It’s been a little quieter than normal around here lately. All of the spring sports have wound down, school is almost over–only three days left, and the summer bustle is still a week away.
But I’ve been busy. The last two Wednesday nights were the culmination of the 2008-09 Leadership Arts, a program hoping to equip young-ish professionals to become valuable contributors to local non-profit arts organizations. There were lots of great discussions and presentations, but my favorite was one about creativity in children’s education. Sir Ken Robinson made many of the same points a few years ago.
The first culminating event (can you have two culminating events? I suspect not, so this would be the actual culminating event–the other an after-party of sorts) was a fundraising event to launch a new organization, the Leadership Arts Alumni Association. We created LAAA to bring together the 900+ Leadership Arts graduates from the past 21 years to provide them new and additional opportunities to volunteer with local non-profit arts organization. In addition, we began a fellowship program for graduate students pursuing a career in arts management. It was a great event.
Some of the class--and our fearless leaders--after the event
This past Wednesday (the culminating event after-party, if you will) was a graduation party at the Nasher Sculpture Center. James Turrell’s Tending (Blue) was the most interesting since it actually changes over the course of an hour, but it’s also not really a sculpture. Anyway, excellent food along with behind-the-scenes tours of the wonderful collection made for an excellent ending to a long nine months.
