Innovation from the Field

Distributed leadership for a responsive, participatory, and equitable arts and culture sector

Monday, October 14, 2:00pm – 4:30pm

Organized and moderated by Emiko Ono, program director, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; and Mike Courville, director, Research and Strategy, Open Mind.

Presented by Ginger Ewing, co-founder and executive director, Terrain; and Emily Kent, director of Marketing, Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Our world has become more complex, arts nonprofits need many leaders to get things done, and a desire for more inclusive and participatory leadership within the arts and culture sector has quickened. At the same time, demands for greater workplace equity – with particular attention to race, ethnicity, and gender – have further crystallized. Arts organizations are looking for new ways to share or distribute leadership, yet they often struggle to understand what it takes to really put distributed leadership into practice. This interactive learning workshop will explore experiences and insights shared by seven organizations who demonstrate different degrees of distributed leadership. Using a series of video case studies commissioned by the Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts program, participants will explore the practice and evolution of distributed leadership in the field. Participants will identify how to apply research findings from the case studies to cultivate more responsive, participatory, and equitable workplaces in the arts and nourish more organic, leadership innovations in the field.