Monthly Archives: December 2014

Wishes for you

by Jini Stolk My New Year’s wishes for you are: That your mission statement will be as beautiful, precise and inspiring as a poem. That your volunteers will grow in commitment, numbers and happiness. That your board meetings will be energized and focused. That all of us (“Barely Managing Directors” included) learn to reduce stress, […]

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The next Canada and the arts

by Jini Stolk The “debate over audience diversity” recently discussed by Kate Taylor in the Globe and Mail is, as was pointed out, more a necessity than a debate. And the answer to the question of where it should start seems to me to be “everywhere, in many companies, in many different ways” – until, as […]

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Questions from the floor

by Jini Stolk I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the energy of the arts board members attending my workshops on The Art of Good Governance: Getting the Basics Right. The Get on Board project, a partnership betweenthe Toronto Arts Foundation and Business for the Arts, is clearly meeting a need: our board members are eager to learn and […]

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Good governance includes diversifying boards

by Jini Stolk The Art of Good Governance: Getting the Basics Right, a workshop I presented on November 17th, was the kick-off to Get on Board, a new project of the Toronto Arts Foundation and Business for the Arts to strengthen the arts community by bringing members of arts boards together to learn and share. […]

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Giving Tuesday

by Jini Stolk Mea culpa. I was intending to write about Giving Tuesday in time to offer a little practical advice to those of you wading in this year. But by the time you get this it will all have been either a grand success or a bit of a disappointment. Perhaps I can help […]

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The different moods of quality

by Jini Stolk Maybe it’s in response to being bombarded by…stuff…at this time of year, but I’ve been thinking about excellence (or quality) in artistic work. Do I know it when I see it? I think I do, but I’m always intrigued by the variety of responses to a piece of work and try not […]

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Roles and routines of creative people

by Jini Stolk Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (which has been blessed throughout its history by skilled and talented AD’s, matched by courageous and accomplished managing directors and board chairs) described the Artistic Director’s role in their terrific 35 Years Anniversary program. “Ideally, a theatre’s artistic director strives always to strike a balance of risk […]

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