{"id":471,"date":"2023-08-01T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/?p=471"},"modified":"2023-06-06T23:45:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T23:45:19","slug":"nonprofit-arts-shared-leadership-the-buck-stops-over-there-on-that-desk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/scenechange\/2023\/08\/01\/nonprofit-arts-shared-leadership-the-buck-stops-over-there-on-that-desk\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Arts Shared Leadership: The Buck Stops Over There. On That Desk."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leaders are not \u201cplug-and-play.\u201d And a multi-headed model just makes it worse.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image by Lukahhhhhhhh on Deviant Art<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you remember 1980s American history. Likely you didn\u2019t because, hey, you weren\u2019t born yet. And nothing of note ever happened before you were born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a moment during the republican convention of 1980 when the people who managed the presumptive nominee, Ronald Reagan, were mulling the choice for vice-president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to sources<\/a>, Reagan asked popular choice Gerald Ford several times. Ford had \u201cbeen there, done that,\u201d according to campaign chronicler Jules Witcover<\/a>, and was not interested in doing more guest appearances at state funerals and the like. During the process, an idea floated about. The job was too difficult for one doddering ex-actor with a spotty record as the governor of California. The idea was a Reagan-Ford co-presidency. It was seemingly the only way to include the former unelected president and unelected vice president on the ticket, at least in Ford\u2019s view.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

According to Witcover, \u201cFord never used the term. But he did not contradict it. In fact, he only added to the confusion, telling [Walter] Cronkite: \u2018I really believe that, in all fairness to me, if there is to be any change, it has to be predicated on the arrangements that I would expect as a vice president in a relationship with the president. I would not go to Washington and be a figurehead \u2026 Before I can even consider any revision in the firm position I have taken, I have to have responsible assurances.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After watching this on TV, Reagan evidently sat bolt upright in a chair in his suite at the Detroit Crowne Plaza and asked, \u201cDid you hear what he said about a co-presidency?\u201d And then he chose a guy he rather disliked, George H.W. Bush, to be his vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History lesson over. But this isn\u2019t about Reagan, Bush, or Ford. It\u2019s about co-leadership. And it\u2019s about your arts organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two- (or multi-) headed arts organizational leadership is a rare solution to a systemic problem. Sometimes, the setup works just fine \u2013 founding partnerships, for example. But not always. And certainly not as the continuing model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 6 months ago, Dance\/NYC<\/a>, an advocacy and grant-making organization whose mission is to \u201cpromote the knowledge, appreciation, practice, and performance of dance in the metropolitan New York City area,\u201d issued a letter. In it, among a spin-art splashing of catchwords, buzzwords, and grandiloquence, was a description of their new leadership direction, at least on staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Externally, challenging the status quo of singular leadership models has resulted in disparities in communication from our stakeholders (who are inclined to communicate only with the<\/strong> individual leader), anxiety about resource scarcity, and barriers to efficient work. We acknowledge these temporary and necessary pain points in our process of becoming.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur process of becoming\u201d? Becoming what? But I digress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particular distribution of power, a virtual Hydra of decision-makers, really breaks down to these four jobs: Director of Programming and Justice Initiatives, Director of Development, Director of Operations and Finance, and [Interim] Executive Director. If you\u2019re scoring at home (and congratulations if you are), those are the very same jobs that your nonprofit arts organization probably has. How this is earth-shaking news is hard to fathom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem isn\u2019t how many people it takes to screw in a light bulb. (It takes one. Really.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A leadership Hydra is not the answer. That\u2019s an idea that comes from the old \u201cI Wanna!\u2122\u201d game of arts leadership<\/a>, originally developed in 2014. It\u2019s where the hard stuff gets assigned to someone else because, um, art is hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wanna play? You really shouldn\u2019t. (Photo by Ryan McGuire on Pexels)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how to play:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players select their tokens to start play. Each token designates their role in nonprofit art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n