Arts Management Class

Here's my very first pass at the "Intro to Arts Management" class syllabus. This is not intended to be a final document that I would ever use, but is supposed to show the bones of a stand alone class that could eventually be the basis for a program or even a major in Arts Management.

Rough Syllabus for Introduction to Arts Management

The course explores how arts organization (including theater, dance, music, and visual arts) engage artists and audiences and how they are governed, both internally (formal leadership) and externally (public policy and market forces). The course also includes overviews of historical contexts, economic conditions, organizational cultures, and financial systems. The course will highlight similarities and differences between arts management and non-creative-industry management.

The course objectives are:
• to define basic organizational models and operating strategies of various types of arts organizations;
• to present an historical overview of creation and management of the arts and arts organizations;
• to create a theoretical underpinning to practices in arts management;
• to highlight the was that arts organizations impact and interact with the communities in which they exist;
• to examine professional practices and different career possibilities within arts management;
• to expose students to professionals working in various different managerial positions in the arts through guest lecturers; and
• to provide experiential educational opportunities for students interested in arts management through course project work

Possible texts:
• Florida, Richard The Rise of the Creative Class: and how it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life (2002)
• Bourdieu, Pierre The Field of Cultural Production (1993)
• Byrnes, William Management and the Arts – Third Edition (2003)
• The Fundamentals of Arts Management Arts Extension Service (1987, 1994, 1998, 2003)

• Andrew Taylor The Artful Manager - Blog
• Lee Rosenbaum Culturegrrl – Blog
• Seth Godin Seth’s Blog – Blog
• Americans for the Arts ARTSBlog – Blog

• Center for Arts Management and Technology (CAMT)Technology in the Arts – Podcast

• ArtsJournal - Listserv

Possible guest lecturers:
• Head of Goggleworks
• ?


Week Topic Notes

1 What is Arts Management - An overview of what we mean by “Arts Management” positions, structures, duties, responsibilities etc.
2 History of Management in the Arts - History of how Theater, Dance, Music, and Visual Arts have been supported and organized in various epochs in Western History
3 Cultural Capital - Starting with Pierre Bourdieu’s work on Creative Capital, discussions of audiences and audience behavior focusing on the question of “why do people attend the arts?”
4 Creative Communities - Focusing on Richard Florida’s work explaining the creative economy and exploring the intersection of the arts and community, and continuing the inquiry into “ why do people attend the arts?”
5
6 Mission, Vision, and Values - The creation of mission, vision, and values statements and the ways that these ideas permeate through an organization
7 Governance and Oversight - The role of the board and senior management
8 Marketing - An overview of basic marketing concepts and how they are applied specifically to the arts
9 Development - Exploring the interaction between audience development and fundraising. Also a look at private foundations and government funding
10 Finance - Discussion of basic financial terms and ideas and the ways that for-profit and not-for-profit organizations use these separately
11 Planning - How different arts organizations set goals and quantify the success of various strategies and tactics
12
13 Public Art - An overview of the way that public art is being deployed by various communities and organizations
14 The Internet and the Arts - Using new technologies to cultivate arts audiences and donors
15

Faces

I meet with the folks over at marketing. One of the things I'd like to start doing this year (and continue in later years) is to feature images of our students prominently on our marketing materials. I think there are a number of good reasons to do this:

1. People tend to look longer at images of face and people than of images which don't include them
2. It fits in with the "Faces of Albright" theme that's running through the website
3. It can be a point of pride for our students - making them "famous"

Because we're switching over to digital printing for many of our publications, we're able to wait longer before going to press (allowing directors to cast the show before we need the images) and we'll be able to use color. It might be hard to do for the first theater show of the season, but the rest of the theater season is a possibility as is the music series.

I met with Michael from the gallery today and he also wanted to have more imagery which features people (not just art). He uses an off-site designer to do his materials - I'm not sure if it's just traditional or if his designer is really better then the in-house staff. To be determined.

Next steps - contact the resident photographer and costumer to set up publicity photo shoots.

The season brochure

One of the first things that I worked on at Albright (even before I arrived in Reading) was the season brochure - showing all of the performing arts events from the Theater and Music department this year. The brochure went to press the day before my full-time contract started so that it can hit the mail before the first event actually occurs! I would love to start working on next year's brochure this August so that we don't have the last minute scramble that we did this year.

I need to set up a meeting with the publicity people here at the school - we need to discuss how we're publicizing the various events this year, and I want to begin to discuss next year's season's catalog (we don't have a season yet, but we need to start thinking about it much sooner!

Interactivity? InterARTivity?

I met with Michael (the director of the Freedman Gallery) today. We discussed ways that the internet is changing the way that the internet is effecting the way that audiences interact with art. He is interested in using the web more in making the Freedman Gallery more of an educational hub as well as a wonderful art gallery. Michael is, by his own admission, less than expert on the internet (as a science-fiction fan, he's more than a little concerned about the dominance of the computer), however, he strongly believes that the internet is going to be critical in the future of arts education and arts management.

We began brainstorming about what could be available on the website (the CFA site is still under-construction, the Freedman Site is constantly being updated). Here's what we've come up with so far (in no particular order):
- Additional information about the exhibits that might not fit into the published catalog
- Podcasts with gallery talks, gallery tours etc
- Blogs for both faculty and students
- Art itself whenever possible

One thing that we both agreed that we need is guidance from the faculty and administration. The CFA and the Freedman both need a mission statement and a strategic plan. We both think that education should feature prominantley in that mission, but there seems to be a strong sense that we need to be an arts venue first. I'll let you know how these talks proceed.

First Post

I'm the new Director for the Center for the Arts (CFA) at Albright College in Reading, PA. The Center for the Arts is an on-campus building which houses the Art, Music, and Theater departments. It is also the home of the Freedman Art Gallery. I am the first person to be the director of the entire facility - currently the CFA has no mission statement, no strategic plan, no brand etc. The departments have been operating fairly independently up to now, but have decided to create my position to help facilitate collaboration in both production as well as marketing and operations. In addition, I have been asked to create an Arts Management program for the undergraduates here at Albright. Here's the job ad that I applied for:

This position is responsible for coordination and oversight of the day-to-day operations of the Center at the College. The Center houses the Art, Music and Theatre Departments as well as the Freedman Art Gallery. This position will coordinate and oversee marketing, publicity, and audience development in conjunction with related college departments. In addition, the Arts Administrator will teach one course per year in Arts Administration as well as supervise interns and student workers. Position requires an MFA in Arts Management or related degree, experience in arts management with a wide knowledge of arts applications. Excellent communication skills required with the capacity to creatively pursue the overall mission of the College. Successful candidate should also have demonstrated experience in managing a budget and the ability to lead in an innovative and enthusiastic fashion. Experience in academic arts programs and teaching a plus.

My hope is that this blog can be used to track the way that we here at Albright go about creating this new program and how my position and the CFA develop. Hopefully this blog can be used by other schools which are interested in walking down a similar path - to see what works for us, and what goes wrong.

If you have any questions about this blog or this program, I can be reached at: mkopans[at]alb[dot]edu.