History

In 1999 Americans for the Arts, the country’s largest arts advocacy organization, started its Emerging Leader Network “to identify and cultivate the next generation of arts leaders in America.”  The program targeted professionals “new to the field who are 35 years of age or younger or who have less than five years of experience.”  The group initially met as an elective pre-conference at Americans for the Art annual convention to “share their interests with other arts professionals as they develop their skills and their commitment to the arts.”

The need for more localized activity became apparent and in 2005 the Emerging Leader Network started an initiative to get emerging leaders to host dialogue events in their communities called “Creative Conversations” during National Arts & Humanities Month (October).  This local tool was intended to empower emerging leaders to take a leadership role in their own community by both designing programming and galvanizing their peers to connect professionally.  In some communities Creative Conversations were quiet successful and the groups they brought together were compelled to meet continually.

Although Creative Conversations were hosted in New York City 2005 and 2006 the momentum to start a regular local Emerging Leader group was not harnessed until 2007.  Arts & Business Council of New York (ABC/NY), the local division of Americans for the Arts, had the interest and capacity to coordinate a local EL group.   In August 2007 a group of young leaders came together to form Emerging Leaders of New York Arts.

In October 2007 our small group coordinated five Creative Conversations and with that momentum we decided to keep hosting the dialogue events throughout the year.  By January 2008 we had started a book club to discuss all those business books we’d been meaning to read by ourselves but needed some peer motivation to get around to.  We also continued to host occasional happy hours as a way to make new connections and casually share with our peers.

We began presenting some of our Creative Conversations at WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in fall 2009.  This partnership allows us to record and podcast some of our events to share with the larger emerging leader community.

ELNYA is still growing and there’s more history to write, partnerships to make, and ideas to be shared–how will you contribute?

Arts Solidarity!