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Innovation: Connecting to a New Era of Arts Participation Forum and Workshop
Innovation: Connecting to a New Era of Arts Participation Forum was held on Monday, October 3, 2011 from 10 am to noon in Nesholm Lecture Hall (SIFF Cinema) at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center.
In the past, many of our organizations defined their value by exploiting excellence and scarcity. That era is dying and, to thrive now, we must embrace very different values – the abundance of creativity in our communities and the intimacy so many are seeking in shared artistic discovery. To seize these opportunities for new forms of participation, organizations are adapting through innovation, not just extending business-as-usual. Innovation involves making new connections – within our organizations, between our organizations and, most important, with our communities. Richard Evans explored these connections from his experience running innovation programs in the arts nationally. He spoke on new approaches to organizational structure and programming, with examples of how organizations have implemented effective change.
Key speaker: Richard Evans from EmcArts and facilitated by consultant Jerry Yoshitomi of Meaning Matters.
The Roots of Innovation workshop was held on Monday, October 3, 2011 from 1:30 pm to 4 pm in the Norcliffe Room at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center.
Richard Evans guided participants through some fundamental steps to stimulate organizational vitality and innovation. Participants’ explored their own adaptive challenges by uncovering and examining the ingrained assumptions that drive our work, but whichare taken for granted. By replacing outworn assumptions with new ones participants generated new thinking and new pathways to action. We addressed how organizations are changing to build new adaptive capacities. As this work is organization-wide, participants to attended in leadership teams of three people from each organization’s management, artistic direction and the board.
Richard Evans directs EmcArts’ programs and strategic partnerships. Richard’s recent research, program design, and facilitation places particular emphasis on innovation, organizational change, and effective ways that the arts and culture field can respond to the demands of a new era for the sector. His studies on innovation and capacity building led to his design for the Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts. An expansion of EmcArts’ successful pilot Lab for American orchestras, the Lab launched in Fall 2008 with the generous support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and is now in its sixth Round. A new Innovation Lab for Museums will launch in fall 2011. Richard also leads the design and implementation of the New Pathways for the Arts Initiative, a series of community-based innovation programs that is now active in Denver, New Haven, New York City, Saint Louis and San Jose. He heads up EmcArts’ team for strategic organizational-learning work with the James Irvine Foundation’s Arts Innovation Fund, which supports California’s major arts organizations in implementing significant innovation projects over multiple years. Richard also works with the Cleveland Foundation to implement its Engaging the Future program, a three-year initiative to develop innovative approaches to audience engagement that EmcArts is leading.
A frequent speaker on the relationship between cultural policy and emerging practices in the arts, Richard’s recent engagements have included the annual conferences of Arts Midwest, Grantmakers in the Arts, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the Theatre Communications Group, and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. His past research and analytical expertise has been published in numerous field studies in the arts, including Too Intrinsic for Renown (1992), the first national study of community schools of the arts for the Wallace Foundation; playing Diaghilev (1994), the evaluation for the MacArthur Fellows Program of fellowships and support structures for individual artists; and Knowing the Score (2000), the first national study of British orchestras.
Richard has led the design and evaluation of numerous support programs in the arts, including the Philadelphia Cultural Leadership Program of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Other major projects have included program design and delivery for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Orchestra Forum and The Wallace Foundation’s Arts for Young People initiative; program evaluations for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Surdna and James Irvine Foundations; and planning processes for the City of Chicago Office of Cultural Affairs, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and New England Conservatory of Music.
Richard received his M.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge, England. Prior to founding EmcArts, he held numerous senior positions in performing arts management and philanthropy, including co-director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Advancement Program, first Coordinator of the National Alliance of Artists´ Communities, Chief Executive of the Bath International Festival of Music & the Arts, England, and Vice President of the National Arts Stabilization Fund.
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