A Truly Creative Conversation

Cozy couches with coffee tables. Cafe tables covered in butcher paper. Markers. Playdough. Sparkling pipe cleaners. Leadership development. Yes, the Pittsburgh Emerging Arts Leaders Network had our fifth event last night, and the brains were storming creative cats and dogs. Dewey and Kaye's Leslie Bonner set the night in motion, presenting a study called "Growing Nonprofit Leaders," which identifed core competencies common to the most successful leaders in the industry. The implications of the study were fleshed out in three, 30-minute sessions where groups of 4 individuals swapped ideas through dialogue, sketches, sculpture and more, in response to the questions of moderator Sean Fabich. I was delighted at the end of the evening when, having gathered together once more, the ideas that had been germinating in small conversation sprung into full color for everyone. Though it would be impossible to capture the content in summary, you can view the diagrams and sketches on our Flickr site--some fun, and some full of content. All you who participated, I encourage you to flesh out the pictures with content!