Last week the New Jersey Emerging Arts Leaders (NJEAL) hosted its third Creative Conversation, “Upwardly Mobile: Successful Relationships with Mentors and Supervisors in the Arts.”
As an annual event, and the catalyst for our group’s formation in 2009, the Creative Conversation provides a great benchmark for measuring the program’s progress and establishing goals. John Elliott, NJEAL committee member and Art Pride New Jersey Foundation Marketing and Communications Manager, and I sat down to reflect on this year’s event over our morning coffee (like The Today Show, but without commercials):
The Process
John: Our first Creative Conversation consisted of a group of twelve of us—mostly acquaintances at that point—having an informal conversation about bridging the generation gap in the arts followed by a happy hour. The cool thing is a lot of that group I now count among my friends and I didn’t know them that well then. The second year was about avoiding burnout and really involved a sense of mentorship and driving from the current generation of leaders in this field. I think this year we struck a real balance in discussing the sense of being in the middle where you’ve got some real successes under your belt, but management training becomes the thing you have to invest in to propel yourself forward.
Madeline: What also helped this year was having ten committee members with diverse skill sets working on the event. It was wonderful using a lesson plan created by an arts educator for our role-playing breakout sessions! I find that part of the value of the Emerging Leaders Network is the opportunity to hone the skills each of us brings to the table while learning about elements of the field we are not as familiar with.
The Event
M: It was great to have attendees ranging from college students to one of our board members–the topic was really applicable to everyone.
J: There were a lot of life lessons. For example, we are in an industry where passions and tensions can run high, so when you’ve got incredible artistic dreams and a very limited budget, that can lead to real heartbreak without management of expectations.
M: I also thought the discussion about management style was interesting. If you work with someone whose management style greatly differs from yours, how do you work together in the most constructive way? I loved the examples of clear, positive communication.
J: I’m anxious to see where we are able to take this event next year. I have some ambitious ideas for what we can do in terms of maybe bringing in a keynote speaker or making it an all day thing.
M: That is what is so great about Creative Conversations: they can really be anything. I think at first the concept can be overwhelming, but it is actually a great opportunity to craft programming we want to see.
The Lingering Questions
J: At this year’s Creative Conversation we had college students, people in their first or second year in the field, people on the other side of their masters degrees, and people in their early thirties—I worry that the common ground will separate a bit as we get to very specialized topics.
M: I also wonder, with the financial situation being what it is, how as a field we can provide both emerging and current leaders access to management training.
J: How do we mitigate the cost of education so that these salaries, that don’t compare with for-profit salaries, allow for it?
M: Hm, that’s a big question.
J: That’s a huge question. Financing your education against the need for that education is perhaps a discussion for another panel.
M: Maybe our next Creative Conversation?
J: Maybe so!
*New Jersey Emerging Arts Leaders is a program of the Art Pride New Jersey Foundation. Find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter at @NJEmergingArts, or visit NJEAL.org.
