“What if we could…?”

by Sue Elliott, General Manager & CEO, Calgary Opera

The balancing acts that arts leaders need to navigate on a daily, weekly, and seemingly perpetual basis these days can make it challenging to maintain perspective, adaptability, and resilience. The list of big leadership questions we contemplate can feel endless…Do or dream? Expand or focus? Change or double-down? Now or later? Why? Why not? And perhaps my all-time favourite question, “What if we could…?”

Enter the Rozsa Foundation, a learning-focused organization dedicated to fostering equitable leadership and management practices in the arts in Alberta and their inaugural, experimental Horizons of Arts Leadership Program, generously supported by RBC Foundation, Edmonton Arts Council, and Calgary Arts Development.

Here’s to the collaborative cohort of 15 arts leaders from across Alberta who convened between November 2025 and May 2026 for eight days of thought-full work with expert facilitators plus countless intra-session chats and meet-ups. And as a bonus, Horizons members had access to four Intersections electives from Rozsa’s Foundations of Arts Leadership program.

So…what did we explore over the past eight months? Provocations and practicalities. Complexity and clarity. Process and meaning. Structures that liberate and frameworks that guide. Productive tension and worthwhile cognitive dissonance. How to relate and how to communicate. When to act and when to reflect.

And, perhaps most importantly, finite capacity. What…? Limits…? As artist leaders, we’re dedicated (obsessively so!) to perpetual refinement, to do more with less, to dreaming big and delivering well, and to “you’re only as good as your next…” How’s all that working these days? Do I need a mirror? Survey says, “Yes.”

It’s worth listing the sessions and facilitators to give you a sense of the breadth and depth of the Horizons Program V1:

• Cultural Awareness in Leadership with Nikki Shaffeeullah

• Leading through Change: The People Side with Jeanne LeSage

• Ethical AI with Katrina Ingram

• Strategic Communications with Alex Middleton & Annalise Klingbeil

• Relational Leadership in Action with Shannon Litzenberger

• Shaping the Shift: Designing Change in the Arts with Jennifer DeDominicis, Brian Loevner, and Rozsa Foundation Executive Director Simon Mallett (plus Simon’s Lego collection)

One of the strengths of the program was the combination of its cohort structure and the diversity of artistic disciplines and organization sizes represented.

• Lead a performing arts, visual arts, visual culture, or craft organization? Develop and manage arts spaces? Run a museum? Provide arts leadership through funding and mentorship programming? You belong in Horizons.

• Have an annual budget that totals a little more than one hundred thousand dollars, many millions, or somewhere in between? You belong in Horizons.

• Want to think deeply about leading strategic shifts? Need to connect with kindred spirits to reckon with external forces and internal capacities? You belong in Horizons.

• Due for a mindset adjustment? Wishing for a moment or three to think about something other than what’s due in the next five minutes? You belong in Horizons.

With its varied curriculum, time to breathe and think, and prompts that will resonate for years to come, Horizons was time and effort seriously well spent. What I’ll cherish the most from my experience are the personal connections I made with like-minded folks who aspire to make our world a better place and our society a bit more civil every day.

-Sue

Applications for the 2026-27 cohort of Rozsa Horizons of Arts Leadership are now open until August 7. Please CLICK HERE to read more about this year's program.