By Richard Daniels
Director, Monroe Arts Center
This past week I had the privilege of addressing the Green County Leadership Program's orientation session for the new class of 27 participants, their coordinators and instructors. Victoria Solomon, University of Wisconsin-Extension, directs the program.
My instructions were to tell the participants, many new to Green County, about the Monroe Arts Center. So I provided some basics such as it's 39 years old, a nonprofit organization, located at 1315 11th Street. That we offer both a performing arts program and a visual arts program, that we provide live, professional performances to over 3,000 students and teachers each year, and some 25,000 others through live performance and radio broadcast.
Then I offered some thoughts on the relationship of art and leadership. I took as my text two remarkable sentences from Pablo Picasso, the great 20th-century abstract painter. Picasso famously said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Let's grant Picasso that this is a "problem," and I do think it is, but let's modify these two sentences by substituting the word "imagination" for "artist," and a few other accommodating changes. We have: "Every child has imagination. The problem is how to retain imagination once we grow up."
Now, consider the qualities of leadership. When we think of leaders we think of people who have the big picture. Others are involved in the details, but the leaders see the forest from the trees. They see where we should be going and how we should get there. They carry the vision. To have vision, one must have imagination. We cannot have a large view of things without an important imaginative capacity.
Leaders are often entrepreneurial or enterprising. They see possibilities. They're not afraid of taking risks if an opportunity is uncovered they could capitalize on. They see opportunities and the means to take the greatest advantage of them. These observations or insights could not occur without imagination.
Leaders are also thought to be problem solvers. They are capable of seeing the problem, defining it, and assembling the various possible solutions. This process requires imagination and so does the process of eliminating all but the best possible solution.
Leaders have to be far more than imaginative. There are a host of other qualities of character, but imagination is necessary and highly important.
How do we retain imagination as adults so that we can be effective leaders? Art is the most obvious endeavor for the retention of the imagination. Engaging in artistic activity no matter what level of sophistication or achievement may be the best means. Education in the history, theory and criticism of art objects and expression may be the next best means. And with or without art education, simply being an interested auditor to the performing arts or spectator to the visual arts can go a long way in the retention of the imagination.
One part of the Monroe Arts Center's mission is to "aid individual creative development," and this applies to potential leaders. The Monroe Arts Center is the place to retain and to further cultivate the imagination.
- Richard Daniels is the Director of the Monroe Arts Center.
Director, Monroe Arts Center
This past week I had the privilege of addressing the Green County Leadership Program's orientation session for the new class of 27 participants, their coordinators and instructors. Victoria Solomon, University of Wisconsin-Extension, directs the program.
My instructions were to tell the participants, many new to Green County, about the Monroe Arts Center. So I provided some basics such as it's 39 years old, a nonprofit organization, located at 1315 11th Street. That we offer both a performing arts program and a visual arts program, that we provide live, professional performances to over 3,000 students and teachers each year, and some 25,000 others through live performance and radio broadcast.
Then I offered some thoughts on the relationship of art and leadership. I took as my text two remarkable sentences from Pablo Picasso, the great 20th-century abstract painter. Picasso famously said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." Let's grant Picasso that this is a "problem," and I do think it is, but let's modify these two sentences by substituting the word "imagination" for "artist," and a few other accommodating changes. We have: "Every child has imagination. The problem is how to retain imagination once we grow up."
Now, consider the qualities of leadership. When we think of leaders we think of people who have the big picture. Others are involved in the details, but the leaders see the forest from the trees. They see where we should be going and how we should get there. They carry the vision. To have vision, one must have imagination. We cannot have a large view of things without an important imaginative capacity.
Leaders are often entrepreneurial or enterprising. They see possibilities. They're not afraid of taking risks if an opportunity is uncovered they could capitalize on. They see opportunities and the means to take the greatest advantage of them. These observations or insights could not occur without imagination.
Leaders are also thought to be problem solvers. They are capable of seeing the problem, defining it, and assembling the various possible solutions. This process requires imagination and so does the process of eliminating all but the best possible solution.
Leaders have to be far more than imaginative. There are a host of other qualities of character, but imagination is necessary and highly important.
How do we retain imagination as adults so that we can be effective leaders? Art is the most obvious endeavor for the retention of the imagination. Engaging in artistic activity no matter what level of sophistication or achievement may be the best means. Education in the history, theory and criticism of art objects and expression may be the next best means. And with or without art education, simply being an interested auditor to the performing arts or spectator to the visual arts can go a long way in the retention of the imagination.
One part of the Monroe Arts Center's mission is to "aid individual creative development," and this applies to potential leaders. The Monroe Arts Center is the place to retain and to further cultivate the imagination.
- Richard Daniels is the Director of the Monroe Arts Center.
