Arts leader Bill Strickland to share insights on ‘Art of Leadership’ during free lecture

From email:

Washington D.C.-area artists and residents will have the opportunity to learn from renowned arts advocate, business leader and community supporter William E. Strickland Jr., during a free lecture on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2007.

Strickland is president and chief executive officer of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, a Pittsburgh organization that brings arts and vocational training to the community. He is well-known for his work to provide educational and cultural opportunities to disadvantaged populations and is the author of “Across the Spectrum,” a primer for developing arts programs. Strickland served a six-year term as a council member for the National Endowment for the Arts and received a MacArthur “Genius” Award for leadership and ingenuity in the arts in 1996.

Strickland will describe his journey from an inner-city Pittsburgh youth to a nationally recognized leader and offer insights into the “Art of Leadership.” “The use of art to change students’ attitudes is at the heart of my vision of education,” Strickland said.

The one-hour lecture, which will include a question and answer segment, is jointly sponsored by the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank and Artomatic with collaboration from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Washington, DC, Economic Partnership.

The lecture will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Enrique V. Iglesias Auditorium at 1330 New York Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
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Bill Strickland is a great speaker.

I will say that there is a difference between arts as economic development and arts as community building. And there is a difference between arts as an economic development strategy for lower income communities, vs. a broader economic development strategy for cities concerned about attracting "the creative class."

The Manchester program is focused on jobs development in lower income communities and is a great best practice example that transcends probably any local example in terms of its comprehensiveness, although CPDC with their program at Edgewood, and the Covenant House wordworking program are local examples that are pretty good. But none come close to the comprehensiveness of the Pittsburgh program.