Applications are now open for Creative Australia’s Creative Leadership program, which will help drive the ambition of 35 artists and creative workers.
Creative Australia’s Deputy Chair, Wesley Enoch AM, tells ArtsHub, ‘Creative Australia is really shaking things up and very much looking at doing things differently. The Creative Leadership program is about inviting different groups of people to create their own approaches to leadership.’
The program is open to practising artists or creative workers with a minimum five years of experience and defines leadership in the broadest sense. Enoch continues, ‘I think true leadership is understanding what your moral compass is, how you formed your view of the world, and how you participate in the world as a leader… Often leadership has been a cookie-cutter thing, but I’m seeing more and more individuals shifting the job to suit their moral and ethical frameworks and changing how we work.’
The 2024-25 program will focus on driving transformative change around work in the arts sector, as well as inspiring climate action and creating shared value. The 18-month program includes a $7000 grant for self-directed professional development, in-person workshops, peer-to-peer coaching sessions and online keynote presentations. It will be grounded by spending time on Country and learning from First Nations Elders.
Enoch says shaping our leadership and workplaces to reflect the diversity of our streets is another critical consideration, and it begins with giving individuals from underrepresented backgrounds agency and voice. The 2024-25 Creative Leadership program will prioritise applications from First Nations people and people who are d/Deaf or disabled, with a range of access and inclusion support available.
‘If we only have a monoculture in leadership – people call it “pale stale male” – then you start to see gaps in the decision-making,’ says Enoch.
‘We are in a stage where we acknowledge our differences and look at how we can build our arts and cultural infrastructure differently to respond to how people want to operate. At the moment, we’ve inherited a whole lot of structures that need to change.
‘Investment in leaders now may not actually bear fruit for another 15 to 20 years, but in that process, it may actually change the very nature of what we’re doing.’
Enoch suggests artists and creative workers considering applying need ‘ambition outside of themselves, an ethical and moral compass with which they operate, and the skill of persuasion at their fingertips so they can bring people on the journey’.
He continues that people shouldn’t be deterred by the sense of pressure or if they experience imposter syndrome, as many in our sector do. ‘Unless you identify yourself as a leader, no one is going to make you one,’ says Enoch. ‘I’m 55 and I still think I’m faking it, but maybe it’s also the idea of if you can accept that you are never finished, that you’re always in the process of becoming into the future – that’s what I really love.’
He continues, ‘It’s what gives us the sense of curiosity about the world and this engagement can actually change your mind. A real act of leadership is to say, “I’ve still got things to learn”, to stay open to the world rather than closed.’
Applications for the 2024-25 Creative Leadership Program is now open and closes 9 April 3pm AEST; find out more and apply.
