S1:E4: Towards transformational cultural leadership – Diane Ragsdale in conversation with Stephanie Fortunato
Guest
Diane Ragsdale
In conversation with
Stephanie Fortunato
Key Takeaways Contributor
Adrian Ellis
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.
Date of Recording
14 April 2021
Date of Publication
17 June 2021
Transcript
[00:00:00]
[THEME MUSIC]
[00:00:05]
Stephanie Fortunato: Hello, and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is one of a series brought to you by the Global Cultural Districts Network – in which we explore what's happening around the world on those busy, and sometimes congested intersections of cultural and urban life. We acknowledge the traditional owners and First Nations people across all the lands and countries who are joining us today and pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging. First Nations people are original storytellers, artists, and custodians of culture.
I'm Stephanie Fortunato, Director of the Department of Art, Culture + Tourism for the U.S. City of Providence, Rhode Island, which we proudly call the creative capital. Today though, I am connecting with creative practitioners from around the world to see if we can make some sense of how our cultural ecology is changing and why, especially within cities, where more and more of us live, work and experience arts and culture.
Today, I am joined by Diane Ragsdale. Diane is a prolific writer, lecturer and advisor on a range of topics related to arts, culture and creativity. She is the Director and Co-Lead faculty of the Cultural Leadership Program at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. And she's worked in academia, philanthropy, theatres, and festivals.
Diane works with adults in a variety of places of learning and stages of their careers. And she herself is a doctoral student in the Netherlands where she now lives full-time. Her studies focused on the evolving relationship between non-profit and commercial theatres in America over time. Diane's work on aesthetic values in a change cultural context is a theme that is woven through many of her pursuits and one area where we hope she will share insights and help us draw connections today. Welcome Diane, and thank you for being here.
[00:01:50]
Diane Ragsdale: Thank you, Stephanie. It's really a great pleasure to be here and be in conversation with you.
…
External Links
Catalyzing Engagement: a learning exchange which asks whether the values, principles, and practices of arts engagement could be applied to accelerate institutional recovery and renewed relevance for communities in crisis.
Guaranteed Income Pilot: the Office of Racial Equity at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, the Arts Impact Endowment and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts have come together to launch the Guaranteed Income Pilot for the City of San Francisco to support artists living and working in the city during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Fuse Box Festival: Fusebox is a global hub for the study, commissioning, and presentation of contemporary live performance.
‘Dear White American Theater’: principles for building anti-racist theatre systems.
Further reading: Diane Ragsdale’s On Aesthetics, Ethics, Economics, and Consequential Decisions of Cultural Leaders in the Long Now
About Our Speakers
Diane Ragsdale is a professional writer, speaker, facilitator, researcher, lecturer, and advisor on a range of arts and culture topics since 2010. Diane currently serves as Director of the Cultural Leadership Program at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity. She 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. +
Stephanie Fortunato is Director of the Department of Art, Culture + Tourism for the City of Providence. Her work sits at the intersection of cultural planning and urban development, collaborating with local communities on creating policies and partnerships to strengthen neighbourhoods and transform public spaces. +
Adrian Ellis is the founder of AEA Consulting (1990) and the Global Cultural Districts Network (2013). He has worked in senior management and as a board member in both museums and the performing arts and as a strategy consultant to leading clients in the cultural, public, and business sectors around the world. +
