These are the main skills that artists involved in the research identified as most important for effective leadership of co-creative processes.
We define skills as being ways of doing things that an artist can acquire or learn to practise whilst leading.
Holding Space
A key skill identified by all the artists was that of being able to hold space effectively for the expression of multiple ideas and opinions.
This is a challenging thing to do well, ensuring that people feel safe to express themselves. The idea of holding space as a skill has been drawn from all of the artists talking about the need to be generous and share power between everyone in the room.
The skill of managing your own energy levels as an artist was raised by many of the artists during the research.
This is clearly connected to the qualities of being grounded and energetic, but I have included it here as so many people talked about this as being an important skill. It’s in part a skill of self-awareness, but alongside this self-management and learning how to generate and manage the energy in the room.
Managing energy levels
Listening and Communicating
Every artist talked about the importance of excellent listening and communication skills.
I could have named this more broadly as ‘facilitation skills’, but there is something specific about the skills of deep listening and careful communication that is not captured in such a broad title.
These skills are connected to the qualities of being open and humble, which create an environment where deep listening skills can be utilised most effectively.
Inclusive language
Alongside the skills of listening and communicating clearly, was the skill of ensuring that the language you use is inclusive.
This could be around the art form itself, through avoiding jargon that might exclude people, to ensuring that language is inclusive to people with different abilities.
Art form skills
Most of the artists emphasised the importance of the skills they have acquired in their specific art form. People talked about the need for art form expertise and competence in order to be able to lead co-created practice effectively.
Some favoured a depth of skills in a particular art form, while others believed that having access to cross art form skills at less depth was preferable as it generated more possibilities to support the creativity of non-professional artists in multiple art forms.
Facilitation Skills
There was consensus amongst all of the artists involved in the research that high quality facilitation skills were an absolute necessity for effective leadership of co-created arts practice.
For some they preferred to be seen as a facilitator than as a leader, finding more congruence with their values through the label of facilitator.
