Marilyn Taft Thomas

Leadership in the Arts: an Inside View Marilyn Taft Thomas

A must read for anyone considering a career in arts management A how-to manual on creative and effective leadership in the arts Moral support for people already engaged in this activity An inside view of the artistic environment A wealth of advice and hard-earned wisdom Laced with real-life anecdotes This book tells it like it is. This book is written for those who have headed an arts program, those who are presently doing so, those who think they'd like to do it, those who want to know more about the people who do this sort of thing, and for those who just need a good laugh. A complex organizational structure is like a bowl of Jell-O; you can't touch any part of it without setting the whole substance into reactive motion. People who need to do one thing at a time, and finish it perfectly before going on to the next task-well, this is just not the place for them. Our greatest challenge as arts executives is to dig out of the day-to-day details of the implementation process, to find sufficient time to exercise our leadership abilities-to step back and reflect, to actually see where the institution is headed and to make sure this is really where we want to be going. You can learn whatever you have to learn as you need to learn it. Jump off a cliff, and you will soon find your feet. You can give your organization no greater gift than to instill in it a readiness for change. The bigger the risk, the more likely you are to succeed, because huge risks have such enormous consequences, you can't afford to fail. The only way to ensure staying within your budget is to have more money than you actually need-good luck on that one.