Courtesy of Sixto Wagan
The Leadership in Arts Summit, sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, will join together to examine the state of Houston’s art community. The Summit’s board director, Sixto Wagan, said he hopes the event will bring inspiration not only to students and faculty, but also to the local arts community.
“The Center for Arts Leadership is excited to bring the local art community together to inspire each other, share questions that are reshaping the way organizations think and function and to promote short- and long-term actions that are based on equitable partnerships,” Wagan said.
The event will feature panel discussions and small group sessions focusing on funds and philanthropy, Houston’s art community and other topics. Houston’s artists and philanthropists work well together, and the Summit asks how these collaborations can be expanded, Wagan said.
“Together with local arts leaders as panelists and with the arts community as participants, we have the opportunity to look at some of the major trends that will affect the nonprofit arts community in the next few decades,” he said.
The event will also feature national speakers who have shaped the arts funding landscape. Ann Markusen, Maria Rosario-Jackson and Paul Bonin-Rodriguez will be speaking at the Summit and together have influenced the distribution of more than $100 million to the arts in the past few years.
“The Summit explores how leaders in the arts community are planning for an arts landscape that has shifted with more public and private partnerships inspired by theories of Creative Placemaking,” Wagan said.
The Summit will be held at the Athletics/Alumni Center from 12:30 to 6 p.m. on April 4 and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m April 5.
