Teaching Arts Management: Where Did We Lose the Core Ideas?

In light of the need to start clearing the methodological confusion in the field of arts management, this article provides a critical overview of the teaching curricula in the field. Distinction is made between programs that copy directly from business management; programs that focus on the technological process of producing an artwork (usually run by practitioners); those that interlink cultural management and cultural policy (highlighting the role of public governance as a higher principle); and programs that focus on an entrepreneurial approach to arts management, connecting it to issues of creativity and innovation. The author calls for clear goals to educate administrators and arts or cultural managers. The suggestion is made to follow what I call the Janus syndrome: looking toward managerial and economic realities but primarily focusing on the arts—the aesthetic and the social aspects of the field. A question is raised about the position of art in arts management curricula, as well as the organization of undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the field.     

Technical Standards and Institutionalization Processes in New Deal Art Projects

While some practitioners adopt a reductionist approach to inquiry in the cultural management discourse, this article is a critical reflection upon the practice of cultural management as an academic discipline. The article deals with a theoretical framework on how to formulate cultural management strategies that promote the sharing of cultural values throughout the global community. The article traces the history of graduate education in arts management from the late 1960s to the present, as well as discussing policy, research reports, and programs that have helped to build arts management as a comprehensive field of study. Though multidisciplinary in conception, the article posits that practitioners should acquire general training in the management sciences and proceed to professionalize in one distinct field of the arts and culture. Relevant courses in the social sciences and business studies should be incorporated as well. Five critical domains of cultural planning are discussed—arts and culture, citizenship and identity, spatial culture, communications, media and planning—as major concerns for the successful training of dynamic arts managers. The authors predict a time when cultural management will cease to be an adjunct discipline and become an independent school within the university system.     

Adapting Techniques of Studio Critique for Arts Management Pedagogy

Many students in the field of arts management have a background as practicing artists. In that light, it seems promising to explore fine arts pedagogies for the delivery of elements of arts management curricula. Studio critiques are a central pedagogic tool in arts education, allowing for systemic self-reflexivity that emerges from a shared interest in the terms of the conversation itself—critique as a creative technique. Since 2009, the Department of Arts Administration and Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has integrated critique. Feedback from the first generations of students is assessed in this article.     

The MFA in Arts Management

Arts administration/management (AA/M) has evolved to the point of emerging as a mature academic field, increasingly institutionalized within higher education and demanding a larger and more highly credentialed faculty. Examining Master of Fine Arts (MFA) AA/M programs in North America, this brief study asks whether the MFA can serve as the viable credential for academically trained arts managers. The analysis suggests that no consensus about which advanced degree best reflects academic expertise relevant to all components of the field has been reached and that standards remain too unclear for the MFA to serve as a viable credential across artistic disciplines.     

Production,Distribution and Educational Media

From 1970 to 1990, Yugoslav culture was signed by the tight net of Self-Governed Interest Associations (Samoupravne interesne zajednice, SIZ). Understood as one of ex-Yugoslavia's transient eras, when political control over cultural life was given to the boards of professionals and experts, “SIZ time” provided an ideal base for future development of arts management. This article explores the possibilities of applying the positive experience of the SIZ model, modified by contemporary NGO models, as the possible solution for arts management transition problems in Serbia and the region. I conclude that South European state funding and institutional systems cannot provide adequate support for arts management development, thus projects in this field should be undertaken through NGOs, with additional financial support and coordination from the international community. NGOs and the ex-SIZ system give examples of a positive experience in conducting projects in the field of arts management.     

The Public University's Performance in State Arts Policy: Lessons from Virginia

This article investigates the extent to which public higher education institutions participate in state-level arts policy through a history of selected budgets and a textual analysis of performing arts presenting centers at public higher education institutions in Virginia. Evidence from this research suggests that the arts policy field is altered by the emergence of public higher education institutions as policy actors. The findings have financial and decision-making implications for arts policy makers, university administrators, and arts agencies as the participation of public higher education institutions affords new opportunities and challenges for the state encouragement of the arts.     

The Effect of NEA Grants on the Contributions to Nonprofit Dance Companies

Affirmative action and diversity can serve as a powerful framework for helping arts management educators address the challenge of diversity in the arts. This article encourages arts management educators to use affirmative action and diversity to proactively recruit diverse students into academic degree programs.     

