Emerging Leaders

from Todd Eric Hawkins, Managing Director 

As Theatre East-ers who read this blog and/or follow our Facebook page know, about ten days ago, I learned Americans for the Arts has nominated me to serve a three-year term on their Emerging Leader Council. My name, along with 11 other individuals, will appear on the ballot for this year’s council elections. The ballot, which will appear on the Americans for the Arts website (www.artsusa.org), will be open for all members of the Americans for the Arts to vote on from Monday, October 31^st to November 21^st. Six of the those nominated will be seated on the council.

Americans from the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. To aid in this mission, the Emerging Leader Council assists in developing programs and resources to promote the growth, development, and sustenance of emerging arts professionals.

Webster’s dictionary defines Emerging as “to become manifest; to become known.” As a member of the Emerging Leader Council, if I am elected, I would be in a position to help emerging leaders, across all arts disciplines, to realize their potential and become the next generation of arts leaders.

When I stop and think of the titans of the nonprofit theater of today, Lynne Meadow & Barry Grove (Manhattan Theatre Club), Neil Pepe & Jeffory Lawson (Atlantic Theater Company), Andre Bishop & Bernard Gersten (Lincoln Center Theater), I realize that at one time they were all emerging leaders. Today, each one of them shapes, fosters, and cultivates nonprofit theatre in New York City. It makes me wonder who the next generation of titans will be, and how the nonprofit theatre of tomorrow will be shaped.

When I look back at the history of many nonprofit theatre organizations, the phrase “circles rise together” always comes to mind.  None of the current titans were able to establish their place in the theatre by themselves; talented individuals surrounded them all with one goal in mind: to produce the best theatre possible.

I am honored that Americans for the Arts believes I am a leader that is “becoming known,” and proud of the fact that Theatre East have accepted me as a part of their circle. I am confident that together we will realize our own potential and become one of the next generations of theatre titans. 

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