Creative Leadership – The Aesthetics of Administration
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 4:30pm Eastern / 3:30pm Central / 2:30pm Mountain / 1:30pm Pacific in the United States
Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at 8am Australian Central Daylight Time
As one follow-up to the January 15 discussion about creative practice as research: a presentation offering transferable techniques for making institutional infrastructures visible as designed objects rather than given conditions.
What if the budget spreadsheet is a drawing? The tenure policy a score? The committee meeting a durational performance no one applied to stage?
This presentation treats administrative systems (budgets, policies, scheduling grids, assessment protocols) as cultural forms that encode inherited theories about how knowledge gets made, who collaborates with whom, and what counts as authorship. Rather than accepting these structures as neutral background or inevitable constraint, Bureaucratic Realism proposes that they are material: legible, visualizable, and available for rework through creative methods.
Drawing on his parallel practice as academic administrator and artist, Troy Richards, Dean, School of Art and Design, Fashion Institute of Technology will present visual works derived from actual institutional documents — org charts rendered as kinship diagrams; approval workflows mapped as circulation patterns; a catalogue raisonné of redacted work emails presented in book form. These are not illustrations of bureaucracy but investigations into its aesthetic assumptions.
The session will offer attendees a transferable method: techniques for making their own institutional infrastructures visible as designed objects rather than given conditions. For faculty, this opens questions about how administrative forms shape research and pedagogy. For academic leaders, it reframes operational work as a site of creative agency rather than its opposite. Bureaucratic Realism does not promise escape from institutional constraint. It asks what becomes possible when we stop treating the meeting agenda as dead time and start treating it as composition.
Members will be encouraged to participate in the discussion. Registration for this discussion is free for members and colleagues within their arts academic units. Register here.
Communications Professionals Online Discussions
All discussions will be hosted online the third Thursdays of January, February, March, and April.
Dates: January 15, February 19, March 19, April 16
Time: 1:00 Eastern / 12:00 Central / 11:00 Mountain / 10:00 Pacific. Online programs are 60 minutes.
Discussions may include topics such as Marketing the Arts in a Changing Technological Environment, The Increasing Importance of Authentic Branding, How Generative AI is Shaping Marketing Communications, User Generated Content to Build Trust and Engagement, Short Form Video Content, Data-Driven Marketing Strategies in Higher Ed and other topics to be determined with member input. Invitations for each meeting will be sent. Registration is free for members of each affinity group or $80 per session for non-members. Join this affinity group now.
Advancement Officers Online Discussions
All discussions will be hosted online the last Tuesdays of January, February, March and April.
Dates: January 27, February 24, March 31, April 28
Time: 4:00 Eastern / 3:00 Central / 2:00 Mountain / 1:00 Pacific. Online programs are 60 minutes.
Discussions may include topics such as Gift Planning, Capital Campaign Success Stories, Building Team Culture, and other topics to be determined with member input. Invitations for each meeting will be sent. Registration is free for members of each affinity group or $80 per session for non-members. Join this affinity group now.
Gallery & Museum Directors and Curators Online Discussions
All discussions will be hosted online the third Thursdays of January, February, March and April.
Dates: January 15 January 14, February 19, March 19, April 16 (Please note the January date change)
Time: 4:00 Eastern / 3:00 Central / 2:00 Mountain / 1:00 Pacific. Online programs are 60 minutes.
Discussions may include topics such as One-Staff Wonders: Efficiencies that Have Led to Success, Best Practices: Processes and Procedures, Working with Faculty in Meeting Curricular Needs, Case Studies: Student Workers and Programs, Creating Safe Spaces for Rest and other topics to be determined with member input. Invitations for each meeting will be sent. Registration is free for members of each affinity group or $80 per session for non-members. Join this affinity group now.
62nd Annual ConferenceTuesday, October 6 - Thursday, October 8, 2026
Detroit, Michigan
A printable Save the Date flyer can be found here.
About Us
The International Council for Arts Deans (ICfAD), a global alliance of deans, directors, chairs, and other arts executives, provides leadership opportunities for its members and advocates for the essential role of the arts in higher education. Since its founding in 1964, ICfAD has remained dedicated to mentoring emerging leaders and expanding its international community of arts administrators.
The ICfAD Board of Directors, guided by this mission, affirms that the arts and creative industries have a responsibility to cultivate learning and creative environments that welcome the full breadth of human experience. Through practice, performance, exhibition, and scholarship, we strive to model a professional culture where access, respect, and belonging are fundamental and where every individual is empowered to contribute authentically and meaningfully.
We believe that arts education should reflect a spectrum of perspectives and experiences, fostering open exchange and shared growth among students, faculty, staff, and leaders across our institutions. As a community, we commit to advancing environments that honor differences, nurture dialogue, promote civil discourse and strengthen our collective capacity to imagine and realize a more connected, equitable, and humane world.
ICfAD acknowledges the histories, cultural contexts, and institutional structures that shape our present. We recognize that arts executives hold both the privilege and the responsibility to lead positive transformation in education and society through the arts. Therefore, ICfAD pledges to celebrate the range of creative and scholarly contributions our members bring to the global arts landscape, to facilitate learning and action that promote inclusive and responsible leadership, to support programs and resources that help our members engage thoughtfully with contemporary challenges, and to continue evolving as an organization that reflects and champions the communities we serve today and into the future.
