While I drink my tea I'll respond to an article titled Today's Students Need Leadership Training Like Never Before, by Richard Greenwald. One of Greenwald's ideas within this article that stood out to me in particular was his opinion that colleges succeed in fostering experience and engagement in their students, but seem to fail in preparing students for the microprencurial world (a world where individuals jump from job to job) that we live in today. However, Greenwald refers to the world of big business, finance, and la de da. Thing is, we here at The University of the Arts go a different road. So in respect to those fields, maybe this is so. To me though, UARTs appears to actually strive for student success in this micropencurial world. Whether we would like to admit it or not, as artists most of our careers are going to circle around auditions. We are sea lampreys, we have to be diligent in dropping one gig and quickly finding another one to latch onto. We should be, in order to become successful artists, well trained in job hoping. Without this skill, an artist could never hope to keep a roof over their head. For an art world, there should be very little concern over their graduates chances of survival in a micropencurial world since it is a world we are being train to enter.
I think one thing that separates then the artist from the working artist can occasionally be leadership. This skills enforced in our classes (and I am being particular to mainly theatrics, but I think the idea still applies) are meant to challenge us to think, be independent, and find answers to our problems. This, along with the barrage of classes those in the college of performing arts have to take, also helps the student learn to prioritize and be prepared for the future. Personally, I am tackling eleven classes and a work study position, and I am thankful for the experience because I have a feeling that a working actor's life will be dependent on how well I juggle my obligations.
Greenwald's article also mentioned an old axiom that states "leaders are born, not made". This may be true, I'm currently in a program designed to make leaders. I have never personally considered myself a leader, so I do not know if a leadership class can necessarily make me one. On the other hand, I have a feeling colleges and universities would not be investing large sums of money into programs that produced little to no results. Much like acting, there are some great actors who are born great, while there are others born with great potential that only require a bit of direction.
Maybe it is safe to say that the leaders in our art world are the ones who stand out the most, generally get more work, and as a result can build upon their craft. I have no doubt that the people we see on stage and in the movie theater have harnessed the skills of leadership, These skills, the productivity, the preparation, and the dedication, do make a difference in almost any field and not only the artistic one.
As an actor in college I tried to find an article that would appeal to my craft and the topic of leadership. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5718.html. In this article, James Heskett discusses how leadership is very similar to theatrics. Leaders are always in the spotlight, they are analyzed and also interpreted. According to Heskett, it is also important for a leader not to get on stage and be something they are not. Just like acting, if your performance is fake, then the audience shuts off. Maybe then leadership is a kind of art in itself. It requires an individual to step up to a level of authority, responsibility over many, influence and positive example. To some this may not sound too special, but it is not something everyone can do. So, with that idea, couldn't leading be a kind of art?
Unfortunately Ricard Greenwald, I do not have the solution to diminishing leaders in the college atmosphere. Leadership programs, I am sure, help train people who want to be more proactive in the world, but even those classes can only meet a student half way. People have to push themselves and realize on their own whether or not leadership skills would better their work in the future. Perhaps, in most cases, leaders cannot be made, but rather must make themselves.
-Arlen
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