Jai McClendon Jones is the visionary and government inventive director of Atlanta’s Useful resource for Leisure & Arts (AREA). As an entrepreneur and philanthropist, ]she prides herself in bringing out the arrogance of youth by her inventive improvement initiatives whereas spreading the enjoyment of leisure for adults.
Jones described how she helps younger folks develop management abilities at AREA.
How does dance influence a youngster’s confidence?
I at all times say it’s extra than simply dance. Once you faucet into the divine presents that all of us have, you need to nurture, mould and form them for the nice. They’ll turn into an exquisite harvest of prospects. Simply as an individual is being nurtured, molded and formed, it’s the similar course of for a younger dancer. Collectively, it builds a limitless complete individual. I’m into making complete folks. Confidence is only one attribute developed with this course of, and being a purveyor of this transformative course of with youth by the humanities is my divine present.
What’s your strategy to growing expertise and management?
“The nice to nice leaders by no means wished to turn out to be larger-than-life heroes. They by no means aspired to be placed on a pedestal or turn out to be unreachable icons. They had been seemingly atypical folks quietly producing extraordinary outcomes,” James C. Collins stated. Because the quote states, I’m not an individual that believes I’m larger than anybody.
I’m a collaborative servant chief. I like for my group to really feel concerned and I hearken to them. I lead by instance and permit everybody to flourish of their respective roles inside AREA. I’m not a micromanager however I’m hands-on. It is because as a dance educator first, you need to have a coronary heart of selflessness, endurance, and want to really make another person higher. It’s been superb to develop and construct key group members from inside AREA.
What’s your imaginative and prescient for AREA?
AREA … is just not solely an award-winning multi-disciplinary arts group however an surroundings that fosters development, studying and expression within the performing arts. [It’s] an concept that stemmed from the wedding of the humanities and enterprise at its greatest. I cultivated AREA as a way for giving again and creating an area for artists to domesticate and develop of their craft, and the place the group as an entire might be part of the method. The AREA model is a mirrored image of me. It’s vibrant, a change agent, revolutionary, contemporary, high-quality, inclusive and limitless. Our model tagline is, “My AREA Has No Limits,” and we embody all of that.
