Americans for the Arts

Discussion of the board of Brass Tacks Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, of which the author is the founding artistic director.

With respect to governance, conventional wisdom suggests that boards of directors are expected to (1) set overall strategy and policy objectives, (2) react to the ways the staff plans to achieve those aims and (3) monitor whether the organization is making sufficient progress toward its goals.

This booklet is intended to help board members make the right decision by taking them through the challenging, fascinating, frustrating, and sometimes painful but critically important steps of leadership change. It is a journey during which board members, the outgoing leader, and existing staff can be in dramatically different places, both intellectually and emotionally. This booklet sets forth the overall process, noting the board's particular role in each stage, and concludes by identifying some typical errors and how boards can avoid them. (p. 1-2)

CONTENTS
New concepts of

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a research project into the boards of thirteen non-profit arts organizations in Queensland; place this in the context of recruitment, orientation, and training processes for board directors; and build a model for effective recruitment and training practices in non-profit arts organizations leading into the next century. (p. 211)

The nonprofit tax-exempt corporation is unique to the of America and has evolved over many years to meet the needs of our nation's charitable endeavors. This evolution has not been easy for arts organizations, since they typically reflect an immeasurable amount of human energy attempting to promote artistic vision while still working within the standards established by state and federal laws for corporate practice.

The article by J. Wesley Ziegler looks at leadership change in arts organizations and questions whether such change threatens these organizations. Can such organizations continue to exist when their founders leave? Should they continue to exist? Does charismatic leadership naturally evolve to a more corporate style over time? Do boards, of necessity, take over? Perhaps perpetual existence for some arts organizations should not be guaranteed. (p. 4)

Review by Lois Rodin the book Museum Trusteeship [Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1981].