What is Arts and Cultural Leadership? And how do we define what qualities are required by arts and cultural organisations in their aspiring leaders?
These questions have been the subject of fierce organisational and political debate in the UK for at least the past decade. And a big part of the problem is that economic and political rationalism has done its best to stuff arts leadership into the same bag as business and commercial leadership.
The resultant confusion has in fact stalled the articulation and development of what the arts and cultural world requires in its leaders. The fact is that some politicians and organisations have simply got it wrong. For what it takes to be an inspiring and informed leader in the arts/cultural world is fundamentally and inherently different from what is required by business and commercial leaders.
Just what some of these specific qualities are and how they can be enhanced and developed is exactly what the CLORE Leadership Programme has set its collective mind and heart on researching and enabling.
What is Clore?
The Clore programme is an initiative of the Clore Duffield Foundation, and their aim is to encourage, train and professionally develop a new generation of leaders for the arts and cultural sector in the UK.
Each year Clore assists a number of Fellows to undertake individually tailored programmes of learning, work, research, training, and a secondment.
The programme is designed to enhance and develop each participant’s individual leadership skills and professional experience. As an organisation Clore is committed to reporting widely on their work and on their leadership programme. The staff at Clore believe strongly that the dissemination of what participants learn and the results of their programmes arts/cultural leadership.
The idea
In 2002, the Clore Duffield Foundation commissioned a task force to report on ways to improve cultural leadership in the UK. The task force engaged in a wide consultation with organisations in the cultural sector, and received written comments from more than 175 people, a large majority supporting the initiative.
The question of leadership
The task force report identified a number of crises in cultural leadership. The report also argued that cultural leadership is specifically distinct from management competencies, and from business leadership. The report recommended that new forms of creative leadership would need to be developed; with a special emphasis on what it termed “relational leadership”.
At CLORE, Leadership is defined as the ability to conceive and articulate a direction and purpose, and to work relationally with others to achieve that purpose in both benign and hostile circumstances. The CLORE mission is to create opportunities for specialist training in arts/cultural management and leadership skills. CLORE also plays a role in stimulating policy research, assisting mentoring and secondments, and supporting the exchange and communication of ideas both nationally and internationally.
This includes the visual and performing arts, heritage, museums, libraries and archives, and cultural policy and administration. CLORE offers about twenty-five Fellowships a year to exceptional individuals.
Applying for a Clore Fellowship
Individuals are invited to apply for a Fellowship and must be able to demonstrate most or all of the following attributes:
1. Any individual can apply, from the cultural sector and beyond.
2. You must have at least 5 years of professional work experience.
3. To be eligible for the funded Fellowships you must live in the (EU).
4. There is no age limit.
Clore Fellows
“I was attracted to the Clore Leadership Programme because it had a group support mechanism…it also allowed us to focus on our different development needs. Sometimes you forget that you have to develop yourself as a person in order to lead and develop organisations.” J. Riding, Clore Fellow
Fellows are selected annually from the cultural sector to undertake a year-long programme of work, research, training and secondment designed to develop their leadership skills and experience. Fellows have the option of remaining with their present employers, or of receiving a full-time scholarship of £20,000. The first group of Fellows, appointed in 2004, are already well advanced in their programme.
Dame Vivien Duffield, Founder and Patron of CLORE said: “By investing in leadership, we hope to raise the game for the whole cultural sector. We are especially pleased that the new group of Fellows is drawn from such a widely diverse range of backgrounds.”
In 2005/6, for the first time, the CLORE Leadership Programme offered Fellowships for individuals who wished to develop their careers in Wales, Yorkshire and Ireland, as well as specialist fellowships in dance, arts and biomedical science.
The Fellowships are generously funded by Arts Council England, the Clore Duffield Foundation, MLA (for all three of its sectors) and NESTA.
In 2006 CLORE will also offer several Specialist Fellowships in specific areas:
For a full list visit the CLORE website.
How the programme runs
CLORE is not looking for perfectly formed leaders. Candidates will, however, need to demonstrate how the Fellowship will make a difference to them.
Before the start of the year-long programme, CLORE staff meet with Fellows to discuss their needs, circumstances and aspirations, and to discuss individual personal objectives for the Fellowship.
CLORE attempts to be flexible in planning the individual programmes. For example, some Fellows may wish to do the programme full-time, from September 2006 to July 2007. Others may prefer to continue to work on a freelance basis or stay at their current place of work. However, Fellows will need to spend substantial periods away from work commitments for the leadership courses, research period and work-based project. Those in paid employment may be able to have their organisation compensated for costs they incur as a result of the Fellow’s absences. Other Fellows may wish to spread the timing of their programme over a period longer than a year, say 18 months. Most Fellows will want to concentrate the period of research within three to four months, but others may want to spread it over a longer time span. In addition CLORE supports and accommodates the needs of Fellows with families and children wherever possible.
A important part of the CLORE programme allows Fellows develop an invaluable network of contacts across the cultural field and beyond and are given unparalleled access to senior figures in their discipline.
Developing leadership
Successful candidates are invited to a conference held in London in June, at which the 2006/7 Fellows will be announced. An initial meeting will be arranged during the summer to discuss needs and to start to plan your secondment, research, mentoring and tuition. Fellows for this year will take part in a two-week residential leadership course in September 2006, which will be held at Bore Place in Kent.
Developing skills
A range of tuition opportunities will be available to individuals, small groups or the full cohort of Fellows. These will include, for example, presentation skills, media awareness, marketing, fundraising and governance. For some of your tuition, CLORE will provide funds for you to attend a choice of open courses in universities, business schools or specialist organisations.
Secondment
At the core of the programme is a three- to four-month secondment to an organisation very different from the Fellows place of work, in which they will manage a high level project. CLORE will agree with the Fellow, the organisation that best suits their needs, interests and objectives.
Research
During the Fellowship, the Fellow will investigate in depth an aspect of culture, which has practical relevance to their field of work. They will be supervised by the higher education institution most appropriate for their research proposal.
Mentoring
Fellows will have a personal development plan and will receive support and advice from the Director and Deputy Director of the Clore Leadership Programme as well as from a specially selected mentor. CLORE will hold regular meetings to review progress and discuss any changes to the programme.
As David Lammy, Minister for Culture said about the Clore Fellowships: “Whatever leadership skills you already have, however inspirational you may be in your role, there is always the potential to develop still further. A leader can never stop learning. With the CLORE Leadership Programme we have the opportunity not to leave our cultural future to chance, but to work with it, to harness it, to take it forward, to encourage it. ”
The CLORE Leadership Programme offers arts and cultural leaders of all disciplines an extraordinary opportunity to develop their leadership capacities, both professionally and personally. As the arts world is often dynamic, chaotic, ordered and frenzied by turns; the CLORE Leadership Programme offers one of the finest examples of best practice in this field by recognising the intrinsic qualities that make for inspirational leadership within the very specific world of people and creativity management.
Applications for the next round of Fellowships will open in January 2007.
For more detailed Programme Details visit The CLORE website:
email: info@cloreleadership.org
Other information available on the CLORE website includes:
