Artist as leader (2007-09).

Abstract

Artist as Leader posed the questions What does leadership mean to artists? Can artists be leaders? The research formed a partnership between Performing Arts Labs, London, Cultural Enterprise Office, Glasgow and the Cultural Leadership Foundation, Scotland and On the Edge. We developed open-ended conversations with key artists and organisations. These conversations wrapped around a creative 'laboratory' in which five leading artists and five leading policy makers took up residence at Hospitalfields for five days with the aim of artists informing policy and policy informing artists. We understood that the voice of the artist was missing from the leadership debate. At the time we worked with the hunch that the artist could enrich understandings of leadership by precisely not taking on Management School discourse of leadership, but looking at what actually happens in artists' practices. Leadership was largely defined at this time, within and outside the arts, as meaning good management driven by particularly talented, well-trained individuals. Artist as Leader resulted in an expanded set of scenarios in which the artist might act as a leader: through being an excellent artist, as a manager of arts organisations and/or as a civic leader.