Recognition
The ISTA CLP Certificate
Earned through real leadership at a real festival, and recognised as a service learning opportunity that sits alongside your school’s own leadership initiatives.
For students aged 16+
You’ve been part of an ensemble before: sharing ideas, taking creative risks and creating something together. The Creative Leadership Programme is for young people aged 16 and over who want to discover the kind of creative leader they could become.
Working alongside a professional ISTA Artist Mentor at a real ISTA festival, you’ll observe, support and gradually lead, developing leadership through real artistic practice rather than abstract instruction.
Your journey
A short, guided online course at your own pace. Explore the Creative Leadership Profile, recognise the strengths you bring and choose where you want to grow.
A one-to-one session with your ISTA Artist Mentor to agree your goals and build a flexible Festival Leadership Plan together.
At an ISTA Middle School festival, observe, support and gradually lead, with your mentor beside you and a reflection at the end of each day.
Two weeks later, tell the story of your journey in a short presentation and receive your ISTA Creative Leadership Programme Certificate.
Creative leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about listening. Noticing. Adapting. And helping others to thrive.
What you leave with
Recognition
Earned through real leadership at a real festival, and recognised as a service learning opportunity that sits alongside your school’s own leadership initiatives.
Evidence
Your starting point, goals, plans, festival reflections and final presentation, with reflections from your mentor and a personal message from the ISTA team.
What comes next
Practical leadership experience to draw on in university applications and interviews, and a clearer sense of the leader you’re becoming.
The ISTA Creative Leadership Profile
Creative leadership is not about having all the answers, being the loudest voice or taking control. It is about creating the conditions in which others can thrive.
Ten competencies are a lot to hold in mind at once. Grouped into a cycle, they become a journey a Young Creative Leader moves through again and again.
Choose a stage, or turn any card to see what Creative Leaders do.
Our guiding line
Know yourself.Lead creatively.Grow together.Empower others.
For teachers and parents
Every year, thousands of young people take part in ISTA festivals around the world. The CLP gives students aged 16 and over the chance to step forward and lead: not through simulations, not from the sidelines, but by taking genuine responsibility within an ISTA festival.
Preparation, mentoring, real leadership and focused reflection in a condensed, manageable format that fits around school.
Every ISTA artist is vetted, trained and supported, and works alongside your student throughout the festival.
This programme is dedicated to
Dinos Aristidou 1966–2023
An artist, educator and leader who helped shape ISTA for more than thirty years. Dinos believed the arts help us understand ourselves, connect with other people and discover what we can achieve together. For him, leadership was not about having all the answers or telling others what to do. It was about helping other people succeed.
Every Young Creative Leader carries that belief forward.
For ISTA artists
Guide a Young Creative Leader through reflection, ensemble practice and real leadership, and watch them discover what they are capable of.
We prepare you for the role, the one-to-one mentor session and the feedback you give at the end of the festival.
Lead alongside your Young Creative Leader, giving them space to make their own choices as they grow.
