2nd Edition
Arts and Cultural Leadership Creating Sustainable Arts Organizations
This textbook provides an expert overview of the challenge of arts and cultural leadership in the contemporary world. Grounded in theories of sustainability and with a renewed global focus for this second edition, the author’s insights from contemporary arts organizations facilitate meaningful student comprehension.
Drawing on the work of practitioners and theorists in the fields of philosophy, biology, and ecology as well as the arts, Foster proposes a rethinking of organizational design, strategy, and structure that is based on ecological concepts and the creative process that is intrinsic to the arts rather than the conventional business model that currently prevails, particularly in western arts and culture organizations. He contests conventional thinking about arts administration and management and urges arts leaders to foreground innovation as they reimagine their organizations for a world unlike any other. New sections include an enhanced theoretical discussion as well as new material on business models, strategy, and organizational design and practice. Applicable to any arts organization, the entrepreneurial focus is especially relevant in the aftermath of the global pandemic, the ongoing climate crisis, and the quest for democracy and social justice.
This updated edition will be a valuable resource both for present-day arts and cultural leaders who are working to adapt to the current environment as well as students and future leaders who aspire to make change in the world through arts and cultural leadership.
Part 1. A Theory of Sustainability 1. Unsustainability and Arts Leadership 2. Redefining Sustainability for Arts and Cultural Organizations 3. Upbuilding, Rewilding, and Regeneration for Arts and Cultural Organizations 4. The Power of Performance 5. Considering the Current Environment Part 2. From Theory to Practice: Enacting Organizational Change 6. Foundational Documents for Arts and Cultural Organizations 7. Environmental Scanning 8. A Business Model Canvas for the Arts 9. Strategic Thinking in Arts and Cultural Organizations 10. Creating a Culture of Sustainability
Biography
Kenneth Foster is Professor of Practice and Director of Arts Leadership at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA.
"We have long needed a definitive guide to arts leadership in our time – and this is that book. As the arts have become ever more complex, constantly evolving to meet a changing world, so the work of leadership becomes ever more critical and nuanced. Ken Foster not only perceptively describes the environment and diagnoses its challenges, but offers genuine hope that we can meet those challenges with thoughtful and creative strategies. It’s a must-read for every current and aspiring arts leader." Simon Woods, President and CEO, League of American Orchestras"Ken Foster has given us an expansive 'why to' book. It’s a call to action to become proactive practitioners of social change, to be energized by challenges, and to forge the future of arts leadership with a renewed sense of purpose." Dan Froot, Performance Artist and Professor of Creative Process and Business of the Arts, UCLA, USA
"Kenneth Foster’s book, Arts Leadership: Creating Sustainable Arts Organizations, provides a compelling and informative road map for the unpredictable future of performing arts organizations. It is an essential read for arts leaders and their staff. As Co-Managing Director at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, it was rewarding to witness the success of the implementation of many ideas presented in Foster’s book and the impact on audiences and artists, the university, and greater Vancouver community. We were also delighted to work directly with Ken while creating our organization’s own path. He shared his wisdom, insight, and a wonderful sense of humor and validated so much of the good work and passionate depth of our staff team. I highly recommend Foster’s thoughtful and inspiring book for performing arts institutions." Joyce Hinton, former Co-Managing Director, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
"Ken Foster's Arts Leadership is an important provocation for cultural sector workers at all stages of their careers to rethink their practices and pursue bigger, bolder impacts. My 2018, first-edition copy is tattered and filled with underlines, margins scribbles, and stickie notes. I regularly return to its legible and stimulating insights about contemporary arts leadership, which almost presciently understood the ways society would evolve toward greater complexity, and with each read, I get inspired (and gain the courage) to embrace its suggested non-traditional, non-linear, and deeply adaptive ways of working – essential mindsets for decades to come." Omari Rush, Executive Director, CultureSource, Detroit, Michigan
"Foster’s book is a must-read for leaders, advocates, and team members of any cultural institution looking to become more aligned with their purpose and integral values and stay relevant to their communities in an ever-shifting world. With concrete examples and deep insights of contemporary culture politics, Foster defies stagnated structures and offers generous advice, guidance, and great inspiration for us to be braver and do better." Gréta Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Director, Dramaturg and Curator, The National Theatre of Iceland
"Foster’s book offers great food for thought and discussion, which is why we have used it in educating theater directors and managers. He challenges us to think about art organizations in terms of sustainability in its broadest sense. It is truly inspiring how he questions the way arts organizations are often built into unchanging monoliths, when they should be resiliently changing platforms of living art." Saana Lavaste, Professor of Directing at Uniarts, Helsinki, Finland, and Saara Rautavuoma, Theatre Producer and Manager, Tampere, Finland
"In this crucial text, Ken Foster applies considerable critical pressure on the structure and values of our 20th century arts ecosystem. He implores us, as arts citizens, to consider new models for a new era. For Foster, the inquiry is urgent – if we don’t act now, our culture is at risk – yet his intentions come from an unwavering devotion to arts and community. At every point, he reminds us that if we are willing to innovate, a stunning future is within reach." Andre Perry, Executive Director of Hancher Auditorium and the Office of Performing Arts and Engagement at the University of Iowa
