t come from the arts

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Sense of communalism – expectation that all assets are communally held

Need to be aware/monitor what’s happening – leaders now do a lot of scanning (of what, why, in service to whom?)

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Adapting corporate models can also be useful – maternity, benefits – but mindsets might differ

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Need to think about block-by-block approach

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Need to unpack ‘uncomfortable’ in ‘seeking out uncomfortable perspectives’

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How do things like childcare naturally extend from artistic mindsets (corporate response was survival mechanism, arts more nurturing?)

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People’s backs can go up around strategy language – focus on emergent and tactical

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Process of strategic planning can be a catalyst for decisions/changes/new ideas

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The situation will tell you what’s possible vs. goal setting

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Need to be able to evaluate (ongoing) current state

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Need to reflect (structured reflection) on impact and alignment with values (what matters)

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ImaginNATIVE – maternity was core to values of organization, where did those values come from?

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Scarcity mindsets prevent certain types of action

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Instead of doing that 4th show, why not pay people better?

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Why is the sector lagging on some workplace issues? Either values are misaligned or evidence suggests it’s a bad idea?

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How we assess success/failure is often defined by temperament, hence has a need for structured reflection

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Arts explores edges … the heart of a paradox

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Designing with intent is important!

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Need to be conscious of what’s going on

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Need to bring pride in what you do to other spaces

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If your only desire is to get the show up … what’s the impact on people (internal, audiences, community)

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Pride matters (Idle no More as a model)

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Need to be more vocal in taking pride in accomplishments

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Agency is not the same as Individualism

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Need to create opportunities to induce pride

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Need to experience and embody wonder, beauty and curiosity

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Design for moments of success

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Arts leaders will make impractical choices based on a sense of wonder and aesthetics

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Need to create reflective space in the program

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“If you don’t get the note, then you don’t get anything – white speck on a black canvas”

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Art transforms – people often don’t get this

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Burnout is one of the main challenges

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Need to be nurtured vs. need to be coached

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Important to understand coaching as a nurturing act and not as a disciplinary act

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What is the role of risk in arts leaders? Not taking risk can involve doing a musical every year which makes money but