Seeking different perspectives is key to being an effective leader. As a leader, you should engage a wide range of individuals in your planning and decision-making processes, and establish connections and open dialogue with diverse people, groups, or functions whose work or interests are related. Engaging with diverse perspectives and networks allows leaders to achieve more, by leveraging the strength of their relationships.
Relationships in the arts sector are vital. For example, the Australian Government’s official arts council, Creative Australia, developed a relational model of the arts and its impact on society called the Artistic Vibrancy Framework, which explains the arts as a system of relationships with the art, artform, artist organisations, audiences, communities, general public, society and culture.
Recognising the importance of relationships in the arts sector also requires acknowledgement that these networks can, deliberately or incidentally, gatekeep those who are not included in the networks. As a leader, it is important to therefore seek more perspectives, particularly from diverse communities, in order to strengthen the decision making process, whether that be around the content your organisation is producing, the funding you are seeking or the workforce you are building in your institution. This can in turn make your programming or commissioning practice more inclusive.
