Date/Time
Date(s) - February 12, 2020
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Location
University Center for the Arts

Categories No Categories

Arts Management Guest Lecture

Variations on a team: Music, Inspiration, and Organization

How to go from a touring rock and roll band to an arts leadership position in 147 easy steps.

Indeed, it’s a long way to the top, if you want to rock and roll. It’s also been a long way to the top if you want to manage an arts organization. Jesse Elliot has never been to the top of either of these worlds, but he promises to let you know if he ever gets there. In the meantime, Elliot will share working and middle-class insights on the commonalities and differences between running full-time touring bands, scrappy entrepreneurial start-ups, and arts organization such as the Music District. The basic elements cut across categories: get great people, create real meaning, try to make whatever difference you believe in, and figure the most strategic ways to tie all these things together. This module will (halfheartedly!) feature evergreen buzzwords such as “vision”, innovation”, “leadership”, “Teamwork”, “Diversity”, “elbow grease”, and “Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem”.

Jesse Elliot, Director of the Music District, is a lifelong champion of collaborative creative efforts, social entrepreneurship, and the power of music and storytelling. He is the founder and songwriter  of two rock and roll bands, These United States and Ark Life, who have released 6 albums and performed live 1.200 times in the last decade.

The Music District brings together the arts, business, technology, and community of one of humanity’s longest-standing sources of inspiration, communication, and collaboration. With his company Range Music Ecosystems, Elliot and his co-founder Dr. Bryce Merrill researched and wrote the music strategies for the city of Denver and the State of Colorado, and brought together international thinkers on music and community for the city of Austin, the Biennial of the Americas, and the Americas, and more.

The event is in the University Center for the Arts room 114