Co-Leadership in the Arts and Culture: Sharing Values and Vision

Co-leadership is a leadership practice and structure found in arts organizations, consisting of two or three executives who bridge the art and business divide. This book provides an overview and insights into the field, addressing the challenges and benefits of co-leadership, including its institutionalization in the West and its ability to navigate plural logics. The authors investigate co-leadership in the arts through empirical explorations and abductive reflection, appealing to students, researchers, and practitioners in arts and cultural management.

Format: Hardback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 09 December 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Co-leadership is a leadership approach and structure commonly found in arts organizations, consisting of two or three executives who bridge the gap between art and business at the highest level. While this phenomenon is widely recognized among practitioners, research on co-leadership remains limited and scattered. This book aims to provide a comprehensive overview and offer fresh insights into the field. While co-leadership is deeply entrenched in Western cultures, it has also faced criticism for restricting artistic autonomy and fostering ambiguity in leadership roles. However, co-leadership also embodies the strategic goals of art, audiences, organizations, and communities by addressing the complexities of plural logics, navigating the demands of artistic vision and organizational stability. It presents an integrated solution.

The authors delve into the specifics of co-leadership in the arts, encompassing global practices and its interdisciplinary nature. The theoretical framework of plural leadership serves as a foundation for their empirical investigations of the dynamics within the co-leadership relationship and interactions with organizational stakeholders. Data includes the perspectives of co-leaders, artists, staff, and board members from arts organizations in Canada and Norway, through abductive reflection, generating a stimulating research experience.

By presenting co-leadership in action rather than as a mere study of static theories, this book appeals to a broader audience, including students, researchers, and practitioners in arts and cultural management. It offers valuable guidance on working with co-leadership and managing its inherent tensions. Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Weight: 700g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781138587021