Taking Action Together—Special Topics in the Business of Arts and Culture™
—pre-conference programming developed and presented by National Arts Strategies.
Cost: $225 per person
National Arts Strategies will lead a unique executive education program for performing arts professionals as NPAC begins on June 10th. Three full-day sessions inspired by the NPAC theme "Taking Action Together" will be led by world-renowned faculty experts and teachers. Learn new approaches to partnerships that will help you and your organization realize your vision, and tap all the creativity energy of the performing arts, the broader cultural sector, and the for-profit world.
Choose the session that is most interesting to you, or send team members to each session to build the capacity of your whole organization. Each session is focused on a key challenge to achieving your mission in our richly connected communities:
The challenges that performing arts organizations face become more and more complex as organizations get larger. The opportunities and choices multiply. Projects require more money, people, and expertise. And the leadership and coordination challenges grow more difficult. This pre-conference program is designed specifically to help senior-level leaders in these established performing arts organizations address these challenges. We recommend these sessions for the following participants:
Each session will bring together participants from all the performing arts disciplines. Seats are limited for each of these highly interactive sessions, and pre-registration is required.
This pre-conference programming leverages NAS' long experience developing and leading executive-level education specifically for the arts sector. These sessions will create a classroom experience just like what you would expect in an executive-level session at Harvard Business School or Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Three features make these sessions distinct:
Tuesday, June 10, 9am-5pm
Today, the most creative initiatives are being achieved through partnerships—informal, formal, short-term, long-term, personal, and professional. These partnerships deliver more information, resources, and expertise than any one person or organization can possibly have alone. But how do you identify the partnerships that are most likely to succeed? In which partnerships should you invest your limited time and resources? What are the secrets to creating those relationships efficiently? In this session you will learn frameworks for analyzing your "network" and targeting the right partners at the right time. Selecting the right partners will help you:
This interactive and practical session will be led by Walter (Woody) Powell from Stanford University, a leading expert in the areas of network theory and organizational research:
Professor Walter W. Powell, Stanford University is Professor of Education and affiliated Professor of Sociology, Organizational Behavior, Management Science, and Communication. Professor Powell is also an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. At Stanford, he is Director of the Scandinavian Consortium on Organizational Research (SCANCOR) and co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS). He joined the Stanford faculty in July 1999, after previously teaching at the University of Arizona, MIT, and Yale. He has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and been a visiting faculty member several times at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. Professor Powell full biography is available online at Stanford University.
Seating for this session is limited to 70 participants. Participants may be asked to read one to two articles in advance to prepare for the session and support an informed, creative discussion.
Tuesday, June 10, 9am-5pm
Negotiation is an art - and a science. Leaders use it every day in one form or another as a business tool to advance their organizations. But even the most experienced leaders get surprised by the complex psychology and group behaviors that drive negotiations. Arts and cultural leaders have challenges in negotiation around labor agreements, with outside contractors and partners, and in some cases with boards of trustees. This highly interactive session on negotiation strategies and techniques will enhance your ability to:
This session will be led by Margaret Neale from Stanford University, a leading expert in negotiation:
Professor Margaret Neale, Stanford University Graduate School of Business is the John G. McCoy-Banc One Corporation Professor of Organizations and Dispute Resolution, Director of the Managing Teams for Innovation and Success Executive Program, Director of the Influence and Negotiation Strategies Executive Program, and Director of the Mergers and Acquisitions Executive Program, all at Stanford GSB. Professor Neale's research focuses primarily on negotiation and team performance. Her work has extended judgment and decision-making research from cognitive psychology to the field of negotiation. Her full biography is available online.
Seating for this session is limited to 90 participants. Participants may be asked to read one or two articles in advance to prepare for the session and support an informed, creative discussion.
Tuesday, June 10, 9am-5pm
Corporate sponsorships and philanthropy provide financial support, but these traditional forms of corporate support are harder to find in today's world of strategic corporate philanthropy. Nonprofit organizations are going beyond these traditional approaches to develop strategic "cause marketing" relationships with corporations. This new approach helps deliver on more significant mission goals and corporate objectives by combining all of the resources available in a nonprofit and corporate partnership. Performing arts organizations can apply these strategies too, and in this session you will explore frameworks to:
This case-driven session will be lead by Kash Rangan from Harvard Business School, an internationally recognized expert in marketing strategies for mission-driven organizations:
Professor Kash Rangan, Harvard Business School is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School and is the former head of the HBS Marketing Department. In addition to his interest in for-profit businesses, Professor Rangan is actively involved in studying the role of marketing in nonprofit organizations and, specifically, how it influences the adoption of social products and ideas. He served as a founding co-chair of the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard, and also founded and chaired the executive program Strategic Perspectives on Nonprofit Management from 1994 to 1998. Professor Rangan's full biography is available online at Harvard Business School.
Seating for this session is limited to 70 participants. Participants will be asked to read two case studies in advance to prepare for the session and support an informed, creative discussion.
National Arts Strategies provides premier leadership development programs for the arts and culture sector. Founded 25 years ago by the Ford, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations, NAS began its work in leadership education nine years ago, and has focused its programs exclusively on leadership education for the past five years. Our faculty come from premier graduate and business programs including Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School, and MIT Sloan School of Management. NAS is supported by a national network of institutional funders, including the Fidelity Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, and The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
Over the last five years we have worked with over 2500 executives and board members in arts, culture, and preservation through our national and regional programs. Our programs reach top board members and executives from across the cultural sector who are emphatic about the unique quality and impact of our executive seminars. As George Sparks, President and CEO of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, describes his experience, "The NAS strategic planning seminar was the best training for non-profits that I have ever experienced. On an absolute basis, it was the equivalent of any course that I had as a General Manager / Vice President in my 25 year career at Hewlett-Packard / Agilent Technologies and probably as good as any other global company would deliver."
The Business of Arts and Culture™, our national executive seminar program, is a unique investment in the leaders of our nation's cultural organizations. Combining an intensive series of graduate-level, team-based executive seminars presented in cities around the country with follow-up facilitation and networking events, this program makes the highest quality executive education accessible to our field. The Business of Arts and Culture includes financial support for tuition and travel to make top-tier executive education accessible to arts and culture organizations.