Rozsa Foundation's New Training Program Supports Arts Leaders in Looking to a New Horizon

The Rozsa Foundation proudly introduces Rozsa Horizons of Arts Leadership - an innovative training program designed to empower current and aspiring executive leaders in Alberta’s vibrant arts community.

Arts leaders stand at a pivotal moment. While the terrain they navigate grows more complex - shaped by shifting cultural values, tightening financial realities, and the deep human impact of burnout - this moment also invites courage, innovation, and collective renewal.

Recognizing both the urgency and opportunity, the Rozsa Foundation posed the vital question: “What do arts leaders in Alberta need most right now?” The answers we heard helped to shape Rozsa Horizons of Arts Leadership. Designed to empower, connect, and reimagine what leadership in the arts can look like, this program holds space for creative resilience, transformational thinking, and bold steps toward a thriving future for the arts in Alberta.

"This program is the culmination of two years of rich dialogue and collaboration with arts sector leaders across the country”

Simon Mallett, Executive Director

"This program is the culmination of two years of rich dialogue and collaboration with arts sector leaders across the country, exploring the essential skills arts leaders need to thrive today and into the future,” notes Simon Mallett, Rozsa Foundation Executive Director. “We’re proud of the thoughtful, forward-looking curriculum we’ve created and energized by the incredible national faculty who will come together to bring it to life."

Rozsa Horizons of Arts Leadership is a chance to explore the current leadership terrain and uncover strategies for sustainable, values-driven change in cohort with other arts leaders. Framed by training in cultural and contextual awareness, the program will also examine people-centred HR, ethical approaches to AI, strategic and crisis communications, relational leadership through embodied practice, and processes to instigate meaningful organizational change. Leaders will leave with tools and practical resources to navigate complexity with confidence, supporting care, innovation, and mindful risk-taking within their organizations.

"Our hope is that we are a conduit for peer exchange and mindful organizational innovation.”

Samantha MacDonald, Director of Training

“Having been an arts leader for over thirty years, I am so aware of the isolation that often comes with the role,” says Samantha MacDonald, Director of Training. “That has been compounded by the sheer weight of the challenges leaders face and the complex navigations they must undertake daily. Our hope with the Horizons program is that we are offering leaders tools to support themselves, their organizations, and their communities through necessary change - that we are a conduit for peer exchange and mindful organizational innovation.”

Rozsa Horizons of Arts Leadership is a cohort-based, in-person program that will run from November 2025 to May 2026 in Calgary. Participants from outside of Calgary will be reimbursed for travel costs and provided local accommodation as necessary. More information can be found at www.rozsafoundation.com/horizons.

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