Page 36 - APAP - Inside Arts - Conference 2020

A NOTE FROM
I’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS TOPIC SINCE MY FIRST EXPERIENCE AT THE APAP CONFERENCE IN 2017. I
WAS 22 AND REMEMBER FEELING OVERWHELMED AND PARALYZINGLY
UNABLE TO CONNECT WITH OLDER ATTENDEES – AND SIMULTANEOUSLY IN JAW- DROPPING AWE OF THEM AND THE EXPERIENCE. IN 2019, I ORGANIZED A LAST- MINUTE, POORLY-PLANNED AFFINITY GROUP MEET-UP FOR FOLKS UNDER 30 AND WOULD LOVE TO MAKE
THAT A FORMAL REALITY
AT THE 2020 CONFERENCE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A PART OF IT? WHAT HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE AT APAP OVER THE YEARS?
IF YOU’VE GOT THOUGHTS, SHOOT ME AN EMAIL AT: jakestepansky@gmail.com.
34 INSIDE ARTS CONFERENCE 2020
culture of respect and shared learning that transcends hierarchy and experience. Ironically and/
or paradoxically, that culture is dictated by the leaders at the top of the ladder.
Joan Squires is the co-founder and executive director of
Omaha Performing Arts. She’s
one of those leaders. She’s had tremendous success for 17 years
at the helm of the largest arts institution in the state of Nebraska because she makes a point of putting people first. For Squires, working a philosophy of radical inclusivity into her organization’s daily practice became crucial to attracting and retaining talented new staff and audiences.
Faced with the challenge of bringing in good people and keeping them challenged and motivated, Squires turned to solutions that centered around building structures for equity into the organization’s fabric. She found herself constantly asking whether everyone who was sitting at the literal and figurative table was truly everyone. The organization invested heavily into educational opportunities for rising staff and changed meeting structures to a task force model that prioritized giving everyone a voice. And – of course – Squires makes a point of working with, not just working over.
“I try to interact with everyone in the organization,” Squires says. “I walk the halls. I attend the performances. I’m backstage and I’m front of house – because in informal conversations, you can learn more than when you’re in an official meeting.”
When I ask Torralba about
the importance of the informal conversation, she reminds me that it is at the core of her practice: “One of the practices that has helped me is sitting and listening or doing and listening – connecting two people through shared labor or through shared practice. It may mean that you have to position yourself as a novice, as a learner – and there’s a little bit of surrender there.”
Younger folks are very much centered in our society – and like slowly-boiled frogs, many of us can’t see how we’re hurt by that centering in the long run. Torralba encourages us to recalibrate.
“When you’re coming into a space that you’re not a part of, you have to earn people’s trust – and the way that people earn trust is when they see that you’re down,” she says. “I don’t know how to translate that into anything else other than that being down is when you’re doing things with people – not for people or over people.”
That’s a guiding principle too for Steve Hoffman, whose jam- packed career in arts management