The Global Leaders Program has co-produced a number of innovative webinars and online events, especially since the pandemic began. This year’s “Four40” was an exciting new format co-presented with Fundación Bolivar Davivienda, in alliance with Live Music Now.
Fast-paced and fun, each of the four sessions involved four arts leaders under 40 – the title “Four40” referring to four arts leaders, four provoking topics, and four big discussions. The goal was to showcase the dynamic and often different perspectives of young leaders in the performing arts.
Santiago Hernandez, GLP’s International Programs Coordinator, explains why this format was chosen:
“When the pandemic side-lined much of the performing arts world, a silver lining that emerged was the global ‘petri dish’ of individuals and organizations coming together for the sake of knowledge sharing. The GLP was one of the first to facilitate this experimentation with our (Re)Setting The Stage digital conference series beginning in March 2020. We were initially mesmerized by the caliber of arts leaders and experienced perspectives we could convene digitally around key topics, but over time we saw a real obstacle in terms of the attention span of audiences, given how easily people get distracted at their computers.
So we developed Four40 from a production standpoint to connect the world of online entertainment to the practice of knowledge sharing. Working with what became our partners in the series — Filarmónica Joven de Colombia a project by Fundacion Bolívar Davivienda and Live Music Now UK — we thought about how to incorporate features from activities that sustain high levels of sustained engagement online like chat rooms, video games, and television series. This led to our design of Four40 as a game-show-inspired conference series, involving participants competing and audiences casting votes. The goal was to be fun, interactive, fast-paced, and never-dull, with suspense and anticipation from start to finish. I think we achieved this goal insofar as the number of audience members in sessions tended to end higher than they started. Most online learning events are the opposite as people tend to sign-out when distraction inevitably sets in.”
The rapid-fire conversations were an opportunity to hear from a diverse range of young arts leaders – and also understand that there are many different and valid answers to challenging and complex questions – many of the questions chosen had no universal answer.
Juan Andrés Rojas Castillo, Executive Director of Filarmónica Joven de Colombia a project by Fundacion Bolívar Davivienda says that “we wanted to promote the idea of complex questions in the arts having multiple answers, rather than one-sided solutions. Words like “should” or “must” are often used when arts leaders talk to each other in the field, and this tendency towards group-think works against innovation. Instead, innovation is created by environments with a high tolerance for local experimentation, for a plurality of ideas, and an appetite for original, often bottom-up approaches. For this reason our goal of the series was to reinforce the existence of multi-sided ideas, diversity of thought, and multiplicity of answers.”
The format, run live on Zoom, also allowed for live polls throughout, where the very global audience were able to vote “yes” or “no” to each question being debated. This feature also allowed for interesting insight into where viewpoints differ. Each session was hosted by Janet Fischer, GLP graduate and Chief Executive of Live Music Now in the UK, and she found the range of questions throughout the series very engaging:
“There were so many great questions with strong multi-sided responses: Should be hero-led or a team-sport? Is inventive or experienced leadership more effective? Do paywalls around digital music content benefit the sector? Is music a universal language? These and many more topics sparked energic, high-paced debates with persuasive ideas presented on both sides of an issue. The experience led us to walk away from each session feeling more humble about our views on a given topic, but also more confident in not having to meet a perceived universal expectation on a given issue. The series revealed that there is essentially no universal expectation in the field on virtually anything, which was both fascinating and reassuring.”
The four sessions covered these topics:
“The Musician as Activist” – What role should policy opinion play in the performing arts?
Global Panel:
Elisa Vegas (World Economic Forum YGL | Venezuela)
Samuel Goldscheider (Harmonic Progression | UK & Czech Republic)
Bradley Powell (Resiliency Consultant | Jamaica & Canada)
Sandra Parra (Gran Encuentro de Chelists | Colombia)
“The Musician as Mentor” – What role should education and personal development in the performing arts?
Global Panel:
Sebastian Sojka (Music & Education Serial Entrepreneur | Poland)
Julian Montana (University Sergio Arboleda | Colombia)
Siu Yuin Pang (Singapore Youth Symphony Orchestra | Singapore)
Steven Liu (Juilliard School at Tianjin | China)
“The Musician as Innovator” – What role should innovation play in the performing arts?
Global Panel:
Debora Wanderley (São Paulo Symphony Orchestra | Brazil)
Julia Lagahuzère (Opera for Peace | France & UK)
Juan Andrés Rojas (Filarmónica Joven de Colombia | Colombia)
David Taylor (Arts Entrepreneur, Consultant & Commentator | UK)
“The Musician as Community Builder” – What role should the community play in the performing arts?
Global Panel:
Yoelvis Medero Lunar (Allegro Music School | Cuba and Belize)
Hannah Darroch (Christchurch Symphony Orchestra | New Zealand)
Esther Viñuela (Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía | Spain)
Laura Feeny (Pro Corda | United Kingdom)
The GLP’s Santiago Hernandez was in every session, running the live polls with the audience. He has some standout memories from the sessions:
“It was fascinating to see just how enormous the actual diversity of perspectives on any given topic is within the performing arts field. Our goal was to get people away from believing in a single “best practice” on a given topic, and instead to consider what would be the best practice for their own unique contexts. The Four40 format helped to share this insight in a way that felt fun and engaging, rather than preachy or pedantic.
It was inevitable to have discrepancies in the topics and answers, and we actually encouraged our speakers to share their views in a binary position. This was already something that stood out throughout the series, but it was also incredibly interesting to see how geographies marked a difference and a tendency in some topics. For example, how arts should serve a purpose from a Latin American perspective, but how from a European view it could be just “arts for art’s sake.”
What surprised me the most was the final question in our last session: “Must musicians be community builders?” Our speakers, coming from New Zealand, the UK, Spain and Cuba/Belize agreed that they should. BUT, it was our audience who did not completely agree with this view, stating that musicians do not necessarily have to play a role in this regard. That, for me at least, represents how different realities can approach the same ideas in different ways. Even from a different perspective than those who are leading artistic initiatives around the world! And that’s also the beauty of the format we presented, connecting our audiences and speakers in a new, open and different way!”
The next online series is the Season II of The Foundation Roundtable. Co-curated with Sistema New Brunswick, this series aims to demystify the practices of leading grant makers by allowing them to engage directly with social entrepreneurs and arts leaders from around the world in conversations that the typical grant process doesn’t normally allow to happen. The series is designed to help grant makers better understand the realities of practitioners, and vice versa. Find out more on our website
