Artistic Director as Nimble Problem Solver

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Artistic Director as Nimble Problem Solver

Written by Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven as part of her ‘What’s my #vision’ series.

April 8, 2016

As Artistic Director of WAM, I’m lucky enough to spend lots of my time in and around the creativity of making theatre.

Which means I’m also a continual problem solver.

Whether because of unavoidable sickness, budget constraints, changing schedules or other conflicts, the daily challenges we face result in lots of quick and facile problem solving in the WAM office because, as they say, the show must go on!

And, while I’ll admit that my first reaction at having to solve yet another problem is often to want to tear my hair out, cry, chuck it all in and become a hermit somehow – I’m incredibly delighted that now, seven years in, when these situations arise, it only takes me about 5 minutes to switch into problem solving mode! Well, ok maybe 10….

Last year my personal goal was increased resilience. Dealing with all of these continual urgent challenges has certainly helped me achieve that goal. I’m not sure what it’s doing for my nervous system, but my resilience is doing great.

I should also say that sometimes I just have to give in to feeling upset about it for a few minutes. Because when someone else’s life changes and that means they can no longer do what they were hoping to for WAM, that has lots of consequences for us. And yes – those can be tough to deal with on our end.

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BUT – the team and I are becoming amazing at turning lemons into lemonade and we work hard to do it with a laugh and a smile.

Because – we remain eternally grateful for ANYTHING anyone wants to do to help WAM succeed. No one HAS to help WAM. They reach out because they WANT to. And that’s AMAZING.

I know we have a fast growing supportive community who will be there to help when they can.

And that’s what it’s about at the end of the day – the long game and our ability to create opportunity for women and girls into the future.

Those many opportunities we are creating are a direct result of the incredible relationships we are building with those who believe in our #vision.

Thank you for being one of those relationships. We look forward to continuing to build WAM with you into the future!