Abe Flores

The future of art administration is in good, capable, and innovative hands. This week’s Emerging Leaders Blog salon demonstrated a commitment to art as a public good, as a solution to a myriad of social problems, and as an intrinsic piece to the full development of the self and community. The blog salon also gave us a peak into the future, introduced us to new models for the arts, and a new visions for arts leaders & their development. Most importantly the blog salon introduced us to exciting leaders – new, young, emerging, experienced, mid-career, seasoned (marinated?), established, and/or just plain awesome.

Labels are tricky. They are not always helpful and can confuse as well as hinder. I have a feeling that the “emerging leader” label may be going the way of “colored people” – still used mainly without malice but often resulting in a grimace by those it is used to describe. How can an arts management student and someone in the arts field for over four years be both described as emerging? When are you no longer emerging? Why do you lose the “leader” designation when you emerge to “mid-career” professional? And “mid-career” sounds so prosaic like a bureaucrat in the movie Brazil – behind a keyboard in a vast colorless room. So, I pose these two questions to you Artsblog readers: When has someone emerged?  & what is a better term than “mid-career”?

As you ponder that, please let me thank all of our bloggers for their thoughtful and engaging posts- THANK YOU. I would also like to thank the Emerging Leaders Council for developing the theme – specifically Charlie and Tatiana – and for helping contribute and edit the salon itself – specifically Brea, Lindsay, and Nick. All of you are a great inspiration!