Past Symposia

Since 2008, the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium has welcomed aspiring and current arts professionals to Washington, DC, to hear leaders in the field speak about pressing issues, opportunities, and trends. Attendees leave inspired to advocate for the arts and to bring what they have learned back to organizations across the country. Take a look at what happened at past symposia.

EALS 2024: Arts and...
Keynote: Dante' Pope, artist, educator, and advocate

Art is the way we perceive our world, and it lives in collaboration with our everyday lives. It encompasses our emotions, decisions, questions, and perceptions. "Arts and..." pulled back the curtain on the interdisciplinary nature of the arts. In an age of diminishing arts recognition, the versatility of the arts deserves to be explored and celebrated.

EALS 2023: Focus Forward
Keynote: Karen Ann Daniels, Director of Programming and Artistic Director, Folger Theatre

EALS 2022: Reopen and Revitalize
Keynote conversation: Reginald R. Douglas (Artistic Director, Mosaic Theater Company) with Andrew Taylor (Professor, Arts Management Program at American University)

After two years of virtual programming, EALS gathered again at the Katzen Arts Center for a day of panels, roundtable discussions, and keynote conversation. As arts leaders were called to resist a return to the status quo, the symposium asked how we open our doors to equitable funding, new models of leadership, innovative approaches, and the communities and artists who have been marginalized. Sessions included changing models in leadership, climate change and the arts, arts education and arts management, creating a humane and inclusive theater industry, trends in grantwriting, resume reviews, and a resources roundtable.

EALS 2021: The Arts Management Pivot, Fostering Resiliency in the Arts
A fully virtual symposium with panel sessions on community engagement, music education, and building resilience across the sector.

EALS 2020
Keynote: Marc Bamuthi Joseph (Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact, the Kennedy Center)
Special address: Robert L. Lynch, Americans for the Arts

EALS 2019: Coming UP
Keynote: Melissa Chiu, Director, Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Special address: Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts

Panel sessions: the state of board diversity; museums and digital strategy; achieving political relevance without alienating stakeholders; innovative technology for arts accessibility; the evolution of philanthropy in nonprofit arts organizations; and an intersectionality workshop with Americans for the Arts.

EALS 2018: Art Now
Keynotes: Seema Sueko (Deputy Artistic Director, Arena Stage) and Robert L. Lynch (President and CEO, Americans for the Arts)

Sessions explored the role of museums, STEM learning and the workforce, building the leadership pipeline, careers in the arts, relationship building in development, and more.

EALS 2017
Keynotes: Jacqueline E. Lawton (playwright) and Robert L. Lynch (Americans for the Arts)

EALS 2016: + ART
Keynotes: Deborah F. Rutter (President, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) and Megan Crigger (Director of Creative Services, City of Kansas City, MO)

EALS 2015: Art Redefined
Keynotes: Dr. Jane Chu (National Endowment for the Arts) and Howard Herring (New World Symphony)

EALS 2014: Creatively Making Our Place
Keynotes: Francesca Zambello (Washington National Opera and Glimmerglass Opera), Russell Willis Taylor (National Arts Strategies), and Jamie Bennett (ArtPlace America)

EALS 2013: Looking to the Horizon
Keynotes: Karen Brooks Hopkins (BAM) and Aaron Dworkin (Sphinx Organization)

EALS 2012
Keynotes: Chad Bauman (Arena Stage and Milwaukee Rep) and Adrian Ellis (AEA Consulting)

EALS 2011
Keynote: Rachel Goslins (President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities)

EALS 2010
Keynote: Ben Cameron (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and TCG)

EALS 2009
Keynote: Bob Lynch (Americans for the Arts)

EALS 2008: The First Symposium
Keynote: Sandra Gibson (Association of Performing Arts Presenters)

The first symposium, proposed by Michelle Grove as a capstone project, brought emerging leaders together to bond as a national community and set the pattern for every EALS since.