I love the beginning of a new year: an opportunity to change...

Dear Arts Community,

A new year is a time of reflection, of dreaming and of growing these dreams, and not just dreaming them. That's the easy part...

"Of course it won't be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is" (Nick McFarlane 'Hunting The Killer Idea')

This is what our upcoming Change 4Change workshop is going to focus on next weekend...dreaming and change. Embracing our own unique leadership style...

And perhaps this stealthy approach is an antidote to what is happening in the world right now: if we model excellence in our own leadership style, commonsense tells us that things have the potential to change, from the ground up...we are witnessing bad political leadership models right now and we need to ensure that our young people know the difference between loving relational leadership and top down abrasive privileged and ignorant leadership models which we are seeing all over the world right now.

It can happen in our own backyard...it already is...we are growing an ethical relational leadership style, nurturing our peers, our mentees and the leaders of our respective worlds of focus. I witnessed this at the Metro Arts launch on Wednesday evening. I witness it at Queensland Theatre where Sam, Sue and Paige are making change by listening to the community. I witness it at La Boite where there is a strong diversity push, evidenced by the outrageous success of Prize Fighter at the Sydney Festival.

So, today, I plan on doing at least one act that demonstrates belief in the human race as loving and nurturing with the ability to change. You are welcome to join me.

Margi