Core Consensus,Strategic Variations: Mapping Arts Management Graduate Education in the United States

This study is the first comprehensive curricular comparison of graduate arts management programs in the United States. Its principal finding is that there exists considerable curricular convergence among arts management programs and that their differences may be exploited strategically. Through extensive curricular analysis and in-depth conversations with faculty, this study makes both conceptual and methodological contributions to the field—conceptual because it provides an empirical basis for the definition of arts management as a formal academic discipline in its own right and methodological because it proposes a framework to effect a systematic comparison of arts management program curricula.     

Training for Cultural Production and Management in Brazil

This article aims to contribute to the field of arts management by identifying the need to make cultural production/management an established field of professional practice and training in Brazil, and the challenges of doing so. To accomplish this, we reviewed several publications and we present first a discourse on theoretical texts in relation to the idea of culture and systems of cultural production and then an analysis of arts management publications in Brazil with observations about this field of work. In this article, we address the current paucity of training opportunities of this kind, the extent to which these roles have yet to be professionalized, and indicate, in the conclusion, that this is a matter of increasing importance and concern for cultural policy in Brazil.     

Collaborative Leadership in the Arts as a Unique Form of Dual Leadership

This article examines dual leadership in Australian performing arts companies, reflected in the respective roles of artistic directors and general managers. Our findings challenge assumptions underpinning much of the literature on dual leadership; in particular, the assumption that conflict is inevitable between the two leaders. In our research, we identified dual leadership relationships that might more accurately be described as instances of collaborative leadership. We suggest that one explanation for this presence of collaborative leadership may be that the study found similarities in both leaders’ passion for the arts, often reflected in a shared background in an arts practice.     

Performance Evaluation in the Arts and Cultural Sector: A Story of Accounting at Its Margins

In this article, I present a review of financial and management accounting literature on the arts and cultural sector. My objective is to understand to what extent this literature is able to offer a critical perspective on the study of performance evaluation practices in arts and cultural organizations, as it is currently missing in the arts management literature. Adopting a critical perspective means shifting the focus of research from the technicalities of evaluation rules and procedures to their embodiment by the different organizational and societal actors of the arts and cultural sector.     

The Synergies of Artistic and Entrepreneurial Action

Arts Entrepreneurship education as a field continues to grow, but misperceptions of entrepreneurship seem to cause confusion among arts students, faculty, and administrators regarding the value of entrepreneurial training to higher education arts programs. These misperceptions are explored to determine if entrepreneurship, for artists, is harmful or helpful. By articulating the theoretical essence of entrepreneurship, it is suggested that entrepreneurial action is profoundly synergetic with artistic action and purpose, and that arts faculty and administrators can embrace entrepreneurship education and its value to aspiring professional artists.     

Some Features of Cultural Policies Applied in Belgium,Particularly in the French-Speaking Community

The training of arts and cultural administrators in Taiwan is related to the development of Taiwan's cultural sector and the centralized system of its government. In this top-down system, the government has long played a leading role in the development of the arts, cultural policies, and industries. The purpose of this article is to examine elements of historical events and factors causing change in the environment to discover the characteristics of arts/cultural administrators, the skills needed for arts/cultural administrators, and the development of curriculum. The researcher divided the historical development of Taiwanese arts administration into three waves. The first wave is from 1949 to 1980, the second wave is from 1981 to 1990, and the third wave is 1991 through the present. Through a discussion of various historical events, factors concerning arts administration and its training system are discovered. In conclusion, after reviewing Taiwan's development in the area of arts administration, one finds that viewing arts administration as a profession is a relatively recent phenomenon. The training of arts administrators and curators in the visual arts was the first area to develop. Training for performing arts administrators was not emphasized until the 1980s. Graduate programs of arts administration in universities have been promoted only since the middle of the 1990s.     

Performing Arts Entrepreneurship: Toward a Research Agenda

Starting from the position that performing arts entrepreneurship (PAE) deserves its own theoretical treatment in the literature, this article addresses fundamental questions within that subfield. The first step is to define PAE, necessarily incorporating the related concepts of “The Performing Arts Event Cycle” and the “Performing Arts Value Chain.” The question of why PAE takes place explores the motivations of performing arts entrepreneurs, looking beyond the traditional profit motive. Where PAE occurs is the next question, taking into account audiences, financial resources, available performance venues, and artistic inputs. The final two questions have to do with the timing of PAE, as well as who engages in this activity. Relevance to existing and future research is discussed, as are implications for practice.     

