A free conference designed to give an intimate look at the leadership journey of prominent leaders making a difference will take place Friday, March 7, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., in Portland. The half-day, interactive “Exploring the Leadership Path” conference, hosted by the University of Oregon Arts and Administration Program, offers the opportunity to hear from and engage with local arts and culture sector leaders.

Keynote speaker Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, will kick off the gathering with a discussion of his own leadership journey, tracking the changing landscape of the U.S. arts and culture sector, followed by engaging pairs of speakers who will discuss their own leadership paths — the starts, the stops, the forks in the road, the pivotal moments — reflecting on things that have happened along the path and considering what may lay ahead.

Portland-area arts leaders will share their personal leadership paths through three unique lenses during concurrent sessions. Guest speakers Adam Davis, executive director at Oregon Humanities, and Andrew Proctor, executive director of Literary Arts, will explore the theme “Leading Through Change.” Focusing on “The Role of Influence in Leadership” are Alice Norris, president of Willamette Falls Heritage Coalition and former mayor of Oregon City, and Alyssa Dawamana Macy, development specialist at The Native Arts & Cultures Foundation and an Oregon Arts Commissioner. Also, Nicholas Johnson, Give! Guide executive director at Willamette Week, and Diane Syrcle, executive vice president for development at the Oregon Symphony, will discuss “Readiness for the Next Step of Leadership.”

Continued dialogue about the diverse paths through arts leadership is essential to moving the field forward, says Patricia Dewey, coorganizer and director of the UO Arts and Administration Program. “The conference will encourage dialogue between arts and culture sector leaders regardless of where they are in their leadership trajectories,” she says.

Participants will be asked to reflect on their own leadership paths and to think about incorporating lessons learned as they grow. From 12:30-1:30 p.m., participants are invited to join a complimentary networking lunch.

Beginning at 1:30 p.m., there will be a two-hour graduate seminar for AAD students only, led by Robert Lynch. The seminar will explore the changing arts and culture ecosystem in the United States over the past fifty years. “This is an invaluable experience for our Arts and Administration graduate students to meet with the leader of the largest arts advocacy organization in the country,” Dewey says.

There is no cost to attend the conference, but registration is required.

All events will take place at Portland Center Stage, 128 NW Eleventh Avenue.

View a full listing of events.

This event is cosponsored by the Arts and Administration Program and the Center for Community Art and Cultural Policy at the University of Oregon; Business for Culture and the Arts; Oregon Arts Commission; Portland Emerging Arts Leaders; and the Regional Arts and Culture Council. 

About Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts
Robert L. Lynch is president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. With more than 38 years of experience in the arts industry, he is motivated by his personal mission to empower communities and leaders to advance the arts in society and in the lives of citizens.

In 1996, Lynch managed the successful merger of the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies, where he had spent twelve years as executive director, with the American Council for the Arts to form Americans for the Arts. Under his 28 years of leadership, the services and membership of Americans for the Arts have grown to more than 50 times their original size. He has personally reached audiences in over 2,000 locations spanning 49 states and more than a dozen nations, with diverse constituencies ranging from Native American tribal gatherings to the U.S. Armed Forces in Europe to the President of the United States.

During his tenure at Americans for the Arts, Lynch has overseen the mergers of the Arts and Business Council, Inc. and the Business Committee for the Arts into Americans for the Arts. He has also created the Americans for the Arts Action Fund and its connected political action committee to establish arts-friendly public policy through engaging citizens to advocate for the arts and arts education.

Under his direction, Americans for the Arts has become a leader in documenting and articulating the key role played by the nonprofit arts and culture industry, and their audiences, in strengthening our nation’s economy. This has been done through its signature study of the economic impact of the nonprofit arts community, Arts and Economic Prosperity IV, and the latest study measuring the arts in communities, The National Arts Index. He has also been instrumental in creating a strong portfolio of projects and information about the transformative value of the arts in non-arts areas such as civic dialogue, social problem solving and work with the Pentagon, West Point, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the arts and military.  

Lynch serves on the Boards of the Arts Extension Institute, Independent Sector, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts Dean’s Council. In August 2012 and 2013, he was selected as one of the most influential executives in the nonprofit sector for the NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50.

Lynch earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and plays the piano, mandolin, and guitar. He lives in Washington, D.C.