Arts and Cultural Leadership

“We have long needed a definitive guide to arts leadership in our time – and this is that book. As the arts have become ever more complex, constantly evolving to meet a changing world, so the work of leadership becomes ever more critical and nuanced. Ken Foster not only perceptively describes the environment and diagnoses its challenges, but offers genuine hope that we can meet those challenges with thoughtful and creative strategies. It’s a must-read for every current and aspiring arts leader.” Simon Woods, President and CEO, League of American Orchestras

“Ken Foster has given us an expansive ‘why to’ book. It’s a call to action to become proactive practitioners of social change, to be energized by challenges, and to forge the future of arts leadership with a renewed sense of purpose.” Dan Froot, Performance Artist and Professor of Creative Process and Business of the Arts, UCLA, USA

“Kenneth Foster’s book, Arts Leadership: Creating Sustainable Arts Organizations, provides a compelling and informative road map for the unpredictable future of performing arts organizations. It is an essential read for arts leaders and their staff. As Co-Managing Director at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, it was rewarding to witness the success of the implementation of many ideas presented in Foster’s book and the impact on audiences and artists, the university, and greater Vancouver community. We were also delighted to work directly with Ken while creating our organization’s own path. He shared his wisdom, insight, and a wonderful sense of humor and validated so much of the good work and passionate depth of our staff team. I highly recommend Foster’s thoughtful and inspiring book for performing arts institutions.” Joyce Hinton, former Co-Managing Director, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC

“Ken Foster’s Arts Leadership is an important provocation for cultural sector workers at all stages of their careers to rethink their practices and pursue bigger, bolder impacts. My 2018, first-edition copy is tattered and filled with underlines, margins scribbles, and stickie notes. I regularly return to its legible and stimulating insights about contemporary arts leadership, which almost presciently understood the ways society would evolve toward greater complexity, and with each read, I get inspired (and gain the courage) to embrace its suggested non-traditional, non-linear, and deeply adaptive ways of working – essential mindsets for decades to come.” Omari Rush, Executive Director, CultureSource, Detroit, Michigan

“Foster’s book is a must-read for leaders, advocates, and team members of any cultural institution looking to become more aligned with their purpose and integral values and stay relevant to their communities in an ever-shifting world. With concrete examples and deep insights of contemporary culture politics, Foster defies stagnated structures and offers generous advice, guidance, and great inspiration for us to be braver and do better.” Gréta Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Director, Dramaturg and Curator, The National Theatre of Iceland

“Foster’s book offers great food for thought and discussion, which is why we have used it in educating theater directors and managers. He challenges us to think about art organizations in terms of sustainability in its broadest sense. It is truly inspiring how he questions the way arts organizations are often built into unchanging monoliths, when they should be resiliently changing platforms of living art.” Saana Lavaste, Professor of Directing at Uniarts, Helsinki, Finland, and Saara Rautavuoma, Theatre Producer and Manager, Tampere, Finland

“In this crucial text, Ken Foster applies considerable critical pressure on the structure and values of our 20th century arts ecosystem. He implores us, as arts citizens, to consider new models for a new era. For Foster, the inquiry is urgent – if we don’t act now, our culture is at risk – yet his intentions come from an unwavering devotion to arts and community. At every point, he reminds us that if we are willing to innovate, a stunning future is within reach.” Andre Perry, Executive Director of Hancher Auditorium and the Office of Performing Arts and Engagement at the University of Iowa

Kenneth Foster is Professor of Practice and Director of Arts Leadership at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA.