By Branislav Henselmann
Just over a year into my tenure at San Francisco Ballet, I have taken a moment to reflect on what this year has taught me—or perhaps more accurately, what it has helped me remember.
I returned to the cultural sector as Executive Director of San Francisco Ballet, joining Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, after many years in municipal and cultural policy, and amid tense union negotiations, a CFO departure, and a significant cybersecurity incident. These immediate circumstances, and the substantial work that followed throughout the year, helped me relearn some essential truths—truths that can get easily obscured by the tactical work of operations.
This past year helped me remember that arts are inherently political but not partisan. Cultural institutions create spaces where we practice being citizens together, where we encounter perspectives that challenge our own, where human complexity exists beyond political categories. In polarized times, this becomes urgent work—not because arts offer escape, but because they serve as mirrors to society, reflecting our struggles and possibilities back to us with clarity we cannot find elsewhere.
I remembered that cultural institutions are not amenities but bedrock—the very infrastructure through which democracies sustain themselves. When we gather to witness performance, we practice something essential: seeing each other across difference, holding attention on what demands our presence, creating shared experience that no algorithm can replicate and no political system can grant or withdraw.
I remembered that heritage is not nostalgic but prophetic. Looking backward at what we’ve built, what we’ve destroyed, whose voices we’ve centered and whose we’ve silenced—this tells us what futures are possible and what catastrophes we risk repeating. Arts institutions hold this temporal depth, connecting past and future through living practice.
I remembered that transformation requires holding multiple truths simultaneously: honoring tradition while innovating within it, advancing organizational sustainability while maintaining artistic integrity, moving forward while remaining accountable to memory. This ambiguity is not weakness—it is the honest posture required of cultural leadership.
And I remembered that in times of division and uncertainty, the question is not whether culture matters, but whether we have the courage to remember why it matters in the first place.
This year, we committed to a visionary strategic framework. Our leadership stabilized. Our work advanced. Our presence expanded.
The real achievement has been relearning, with my extraordinary colleagues and the Trustees, that cultural institutions exist not merely to provide entertainment, but to create the conditions where we can be fully human together—where we question, reflect, wonder, and imagine futures beyond what seems inevitable.
The work continues. I’m grateful to be learning alongside people who understand that this is essential work.
Branislav Henselmann is executive director of San Francisco Ballet. Prior to that, he was the City of Vancouver’s deputy general manager of arts, culture and community services. This article first appeared on his Linkedin page. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Instagram @PancouverMedia.
