The next ELIA leadership Symposium will take place from 2-4 December 2009 in Zürich, Switzerland. We will update you on the event as it takes shape.

If you have questions please contact .



Leadership Symposium
4-7 December 2007
Hong Kong, China

ELIA has asked observer Tom Brown to write a report on the key issues that have come out of the Leadership Symposium held in Hong Kong. Please click here to download (pdf):
REFLECTIONS on building cultural software

ELIA and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts look back on a successful Leadership Symposium 2007.

The aims of this event were to engage senior level managers and decision-makers in key themes and current debates in cultural management and leadership in arts education, and to confront issues in ways that promote new perspectives, solutions and strategic alliances. Previous ELIA Leadership Symposia have been held in Los Angeles (2003) and London (2005).

The programme combined keynote presentations and facilitated group sessions with cultural events highlighting all that Hong Kong has to offer. 97 delegates participated, representing 25 different countries. Participants were strategic decision-makers and leaders from a representative set of diverse arts and design institutions throughout the world, and collectively demonstrated a range of professional, cultural and institutional backgrounds, active engagement in key issues and debates affecting higher arts education and cultural management, and a willingness to contribute to and lead debates, share experience and practices and carry forward initiatives that emerged from the symposium.

If you require additional information concerning this symposium or other ones organised in the past please contact .



Following the Leadership Symposium 2005 in London, ELIA asked facilitator François Matarasso to write a paper outlining the themes explored in the London event with a view toward the upcoming Leadership Symposium 2007 in Hong Kong.

The result, reflections on the challenges facing arts institutions , elucidates the key issues in which arts institutes are currently engaged as well as the issues on the social, political, and educational horizon for higher arts education.

The paper serves both as a summation of the current state of affairs in higher arts education and as a guide to the vital topics which leaders in the arts are addressing now and in the future.

Download it here