Ping Chong and Company (2023)

In December 2022, interdisciplinary artist Ping Chong retired at the age of seventy-six from his position as the founder and artistic director of Ping Chong and Company (PCC). Bruce Allardice, the long-time executive director of PCC, retired alongside Ping. An Artistic Leadership Team (ALT) of five administrators and artists – Jane Jung, Sara Zatz, Nile Harris, Talvin Wilks, and Mei Ann Teo – succeeded Ping and Allardice as the new leadership of the organization.

PCC’s board and staff members had decided prior to Ping and Allardice’s retirements to continue operating the organization. In July 2022, PCC began navigating a three-year organizational transition period, funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. More than a year later, in October 2023, members of the ALT gathered for a fall retreat. On the agenda were items such as reviewing and updating the organizational strategic plan, developing process and language for the artistic generative model, discussing expectations and models on producing, presenting, commissioning, and development, as well as bridging a communication gap between the ALT and the board, but designing an organizational structure for the new PCC was one of the most important topics on the agenda. Members of the ALT were feeling the complexities involved in this decision: While the ALT was created to give artists an opportunity to design an organization conducive to their creative process, the organizational design must also support the multi-pronged priorities in PCC’s future vision, including programming more new works while keeping Ping’s legacy alive, making space for increased board presence, expanding partnerships for community- and school-based initiatives, and appealing to an younger audience beyond PCC’s long-established base. Further complicating the decision was the fact that ALT members were still exploring the best way to work with each other and the board. Considering these factors, how should the ALT approach the task of figuring out the best organizational model for the new PCC under collective leadership?