Leading arts organizations: traditional styles or different realities?

Despite the large amount of research into leadership available in academic journals, little relates to the roles leaders play in arts organizations, particularly the many small arts organizations which provide major contributions to arts performance, exhibition and education in Australia today. This paper explores leadership in small arts organizations, using in-depth interviews with four executives to discover who leads these organizations, and what style of leadership is considered appropriate. Our findings suggest that these organizations are usually led by more than one person with leadership often shared between an artistic director and an arts administrator. We also found that the dominant leadership style in these organizations appears to be transformational.