Mr. Geoffrey Kershner

Welcome to the 2019 Emerging Arts Leaders Blog Salon

Posted by Mr. Geoffrey Kershner, May 03, 2019 0 comments


Mr. Geoffrey Kershner

Welcome to the 2019 Emerging Arts Leaders Blog Salon! This year, we have approached a number of emerging leaders in the field to reflect and respond to the theme: “Own your past, shape your future.” You will hear from a number of emerging leaders and change agents in the field who are forging a new path for the arts in America. Along with the theme, we have also asked all our blog salon participants the question, “How is history shaping the future of the arts in your community?”

The arts can and should be at the forefront of change.

Strong community is formed through understanding and common bonds. Strong communities can tackle big problems like financial inequities, social unrest, or climate change. Weak communities have difficulty solving problems, and many refuse to hear the other side out, find commonality, or reach fruitful compromise through collaboration. The good news is that the dangerously low levels of understanding we now face can be addressed through the arts. In the most recent public opinion poll about the arts, Americans Speak Out About the Arts in 2018, it was found that 72% of Americans view the arts as unifying regardless of age, race, or ethnicity. This shows the arts have promise to cure ills that our country desperately needs to address.

What does owning your past mean?

I grew up with a Japanese grandmother in my home and throughout my life I witnessed her navigating the world as an immigrant. She truly was an “other,” as one of the only Asians in our small and rural Virginia town. Even with my Japanese heritage I know that I ultimately operate in the world as a white male. I feel deeply for the issues that face many of our minority communities trying to find equity and inclusion, while also personally benefiting from my identity as a white heterosexual male. My privilege is not lost on me as I open a series of blogs from emerging leaders in the field with a theme “Own your past, shape your future.” For those of us who have privilege, we must acknowledge that privilege and work to use that privilege to leverage more opportunity for those who don’t have the same access to opportunity as ourselves. We must change our programming, change our hiring practices, and, in some cases, change our behavior.

What does shaping your future mean?

In attending my first Winter Meeting for the Emerging Leaders Council this past January, I discovered I was the only white heterosexual male in the room. This was evidence to me that we are making progress as a field. It may not be happening as fast as we would like, but Americans for the Arts and the Emerging Leaders Council have taken deliberate steps to move the needle towards a future where a greater number of arts and arts advocacy leaders are women and individuals of color with varied sexual orientations and gender identifications. We are putting future leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds and viewpoints into a room to begin to form bonds, form understanding, and push the conversation forward.

Get uncomfortable.

My arts organization is in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is a southern mid-size city on the James River and is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It has two nuclear engineering companies and a number of institutions of higher learning. One of those institutions is Liberty University, an evangelical institution founded by the late Jerry Falwell. Liberty and the Falwell family have been polarizing figures nationally for decades. They are polarizing on the local level as well, but what happens at the local level is that people who want to get things done in our community have to work with one another and reach across divides and fight through prejudice. This can be terribly uncomfortable, but it is crucial. As an arts organization in this community we must create shared space and we must promote the exchange of ideas, even when it creates unease with donors and patrons and, in some cases, even with ourselves. Our community needs us to turn over a portion of our programming to our community’s historically black fraternities and sororities to curate themselves, our community needs us to host a gay pride event in our theatre, but our community also needs us to be okay with renting our facility to an evangelical church for an Easter service, welcoming individuals who have never been in our facility before.

What’s next?

In the coming days you will hear from a number of brilliant emerging leaders who are working to mold and shape the future. This is being done through deliberate, mindful, and creative leadership that is creating discomfort (in a positive way). They are taking what they have been handed, creating dialogue, and forging a path for a stronger tomorrow.

Please login to post comments.