Summary:

In this episode, our host Stephanie Fortunato speaks with Diane Ragsdale, Director and Co-Lead Faculty of the Cultural Leadership Program at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, about the need for transformational cultural leadership to ensure the resilience and relevance of the arts and cultural sectors, especially in navigating the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thereafter, Stephanie is joined by fellow host Adrian Ellis to discuss key takeaways. They reflect on how the Covid-19 pandemic could be a window of opportunity for new forms of cultural leadership to emerge, which will encourage artistic experimentation and maximize the potential of the arts as a force for social change.

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References:

1. Catalyzing Engagement
2. Guaranteed Income Pilot by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
3. Fuse Box Festival
4. ‘Dear White American Theater’

Further Reading:

1. On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now

Bio:

A professional writer, speaker, facilitator, researcher, lecturer, and advisor on a range of arts and culture topics since 2010, Diane Ragsdale currently serves as Director of the Cultural Leadership Program at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity. Diane is also adjunct faculty at Yale University, where she teaches a workshop on Aesthetic Values in a Changed Cultural Context for its Theater Management MFA and a doctoral candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam (in the Netherlands), where she lectured 2011-2015 in the cultural economics and sociology of the arts programs. Over the past 15 years, Diane has given nearly 80 keynote addresses, lectures, or presentations at universities, arts conferences, and symposia around the world. She has served on the editorial board of Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts since 2011; has served on various committees for the online platform and journal HowlRound, including its present advisory board; and is a board member for Anne Bogart’s SITI Company and Marty Pottenger’s Art At Work.