By Diane Johnson
Leadership training and support has arrived for an industry that has been bereft of development opportunities for its future leaders. International consultancy TRG Arts announces the launch of Talent Lab, an incubator where emerging arts administrators can be heard, engage in daring dialogue, and grow professionally with a 21st century mindset. Talent Lab arrives at a pivotal time for the creative sector as it recovers from the pandemic. 2019 saw a thriving arts industry post record numbers in contributions to U.S. GDP, but shuttered venues and the expense of high turnover in the following two years wrecked the momentum of the field. Talent Lab offers arts organizations an affordable means of investing in young professionals at a time when developing and retaining high-quality employees is critical.
TRG Arts’ commitment to professional development, for client organizations as well as internally, is led 
by Keri Mesropov, TRG Arts’ Chief Talent Officer.
“I’m beyond thrilled to lead this talent initiative that ends the status quo for what used to pass for professional development of arts and culture employees,” Mesropov said. “If we together are to ensure the sustainability of this sector, we all must evolve as professionals and challenge the mindset of constant scarcity of both money and time. It is just as valuable to spend resources training arts administrators as it is to train dancers, musicians, or actors.”
Along with a passion for developing young talent, Mesropov has a sterling tenure with TRG Arts, extensive industry experience, and association as a Professional-in-Residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
In the initial rollout of services, Talent Lab is offering a series of workshops at $89 per attendee on personal development topics such as emotional intelligence, effective feedback, learning agility, and strengths-based leadership as well as technical frameworks like budgeting revenue targets with precision. The workshops are designed for mid-level managers and their teams to learn professional skills and industry best practices that they can take back to their organizations and put into action.
Talent Lab is hitting the market in an innovative way that matches the unique nature of the offering. Mesropov will be engaging young professionals on social media outlets like TikTok and Instagram to expand the reach and interest in the workshops and the value they present. In the coming months, the arts field will also be invited to participate in a series of “experiments” that Talent Lab will be conducting to test hypotheses and discover new workplace norms that create the most daring, accelerated, and inclusive cultures.
TRG Arts is uniquely qualified to bring this product to the arts and culture field. Throughout the company’s more than 25-year history, talent development has been core to the company’s consulting engagements.
“Talent lab will be a relational, empathetic, inclusive workshop that prioritizes attendees’ development and knowledge expansion,” Mesropov said. “We want to ignite people—the way our consulting always has—but in a potent, bite-sized workshop.”
To register for the first two Talent Lab workshops, or for more information, visit https://trgarts.com/talent-lab:
● Effective Feedback Workshop
March 8, 2022, 9 am MDT, and July 21, 2022, 9 am MDT
● Hit Your Revenue Goals Workshop
March 22, 2022, 9 am MDT, and April 11, 2022, 9 am MDT
Diane Johnson is with Keeton PR on behalf of TRG Arts.