Means and Ends: A Theory Framework for Understanding Entrepreneurship in the US Arts and Culture Sector

This article provides a framework for the conceptualization of arts entrepreneurship in the US by first examining a range of perspectives on the boundaries of the “arts and culture sector” in the US and then exploring in some depth four theories of entrepreneurship and how such theories may be realized within the arts and culture sector. Theories of firm formation are considered both generally and as potentially applied to the arts and culture sector, with examples of firm formation drawn both from existing literature and the author's direct observation of entrepreneurial activity. Finally, the essay connects these theories in a means and ends framework to provide a context for understanding arts entrepreneurial activity, especially in the US arts and culture sector. The theory that emerges from the examples provided to illustrate the framework is a simple one: artists form firms or otherwise undertake entrepreneurial action toward the end of creating art sustainably and they do so by discovering or creating new connections between their means and that desirable end.     

Nonprofit Entrepreneurship: The Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center

The author investigates social change in Vietnam in the late 1980s-2000s, a transition from a subsidized economy to a market-oriented economy. The author discusses the influences of socioeconomic changes on the operation of the performing arts sector through analyzing changes in cultural policies, opportunities, and challenges confronted by performing arts organizations. The new cultural policy allows arts organizations, arts managers, and artists more opportunities to develop a greater degree of autonomy and more freedom in performing, programming and other artistic activities. The author believes that open policies will motivate Vietnam to develop its own national identity and to participate in cultural exchange with other parts of the world. However, under the impact of global culture, global economics, cuts in state funding, and rapid technological development, the performing arts sector has faced challenges in terms of financial viability, audience development, and balance between commercialization and artistic creativity. The author suggests that privatization should be implemented depending on the art form. Consideration should be given by the Vietnamese government to implementing appropriate funding policies and schemes, as state funding still forms a significant part of public companies' incomes.     

The Romanticization of Charismatic Leadership in the Arts

ABSTRACT

This inter-disciplinary article focuses on the role, significance, and impact of charisma in cultural leadership. It brings together fresh empirical data with a critical review of the literature to investigate the role of charisma in the operation, reputation, and strategic success of arts organizations. For the first time, this article synthesizes a diverse range of literature from sociology, psychology, political science, management, and leadership studies and applies it critically to the context of the arts. This comprehensive review is compared against interviews with key stakeholders in the arts, which challenge the neo-charismatic literature on leadership and support a return to aspects of the original formulation of charisma, as envisaged by Max Weber. The article finds that charismatic leaders are seen as extraordinary individuals and are excessively romanticized by arts managers, policymakers, and audiences. It questions this normative bias and concludes that charismatic leaders should be treated with a degree of skepticism, even caution, to temper any negative impacts on "followers" and organizations.     

Artists in an Iron Cage? Artists’ Work in Performing Arts Institutions

This article discusses artists’ work in performing arts institutions in Norway. Many scholars describe Nordic performing arts institutions as slow-moving and heavy “art factories,” where artistic creativity is almost suffocated within bureaucratic “prisons.” The general problem that we raise in the article is whether this pessimistic picture of the relation between state control, market influence, and artistic work is relevant for studying the performing arts today. The study is primarily based upon twenty-seven qualitative interviews with informants in an institutional theatre and a symphony orchestra. We conclude that the actors in the Theatre are trapped—not so much within “a bureaucratic iron cage”—but rather within “an iron cage of charismatic leadership,” while the musicians in the Orchestra enjoy the relative freedom and democratic power of a rather soft bureaucratic organization.     

Investigating the incidence of sexual assault in martial arts coaching using media reports

The rapidly expanding martial arts industry, which is presently unregulated within the United States, has seen multiple coaches convicted of sex offenses in recent years. However, there is currently no existing literature on sexual assault within the martial arts industry. We used major search platforms to collect media reports concerning martial arts coaches who were convicted of sex offenses within the United States. We analyzed the reports for information concerning the perpetrators, victims, and offenses as a first step toward filling the need for insight in this area. We found that a significant number of convicted sex offenders resumed martial arts coaching following initial law enforcement intervention.     

Infected by Arts Festivals: Festival Policy and Audience Experiences in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

In current policy debates, cities are often seen as “experience machines” in which the quantity and variety of experience possibilities are vital. The Finnish capital, Helsinki, has chosen arts festivals and other events as tools to achieve this aim. This article focuses on the way in which Helsinki's festival policy has developed and analyzes the response of metropolitan residents to the proliferation of arts festivals. The article highlights the importance of artistic quality as something both cultural policy-makers and arts audiences are looking for. Artistic excellence can thus be seen as a major contributor to the success of festivals.