Why is a theatre company running a leadership academy?

The rhythm of Slung Low’s work is changing. They have adapted their working model to reflect their circumstances and ambitions, creating a new Leadership Academy and structuring their year around its biannual cohorts. This emerged for several reasons. In 2023, they reached the end of a significant chapter in their history, moving from The Holbeck, Britain’s Oldest Working Men’s Club which they ran from 2018, into new premises and developing a new outdoor space. 

They also became a team of three (Executive Producer Joanna Resnick, Technical Director Matt Angove and Artistic Director Alan Lane) which increased their flexibility and nimbleness but stretched them too thinly at times. So, they made a strategic decision to remain a smaller team and restructure their work accordingly.

Between late 2022 and early 2024, I observed the planning and implementation of the Leadership Academy and spoke to most participants from the inaugural cohorts. The idea emerged from Slung Low’s Cultural Community College, a termly programme of cultural activity for adults, created for the people of Holbeck, with classes offered on a Pay What You Decide basis. 

The state of cultural capital

The project was designed to encourage participants to feel less like customers and more like citizens and enabled Slung Low to explore the state of cultural capital in their local area. The team was inspired when college students led a class of peers with the hope of inspiring others to step forward into civic leadership roles. 

All the Slung Low team had been involved in delivering teaching and mentoring activities and felt they had a lot to offer using their theatre-making techniques and values to support the development of cultural leadership in their local community. 

The academy has two strands; one for community participants – as all Slung Low’s work strives to represent the locality of Holbeck and Beeston, and wider city of Leeds – and another for arts leaders.

Both have similar content, including expert guest speakers and an exploration of types and functions of leadership from inside and outside the arts. The arts leaders’ strand is a week-long residential with a focus on adventure training and outdoor activities. The community strand is a twelve-week programme of evening classes, with a weekend residential. 

Creating the space for reflection

Community participants were motivated to take part by factors such as wanting to run a business, lead a community event, or simply build confidence. Not only was the programme free but Slung Low recognised the need to remove barriers and facilitate participation, supporting access and helping with childcare. 

One participant noted that being asked “How can we help you to take part?” was very valuable, “especially for someone in a minority group”. The community participants also valued the diversity of cultures and backgrounds in the cohort and learned from each other’s experiences. 

It required a leap of faith to take part as no detailed information was shared beforehand on what to expect. Instead, participants were asked to commit to the process and trust its rhythm – something which people valued on reflection. Both strands involved a challenging outdoor trek which some would have feared or opted out of had they known in advance. Everyone felt proud to have completed it.

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Photo: Slung Low

Participants cherished the way they were hosted, and the space created to consider leadership, whether currently in a leadership position or not. One remarked that they are often so busy ‘doing’ that they don’t get a chance to think about how they do things or to step out of everyday rhythms to think about how they might approach things differently. 

Arts leaders spoke of being “stuck in delivery”, especially freelancers who move from project to project and often lack the opportunity for personal development. The conversations and reflections between scheduled activities were also valuable – these only happen if space is created for people to share these moments. 

Values-based leadership

Slung Low’s values – shared through the Leadership Academy – were not stated but lived and demonstrated in attitudes and behaviours such as how to “be a good person in leadership”, rather than simply “making it to the top”. 

An arts leader observed that taking on a leadership role can mean moving away from the art form – where your skills and confidence lie – into new fields such as managing people and resources, so establishing your values is key to your development.

Participants from both cohorts went home thinking about their values. One said: “We can all be better leaders, whether we have a leadership role or not.” And another said that, to be a leader you don’t need to be an expert in all things: “You might be a great public speaker but can’t read a map”. 

A youth worker participant spoke of wanting to pass the learning to help young people develop their own leadership skills, showing how the learning from the programme would be shared more widely across the community. 

Leadership as a team sport

Both strands explored the value of collaborative working, with participants responding positively: “Everyone has a place, there is always a way, and a leader sees that.” Others spoke of leadership meaning creating a space for others to do their job well: “I can be a leader on top of all the vulnerabilities I have… if people value me and appreciate me, as Slung Low and the other participants did.” 

It is clear to see the benefits for the people involved, and the Leadership Academy is an example of the role publicly funded arts organisations can play in the local community. In the next iteration, the Slung Low team will need to continue to explore how to accommodate different expectations and experiences of leadership.

Slung Low have found a working model which enables them to explore the possibilities of their civic role and to create a project which shares their values and contributes to a much-needed conversation on the practice of values-based cultural leadership.

Dr Rachel Perry is a Lecturer in Arts Management at Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts at Lancaster University.
 lancaster.ac.uk/lica/ | slunglow.org/
@LancasterUni | @SlungLow