NAVIGATING: How can we set ourselves up for success as we navigate turbulent times?

By: Madeleine McGirk and Eric Booth

As the Director of ITAC I have the privilege of working with artists and changemakers from all over the world. We work together to find ways to connect them to peers in other countries, to develop the impact of their work, to amplify their voices and to showcase their exceptional (and often under-recognised) practice.

One of my closest and most valued colleagues/mentors is Eric Booth, who co-founded ITAC in 2012, and continues to play a leading role in our evolution. When I think of effective and long lasting change/impact/growth in the field of Teaching Artistry, I think of him.

I asked Eric to share his thoughts on the topic: ‘How can we set ourselves up for success as we navigate turbulent times?’, and I am delighted to share his response with you below.

The business researcher (and multi-bestselling author) Jim Collins studies the ways that not-for-profit organizations (and for-profits too) can succeed best in navigating turbulent times. He says we need to do two things:

  1. Get the right people on the bus, or using the navigating metaphor, on the sailboat;

  2. Pull back to your most core fundamentals and experiment boldly from there.

Who are the right people? They aren’t necessarily the ones with power prior to these multiple disruptions—pandemic, demand for racial equity, code red environmental crisis, challenge to basic democracy practices, war—to our prior norms.

What are the core fundamentals? They aren’t the established canon of artworks, nor the way business was done in 2019. Indeed, those are exactly the areas where we need to experiment boldly. Energy applied to the not-quite-basics guarantees a deeper rut within the problematic status quo that we must evolve beyond. 

What are the answers to those two questions for you? The larger and the more historic the organization you work with, the harder it is to give power to the “right people” for flexible, responsive, imaginative, savvy navigation out of turbulent seas.  I believe the turbulence provides opportunities for the strong crews to take a lead.  

What are the core fundamentals?  Arts organizations tend to think that the artworks they love to present are their core. Go deeper to navigate toward new vitality.  ​

Arts education organizations tend to think that the way they have brought young people into the arts is their core. We need to go deeper than how and investigate why in these times. Every time I hear an arts educator say, “I know how to teach this,” I feel our sailboat losing some wind. Every time I hear an arts educator ask, “how can I best activate the artistry in this group of learners in this setting?” I feel the sail fill.   

I can tell you how we are navigating at ITAC, the International Teaching Artist Collaborative.  (The first global network of artists who work in communities and schools—no matter what title they use—teaching artists, community artists, participatory artists, social or civic practice artists, citizen artists, peacemaker artists, and more). We have a lot of the right people sailing the ship—young women mostly, from different countries, in flexible work situations, and smart—with more senior leaders behind them, supporting their lead.  

Let me share four of our many current initiatives to show four different ways we are experimenting boldly from what we identify as our core fundamentals.

ITAC6. Our sixth international conference will happen in person, and virtually, in Oslo on September 1-3. The theme is all about forward movement: Art (and Teaching Artists) as Catalysts for Change. We will explore the ways in which what we know and can do can have even more positive impact on participants and the world. ITAC’s role in the ecosystem is connecting and illuminating the most powerful practices from around the world, and we will focus exactly where Jim Collins tells us the best future lies. 

Climate. We are going where the crisis demands to bring the distinctive potency that teaching artistry brings. Not just making artworks about environmental issues, nor artfully presenting scientific data, nor getting politically active—all good things to do. We commission teaching artists to work with communities around local climate challenges and change their knowledge, and activate their agency to take personal and collective action. We gather support and working groups and visibility for the power of our practice. We are launching a free 25-hour online course for artists everywhere to expand their work for social impact. Join the Climate Collective and pour your energy into our collective movement. 

Amplify ‘High Art’s’ Impact. ITAC is partnering with soprano superstar Joyce DiDonato’s world tour of EDEN to hire a teaching artist in every city (over 42) on the tour to work directly with young people in a workshop series that addresses a local environmental issue. With Joyce, we challenge the outdated notion of “outreach” with a commitment to have high art touring deliver genuine impact at the community level too—every tour can deliver more than condescension or noblesse oblige. 

Innovators. ITAC is a catalyst for the changes passionate members want to bring into the world. We host gatherings that launch communities of change—there is a new network in Asia of teaching artists who work with people with disabilities, the Climate Collective, a resource for working with women in prison.  New projects are being developed now too about: non-verbal teaching artistry, on catalyzing well-being, and future literacies. 

Hop onto our sailboat. The global camaraderie is powerful, the winds and waves are steadying, and the direction is guided by the sun. 

As an actor, Eric Booth performed in many plays on Broadway, Off-Broadway and around the U.S. As a businessman, he started a small company, Alert Publishing, that in seven years became the largest of its kind in the U.S. analyzing research on trends in American lifestyles. As an author, he has had six books published. The Everyday Work of Art was a Book of the Month Club selection, and The Music Teaching Artist’s Bible is a text for artist-educators, and his new book Playing for Their Lives reports on the global growth of El Sistema music education–he visited 25 countries to study this teaching. He has written dozens of magazine articles, and was the Founding Editor of the quarterly Teaching Artist Journal.

In arts learning, he has been on the faculty of Juilliard (13 years), and has taught at Stanford University, NYU, Tanglewood (5 years), The Kennedy Center (15 years) and Lincoln Center Institute (for 26 years), and he has given classes for every level from kindergarten through graduate school; he has given workshops at over 30 universities and conservatories, and 60 cultural institutions. He has designed and led over twenty research projects, and seven online courses and workshops. He serves as a consultant for many organizations, city and state education departments, and businesses around the U.S., including seven of the ten largest U.S. orchestras, five national service organizations, and Carnegie Hall.