This is the fifth post in Generator’s ‘Governance Reimaginings’ blog series. You can find all posts in the series here, and everything we’ve published related to boards here. In this post, dance artist and former Co-Artistic Director of Toronto Dance Love-In, Shelby Wright, offers a personal response to a Governance Reimaginings session led by Cynthia Lickers-Sage, Executive Director of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance (IPAA). This post was co-written by Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, artist and board member with Generator.
What did I picture Board Governance to be when I first joined the Governance Reimaginings project with Generator? I think I imagined turning our attention to a rule book covered in dust, but a rule book nonetheless; information that I didn’t have experience with, and therefore couldn’t yet have an opinion on. I was without an entry point. But, as I have learned through this project, board governance is in fact just what you make it, and what it needs to be. Governance is, in many ways, a record of the relationships formed and intentions created within a group of individuals who share a common goal: to manage and maintain the health of an organization.
Cynthia Lickers-Sage joined the folks participating in the Governance Reimaginings project to talk about her extensive and invaluable experience in the field, particularly in her role as the Executive Director with the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance (IPAA). It was wintertime, and we were meeting on Zoom.
In our session with Cynthia, she talked with us about the ways that she, and IPAA before she arrived, are reclaiming board governance through a linguistic and cultural grounding in Indigenous practice and ways of working. At IPAA they name the individuals who fulfill the function of a board, The Grand Council. Cynthia described a way of organizing that is holistic in structure, a way of interacting that is unwritten and collaborative; a beautiful contrast to the image of a dusty rule book.
Photo provided by Shelby Wright
One of the first things she talked about was that she didn’t practice a hierarchy, “but rather, a…” she searched for a word, and then, laughing she said, “linearchy!”. Sharing this in-the-moment creative languaging was a perfect exercise in governance reimagining. Linearchy captured my imagination: is she describing lineage? Or a line drawing? I sat there thinking of the various possible sketches and line drawings I came up with when, in a previous Governance session, we were asked to draw what we thought board governance looked like. What emerged from my page were lines that continued to the outer reaches of the page in all directions. A depiction of constant growth but connected to some centrifugal force, a cycle or a spiral, a flowering center. Or possibly the shape of an ear. Could it be that board governance is actually the traces of our work together, the various sketches, ideas drawn up, a series of images from dialogue and collective thoughts?
“We do have a structure but it’s more in a circle format,” Cynthia said in describing the governance practice at IPAA. For them, the circle is both philosophy and function. The shape of a circle provides endless continuity, one thing turning into another, motion. An open and dynamic shape that generates many iterations from the place of beginning; there’s no distinct starting place, and infinite entry points. Everyone joining an IPAA Grand Council circle is considered equal to others, and has the opportunity to contribute and voice their ideas. It also guides procedure: when an idea or issue is brought forward to the Grand Council, discussion always goes around the circle with each member of the circle given space to speak if they are moved to. In fact, at the bottom of all their meeting minutes, they have a diagram of the circle, and the names of who sat where. When everyone has spoken on the matter, a collective decision is made in an interconnected way. Cynthia shrugs her shoulders and says it’s a way of working that “was comfortable with my DNA, I don’t know any other way to put that.”
This comment gave me pause. What are the ways of working that are compatible with my own life experience? Most boards use the colonial standard structure of “Robert’s Rules of Order”, where a director leads the meeting, motions are made, and decisions are made by majority rule voting. Before having any board experience, I didn’t know who Robert was and what his rules were, and upon review I can definitely say it is nothing to inspire what is needed in my own practice of meeting, gathering, discussing. What is my grounding within dance, within creative exploration in rehearsal halls, that can point me to a way of working with governance? I am familiar with coming to complex decisions in collaborative group dynamics - that is my whole world as a dance artist.
So why have I been undermining my own experience and competence as soon as I step into the context of board governance?
Moments for the Neighbouring Room, photo provided by Shelby Wright
Cynthia went on to describe their AGM which uses open space facilitation to gather ideas and collect talking points; a space to share stories, to paddle down the river, spontaneously dancing, feasting together, eating words, eating thoughts, visioning the future. A space to become family. Space is made for organizational conversations to take place in many forms, and that arise, free form, in the moment. “Why not,” she said. She reminded us that we are adults, we are not in school, we can show up and be receptive to our own thoughts and share them with others and organize accordingly. Language and terminology are important and sometimes need to be insisted upon, as Cynthia continues to do with IPAA. If the funders and stakeholders do not understand, it is our responsibility to teach them, to lead them. “I’ve got a lot of strength in my shoulders now to push back”, Cynthia said. To make her point, she tells us that granting agencies didn’t always give the option to apply for funding as an artist collective. That was something artists had to advocate for. To do something different, one must simply do something different.
This was a refreshing reminder, and for me, it allowed me to visualize throwing that dusty imagined rulebook, those stale “Rules”, right into the garbage.
“Respect what is needed,” Cynthia pointedly stated. Start at the beginning, which could be anywhere, and keep in mind that every journey starts with a step. This will be a work in progress, but that’s a good thing. Board Governance should be a living document, absorbing the knowledge brought forward with new members, quivering with ongoing dialogue, rippling outward when the dial finally moves forward. The performing arts sector is at the beginning of possibility, a paradigm shift, of shaping the foundations of support. That is what Governance is meant to do.
Shelby Wright at Toronto Biennial, photo by Nick Rose
Since our session, I have continued to ask myself: what do I know in my life as an artist that can shape the way I practice Governance? What are the words, shapes, and ways of collaborating that I can use to reimagine Governance? As artists we practice being courageous enough to trust ourselves, our own ways-of-knowing, in knowing what is needed. The way forward is written in our own bodies.
Governance Reimaginings asks how we can deconstruct inherited governance structures to create systems of accountability and community care that support, and are aligned with, the values of the organizations and individuals they serve. Structured as a knowledge exchange between Generator, Shakespeare in the Ruff, and the Toronto Dance Community Love-in, Governance Reimaginings took place between April-December 2021 and featured a series of instigations by invited guest speakers. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Chalmers Family Fund, administered by the Ontario Arts Council, for this project.
Shelby Wright is a Toronto-based dance artist, choreographer and producer. In her work, Wright celebrates the unique genre of dance as a means of relationship building through collaboration, and critical experimentation in scene and score building. Wright has received training from Canada’s National Ballet School (Toronto), École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, The Limón Institute (New York), and holds a BA from the University of Toronto in Cinema Studies and History. She has performed professionally in New York, Toronto, Montréal, Halifax, Winnipeg and Vancouver, with artists Kahtryn Alter, Susan Wolf, Jamee Valin, Robert Kingsbury and Lauren Runions. Since 2015, Wright has worked with Toronto visual artist Katie Lyle on a collaborative performance practice combining their artistic backgrounds in dance and visual art. Selected presentations of their co-authored work include: the Toronto Biennale (2019), SummerWorks Festival (2018), and the Canadian Art Foundation (2017).
Shelby Wright