Annual Arts Conference Keynote

Sarah Davis invited me to Johnson City, Tennessee 25 years ago seeking to learn from my experience creating Arts Corps, the non-profit arts organization I founded in 2000 and led as Executive Director for 8 years.  She asked me to be the keynote for their annual arts conference and invited me back again a few years later.  Catalyzed by Arts Corps’ success and my encouragement, Sarah launched a similar program in Johnson City.    

“For 14 years, I’ve seen Lisa in numerous professional situations—motivational speaking, retreat facilitation, community visioning, and leading. She is a deep listener and sows seeds for change that resonate long after she has left the room. Witnessing participants reconnect with their own creative rocket fuel is something to behold! Her authentic spirit leads us to new places where we can tap into our full potentials and see the vision for a world healed and enlivened by collaboration and creativity. Lisa IS the rocket fuel that everyone needs.”

–Sarah Davis, Board Member, Going Elemental

City of Melbourne

In 2008 Kim Dunphy from the City of Melbourne’s Cultural Authority organized a speaking tour for me around the state of Victoria on the value of arts in education.  I had just left Arts Corps and had many stories to share about what made Arts Corps so successful and how we sustained this innate but often untapped learning for young people over time.  

“Lisa's keynote speeches for a series of conferences across Victoria, Australia, in 2008, were incredibly inspiring and motivating.  Her messages about creativity and powerful learning, delivered with warmth and passion, provided an excellent starting point for our events that sought to encourage creative connected communities. Our delegates were unanimous in their positive feedback about her.”  

--Kim Dunphy, Conference Director, Cultural Development Network, Melbourne, Australia

Invest in Schools Not Prisons

In 2008 Seattle was on the verge of closing many local public schools and at the same time considering building a new prison.  I knew that the State of Washington planned for prison construction based on 4th grade reading scores, so we are essentially planning for failure.  I joined a campaign to put the decision to build a jail on the ballot and joined together with several activist folks including Tim Harris of the local paper Real Change.  We held a fundraising breakfast for the campaign and they gave me a chance to speak on the choices in front of us as a community.  I was definitely on fire for change.  That year I also wrote an op-ed which gave me yet another chance to communicate the inequities of our decision to plan for failure rather than invest in success up front.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdgcLKTAJE

Internal & External Coherence

Andrea Hiott, the creator of the podcast  Love and Philosophy, interviewed me early on. It was one of the most personal conversations I’ve ever had publicly. It is a deep dive into what has shaped me and how it’s formed my view of the world and my ‘waymaking’ within it.

Listen to the interview here:

https://lovephilosophy.substack.com/p/internal-and-external-coherence-with-306?r=esa7d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true