VPA Dean Michael Tick to Serve as International Council of Fine Arts Deans Leadership Development Mentor
Dean Michael S. Tick of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has been selected to serve as a mentor for the 2022 Leadership Development Team of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD) beginning in September.
Mentors participate in a 13-week series of online sessions that focus on supporting new deans and nurturing prospective future deans. The sessions integrate case studies and theories of values-based leadership for leading arts organizations during these challenging times. Mentors serve as session leaders and offer one-on-one structured conversations, allowing participants to explore topics ranging from personal mission statements and leadership assessment to diversity and inclusion, planning, resource acquisition and management, personnel matters, governance dynamics and career planning.
“The Leadership Development Workshop is the only leadership program in the country fully dedicated to arts and design professionals in higher education,” notes Tick, who has participated since the workshop’s inception three years ago and recently served two terms on ICFAD’s board of directors. He is also a longtime participant of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Leadership Institute, the precursor to the ICFAD program.
ICFAD is a multinational alliance of executive academic visual and performing arts, design and media administrators representing institutions of higher education. Beyond being the provider of professional development, ICFAD facilitates forums for the exchange of ideas, information and opportunities for presidents, provosts, deans, associate deans, assistant deans, directors, chairs and fundraising professionals in the arts and design.
Tick became dean of VPA in June 2016 after serving six years as dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky and 11 years as chair of the Department of Theatre at Louisiana State University. Under his leadership, VPA established the Office of Academic and Career Advising to support expanded services for students, including additional professional academic advisors and career coaches. He assisted in developing the Department of Creative Arts Therapy, which offers a master of science degree in art therapy. In 2021, he expanded VPA’s footprint in Los Angeles by hiring the college’s founding visual and performing arts program director. He also oversaw the creation of VPA’s first facilities master plan and worked with the Office of Advancement and External Affairs to close one the of largest gifts in the University’s history.
