What do I know about this?
What will I say to them?
What if they don’t listen to me?
Please, Lord, I’ve never done anything like this before.
Please, Lord, send someone else.
—Moses (paraphrased), Exodus 3-4
Okay, raise your hands….
How many of you went to an art school (or drama school, or dance school, or whatever) where you were required to take “business” classes?
Now, how many of you got your degree in business administration and decided that the “industry” where you wanted to use those skills was in the arts?
Probably roughly the same number, I’d guess. Not many.
When most of us were training as artists, our assumption (and that of our instructors) was that we just needed to be really good at making art. Not at organizational strategy. Not at marketing. Not at accounting.
Not at leading.
I trained as a theatre director. What artist would need leadership skills more?
Yet no one ever taught my directing school colleagues and me to be someone others would want to work alongside, and even follow. (Why have a calm conversation when a diva-tantrum is faster, at least as effective, and, let’s face it, sometimes more satisfying?)
No one taught us to manage time, money, and other resources responsibly. (“Budget schmudget, we’ll make it back in ticket sales.”)
No one taught us to build support for our work by communicating well about it. (“I shouldn’t have to EXPLAIN [obligatory eye roll] my Vision.”)
So when I got a clear call from God that I was supposed to start and lead something, I argued, too. Not to compare myself with Moses in any way, but I do totally get where he’s coming from. I had no leadership skills either. And it sounded like a lousy job. I ultimately did what God asked (told?) me to do, but I kept arguing, through three more “calls.”
Many artists resist the whole idea of leadership. We like to see our role as prophetically standing outside of the mainstream, pointing to its problems. How can we critique Authority if we are Authority? And what about our Art? Our Talent? Won’t that be going to waste if we accept a call to lead? (What if Moses actually liked being a shepherd?)
We have got to get over all that if we want to be instruments of change in our world for God’s kingdom.
Leadership sometimes isn’t very fun. It takes a lot of detail work, and we artists tend to like the big, sweeping picture. Too many artists have said to me, “I’m a visionary, not an administrator,” as though these are mutually exclusive job descriptions of leadership.
In fact, what used to be called “arts administration” is now more often being called “arts leadership.” This is because, in a rapidly changing world, “administration” doesn’t begin to represent the complexity of what arts leaders are required to do.
But although it can be really tough work, the rewards are incomparable.
For the next three months – June through August – the C&A blog is going to be focusing on leadership. Even if you’re not currently in a leadership position, and aren’t being called to one (or are still arguing), I hope we’ll convince you that leadership thinking is important for all of us.
Three start-up arts organizations/projects later, I have actually learned something about arts leadership and gotten pretty good at it, in my own way.*
I didn’t learn about arts leadership in the same places where I learned about making art. And often I needed to learn about “leadership” and apply the “arts” part for myself. So the first thing I’m going to focus on in this series is how “Leaders learn.”
I’ll also be talking about how:
- Leaders fail
- Leaders submit
- Leaders serve
- Leaders lead
We’ll also be hearing from arts leaders within our network about how they found themselves in leadership, struggled with it, and ultimately found their feet.
Stay tuned! You don’t want to miss this! (If you want to be sure you’re notified when each new blog is published, add this page to your RSS feed, or comment below and click “Notify me of new posts via email.”)
*Re leading “in my own way” – there are as many ways to successfully lead as there are leaders. In the last twenty years, we’ve seen a new respect for the distinctive ways in which women lead, and how a leader’s cultural background contributes to unique and effective ways of leading. Each individual mix of background, personality, gifts, skills, experience, and interests will impact leadership style.
Do you have your own story of ”leadership reluctance”? Please, tell us!
What an amazing article. Looking forward to the dialogue of the next few months!
LuAnne, this is a great question. Leadership for artists presents a paradox, a challenge greater than simply correcting a leadership training education deficit. (After years in and leading multiple kinds of organizations, I have my doubts about much that passes for “leadership training.” But that is another topic for another day.) Unless someone has discovered an alternative while I was sleeping, one remains an artist by making art. That is, the practice of being an artist occurs in the daily engagement with paint, or clay, or scripts, or metaphors When I step away from the studio to practice medicine, teach art, write about art, or facilitate the melding and flourishing of artistic practice within my church, I do so know knowing each of these vocations can be a worthy goal and Godly calling. But when I enter into these tasks I also know I am stepping into a tension. Leading an arts movement can be done gracefully, even artfully. However, there is also a real sense in which each of these other tasks represent a kind of “giving up” or increased separation from my vocation as an art maker– the very thing that gives me a significant portion of my authority to critique, teach, or lead.
I know, I know–I can hear the howls–leading a Church’s arts group (when well done)–or any other kind of group for that matter–is a kind of “performance art.” And of course I am also aware of Christ’s mandate for me to serve others and my natural resistance to His call. But the personal space and discipline to maintain engaged artistic practice is a precious blessing– a time consuming and easily co-opted grace to be sure–but a blessing not to be given-up lightly. Certainly a grace not to be given up without first counting the cost. And make no mistake, for the artist, as in all servant ministries, there will be a cost to be counted. Leadership, real servant leadership, takes significant time, energy and discipline.
