Speaking of leadership fellowships, Colin and I are approaching the final weekend of the Creative Community Leadership Institute, a fellowship program for engaged artists and community developers that we’ve been taking part in for the past few months. It’s been an amazing experience, both in terms of the ideas we’ve been introduced to, and the people we’ve been fortunate to meet and learn with. 

Last night I sat down to finish the final set of our readings, which included an excerpt from this book edited by one of CCLI’s faculty, Bill Cleveland, and Patricia Shifferd. This quote from the introduction really resonated, since it seems to describe the qualities that we aspire to, as well as those I think of as endemic to so many of our friends, close collaborators and Works Progress program regulars:

The growth of a sustainable culture will require persons who are skilled in problem-solving, critical analysis, holistic and systematic thinking, and who have the ability to suspend judgement while seeking solutions. These cultivators of the new world must also be adaptive, able to work co-operatively with others, and possess personal balance and internal grace. They must be able to identify with a particular place, a region, and to help preserve the unique cultural traditions and natural landscape of that place; without retreating to parochialism. They must not allow their communities to become everyplace that is no place. They must be empowered to create economic and political institutions which are respectful of each other and of nature. The task, in short, is one that will require a strong dose of the most powerful of human capacities - our creativity.