The Artist as a Leader

We tend to separate art and leadership. One is for galleries and stages; the other for boardrooms and meetings. But in the communities I serve, the two have never been separate.

An artist learns to see before something exists. They hold a vision that others cannot yet see, and they work it into being with discipline, risk and craft. That is also what a leader does.

When we give young people the tools to create — a song, a story, a photograph — we are not just giving them a hobby. We are teaching them to believe that their voice can shape the world. That belief is the beginning of leadership.

The work of ArtWorks and LeKasi has taught me this again and again: the artist is a leader in disguise, and our job is to give them the room to be seen.