So for me, wanting to see my Church more fully engage beauty and imagination in our worship and practice has become a quest seeking an answer to this: “both/and” problem. How can artists exist and be effective in the church both as a leader exerting vision and remain a fully committed practicing artist?
Evangeline Whitlock wrote a great reply, using Isaiah as a more “eager” model for leadership. I’ve asked her to turn it into a blog post, so watch for that next week!
And, David, you’re absolutely right that one of the causes of “reluctant leadership” among artists, in addition to “I don’t know how” or “I’m not ‘gifted’ that way” is the very realistic concern that accepting the call to leadership will take time away from actual art-making.
It’s not always the case. One of my early “calls” to leadership was to start a family-focused theatre company, FirstStage Atlanta. I was the artistic director, so I got to pick and direct lots of shows that I loved. In addition to a lot of other work that came along with running a theatre company that had nothing to do with directing. Could I have been just as creatively fulfilled through free-lance directing plays at other theatre companies? Maybe, or maybe not. I definitely wouldn’t have had to deal with the hassles of leadership, too. But then there wouldn’t have been a FirstStage, and the families and young people who saw our shows would have missed out on great arts experiences.
But in most cases, leadership does become an “either/or.” I haven’t directed a full production of a play in nearly a decade. Do I hate that? Absolutely. Do I long for the rehearsal room? Absolutely. Do I sometimes feel like I’m doing all the scut work while others get to have all the fun? Absolutely. But I’ve also found a lot of joy and a different kind of satisfaction in leading, by creating opportunities for others to make and share their art, and opportunities for patrons to enjoy art, learn about art, and learn about themselves through art.
It’s incredibly important for an arts leader who is also an artist to continue to have some kind of creative outlet, either in his or her primary creative discipline or another one. I can’t exactly come home at the end of a hard day of leadership and direct a play in my living room with Chuck and the cats. But several years back I took up quilting and other forms of needlecraft, at which I am decidedly mediocre. These pursuits have given me a new creative outlet with no leadership responsibility whatsoever and no pressure to “excel” – they are just for God and me to share together. I’d be lost without them.
One of the precious WIAL cihnaocg concepts, emphasized by Dr. Bea, is that of leaving team members at choice. And though there are certain structural elements that must be adhered to, the at-choice notion brings forth at least two options for this challenge:1. Ask the team, Who would like to respond to the question, What leadership skills be beneficial to us as non-leaders on this team’ ? This might offer the opportunity to reflect on the various leadership skills and choose some of them that might apply.2. Similar to Cleo’s contribution, it might be appropriate to ask the team what teaming (or communication or cihnaocg skills) would help the team be successful? Remembering that one of the core tenets of AL is to promote learning, leaving participants at-choice in what they prefer to learn can be motivational and energizing.
I completely resonate with the comments by clarkdp, (David?) I am someone that has morphed into arts leadership, often answering the unglamorous calling that something needed to be done and no one else was doing it. Yet on a daily basis, I find it hard to decipher what God’s expectations are of me vs the expectations of the modern world and the modern church. I do feel like artists are uniquely hit with unrealistic expectations; to be accomplished in the eyes of our culture at their craft, to earn their own keep, to be mature enough in their faith to lead others, to have the energy to introduce authentic art activities to a church body that is neutral about the arts at best….to be relational in all things…….really, in one lifetime?
I honestly think God would be perfectly happy with me if I rarely left the studio and created a vast body of thoughtful work, loved my neighbors and the merchants I bought materials from etc….but, that will probably never be my lot. Even as I describe this solitary, if productive, life that I sometimes dream of, I know I wouldn’t be satisfied with that either. I’ve tasted the joy of nurturing creativity in others, leading an entire congregation into the unknown of where our collaborative efforts will take us, and coming out on the other side with art that exceeds even my expectations, injecting life and deeper meaning into our desire for knowing God. I’ve heard the sincere thank yous of artists given an opportunity to share their work as part of a well thought out framework. I’ve felt the rightness of art being a key component of church life.
I think collaboration and discussion are key to making this all work a bit better. So thank you Luann for your efforts to keep this topic front and center I think there are some things that could help, but it will be up to us to say to church leaders, I want to share my gifts but this is what I need in order to do it well. We as artists that find ourselves leading, need to take the time to distill what those things are, so that we can remain… artists.
I’m very excited about this focus on leadership that you are taking with the blog. For years I have been praying for a real “movement” among Christians who make art. So much of what I have experienced is wonderfully talented Christian artists who make amazing art, but have trouble connecting themselves and their art to a larger community of artists. We have contributed our “dots,” but lack the leadership to connect those “dots” into a larger movement. Thank you Luann for being one of the connectors.