A collaboration between ArtServe Michigan and Partners in Performance
The purpose of the Academy is to improve the effectiveness of every organization. Our goal is to equip leaders with the perspectives, skills, and tools required to: devise and implement effective strategies; build a healthy organizational culture; and purposefully propel the organization toward its vision. To serve these ends, the Academy facilitates a robust forum that is infused with new ideas from outside the field and good practices from within. The Academy combines the experiences of peers with faculty expertise in ways that assure a dynamic participant-focused learning environment.
Seminars
The seminars engage participants in a six-month dialogue that includes on-site sessions, discussion boards, and access to some of the best expertise by practitioners in national leadership education and arts. The intent of the seminars is that such sustained work among peers will result in the development of a system of practices across Michigan which, over time, will contribute to the overall strength of the community arts field.
1. RENEWAL AND CHANGE: THE PERSONAL CHALLENGE OF LEADERSHIP
Faculty:Ronnie Brooks, Director, James Shannon Leadership Institute, St. Paul, MN; John McCann, Founder and President, Partners in Performance, Blacksburg, VA
The Seminar is designed in response to the ever-increasing and complex challenges in leading arts organizations. Leaders, both executive and artistic, need the opportunity to explore the dilemmas inherent in maintaining their commitment to their organization while building a quality of life for themselves. Achieving this balance often requires fundamental changes in ones approach to the responsibilities of leadership. The objectives of the seminar are to enable leaders to identify and examine the purpose and values that underlie their personal commitment to leadership; to develop an understanding of the mindsets and interpersonal skills for optimal leadership in challenging times; and to develop life-management skills to sustain commitment in the face of ever-changing realities.
2. THE LEADER AS COMMUNICATOR AND DECISION MAKER: THE PRACTITIONERS PERSPECTIVE
Faculty: Anne Parsons, President and Executive Director, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit MI; Rick Sperling, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, Detroit MI; John McCann, Founder and President, Partners in Performance, Blacksburg, VA
The Seminar is designed for participants to engage directly with successful peers in the field. Persuasion is a fundamental aspect of all leadership communications. Trustees, executives, and senior staff are called upon constantly to explain, clarify, prioritize, and ‘make sense’ of complex organizational realities. Building consensus around institutional vision, empowering others to achieve great things, and gathering perspectives around major challenges are all enhanced through more effective communications on behalf of leaders. Additionally, designing and facilitating robust and worthwhile meetings is a skill set that more and more organizations are demanding of their leadership.
3. BUILDING A COLLABORATIVE CULTURE: THE ESSENTIAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
Faculty: Judy Brown, Fellow, James MacGregor Burns Center for Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; John McCann, Founder and President, Partners in Performance, Blacksburg, VA
The Seminar is designed to foster new thinking in the minds of community arts agency leaders around the value of shared leadership and how to increase organizational performance through dialogue and engagement. It is also critical that today’s leaders understand and employ active listening and dialogue skills in order to test the very assumptions upon which strategy is developed and actions are taken. John McCann and Judy Brown have worked in numerous sectors over the past several decades, and recently, through the efforts of Partners in Performance their lessons are beginning to be shared across the art and cultural landscape.
What others are saying about CALA:
"...I learned so many things that I will hopefully be able to pull and use at the opportune moments and that eventually I'll be able to bring about substantial change within my department (starting small) and then the museum as a whole"
CALA 2004 Participant
"I did not expect the level of personal insight and connection that I experienced. I found the way the material was presented to be not only professionally relevant, but also relevant to personal self-awareness and growth"
CALA 2006 Participant
"I was gratified to be reaffirmed in the directions I have been heading for the past 30 years in terms of developing an interface between egalitarian collaborative work and really fine visual arts."
CALA 2007 Participant
"This is an excellent program, an informative and worthwhile experience."
CALA 2009 Participant
"I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate. I would love to be involved in the seminars in the future."
CALA 2009 Participant
If you would like information on the current CALA program sponsored by ArtServe Michigan please visit their website.
If you would like more information about arranging a leadership development program for your community, agency, or organization, please complete the information below
CALA