{"id":1460,"date":"2013-02-06T16:13:58","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T23:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2013-02-07T11:33:15","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T18:33:15","slug":"defining-our-3-most-important-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/2013\/02\/defining-our-3-most-important-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Our 3 Most Important Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"question-mark\"Visiting with a colleague recently, we got to talking about what would be the THREE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS<\/strong> that a mid-career professional in ANY sort of arts or cultural organizations should be asking.<\/p>\n

We further imagined that the process of ANSWERING such questions might serve as some sort of\u00a0rite of passage<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0for early\/mid-career professionals – with the organizations that employ them expecting, supporting <\/strong>and respecting<\/strong> a staff member’s diligent efforts.<\/p>\n

Imagine this as a kind of an emerging-leader Bar\/Bat Mitzvah. \u00a0It’s not the ceremony (or party or presents) that would be important but rather the idea of period of voluntary, diligent and independent study committed to planting ideas and cultivating habits destined to be valuable throughout one’s future career in the arts & cultural sector.<\/p>\n

For the purposes of inviting further discussion, here’s what we came up with:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. WHERE IS THE CORE OF RELEVANCE?<\/strong>\u00a0 Arts & cultural administrators are most-used to answering this question with a future-focus – often in a strategic planning document where we get to\u00a0proffer\u00a0our most noble aspirations. \u00a0But that’s not what we intend here. \u00a0Up & coming arts & cultural leaders would be well served to undertake a more detailed and intimate exploration of the facets of meaning<\/strong><\/em> of specific arts and cultural experiences. \u00a0That means connecting with audiences, artists, stakeholders, academics, peers and others in order to discover that relevance is never about what we INTEND. \u00a0It’s only about the meanings that others DERIVE.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 We ask this question with the hope that up & coming arts & cultural leaders might discover that the habit of pursing relevance is far more valuable than the determination of any particular answer.<\/li>\n
  2. WHAT IS OUR HISTORY?<\/strong>\u00a0 Every community, every organization and every form of art and cultural experience has a history. \u00a0It’s not just the dusty textbook history lesson that we are talking about. \u00a0In our organizations and our communities, we must do a greater job of appreciating the living daily history of people & ambitions – conflicts & disappointments – adventures & accomplishments. \u00a0<\/strong>Our ambition is not to glorify the past or constrain the future – but rather to honor those efforts and inform future endeavors. \u00a0What a wonderful “grounding” experience it would be for emerging professionals to be afforded the opportunity to visit with former Board members, fellow artists, emeritus employees, long-standing audience members, community elders, journalists, peer organizations and others for the purpose of tracing the ins & outs of \u00a0an organization’s or community’s stories.<\/li>\n
  3. WHAT MUST WE DO BETTER?<\/strong>\u00a0 In all of human existence, there may be no more \u00a0important statement than one that begins with the words, “What if…”. \u00a0 The future vitality of the arts & cultural sector depends more on fostering the creativity and empowerment of new generations of leaders than from any “sustainable” decision made in the present.<\/strong>\u00a0 We live in a wonderful era of possibilities that is served by ever-evolving technologies. \u00a0It’s time to unleash the full power of new & creative thinking – which means giving up & coming leaders ever-earlier opportunities to exercise their leadership.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Upon reflection, it appears that these 3 questions invite up & coming arts & cultural leaders to address the Present, Past & Future. \u00a0What wonderful possibilities exist in each!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    FINAL NOTE:<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0In drafting this post, I have (uncomfortably) used numerous phrases like “emerging leaders” and “up & coming leaders”. \u00a0To my ear, they each sound rather, well, patronizing. \u00a0I’d love to hear better suggestions.<\/p>\n

    # # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Visiting with a colleague recently, we got to talking about what would be the THREE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS that a mid-career professional in ANY sort of arts or cultural organizations should be asking. We further imagined that the process of ANSWERING such questions might serve as some sort of\u00a0rite of passage\u00a0for early\/mid-career professionals – with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,23,4,25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-innovation","7":"category-mission","8":"category-strategy","9":"category-value","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/audience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}