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Clarity of intent and commitment to risk-taking
According to Bailey (2009b, 4), ‘open and frank dialogue about artistic matters
amongst the board and staff ’ is a component of artistic vibrancy, as well as
‘an artistic statement at the outset of a planning cycle, which sets out what the
company is going to try and achieve…’ To what ends does the organisation
offer programmes What does it hope to accomplish in terms of participant and
community outcomes Clarity and consensus on goals and intentions is a starting
point for creative capacity, according to some writers (Lord et al 2012, 17). This
might take the form of board-adopted institutional policies on programming
goals or approaches, or statements about the organisation’s commitment to risktaking.
Ellis (2002) describes the ‘traits of a risk-informed organisation’ as:
A clarity about ‘what really matters’: an ability, in all the genuflections and acrobatics
that are part and parcel of effective leadership in a brokered environment,
to retain absolute clarity about what capacities and purposes the organization
chooses to protect, what can be negotiated, and what is nonnegotiable and why.
The extent to which board members, versus staff, are responsible for setting policy
with respect to programming is a matter of substantial debate. Bailey (2009a, 5)
makes a distinction between ‘artistic leadership’ and ‘artistic governance’ but does
not elaborate. In many organisations, the board’s purview over programming
starts and ends with the hiring/firing of an artistic director or lead curator.
Community relevance
Some researchers argue that an organisation’s responsiveness to its community
is a core element of quality. Hannah et al use the term ‘necessity’—one of three
pillars of quality—to describe the community context of the work. Achieving
community relevance requires an awareness of the community’s needs, challenges
and aspirations, thus requiring a certain diagnostic capacity (Brown et
al, 2014). Bailey (2009a, 6) describes relevance in reference to three communities:
artform stakeholders (other organisations of a similar nature); residents of
the local, regional or national community served by the organisation; and ‘communities
of interest’—stakeholders defined by an interest in the organisation’s
work (e.g., students, teachers). Indeed, ‘community engagement’, ‘social practice’,
‘civic practice’ and ‘embeddedness’ are familiar topics of discourse at conferences
worldwide. While community relevance may be a core value of many artists, administrators
and board leaders, its structural manifestation within cultural organisations
is inconsistent and sometimes disconnected from core programming.
CREATIVE CAPACITY OF AN ORGANISATION 117
UNDERSTANDING the value and impacts of cultural experiences