Defining an artist is both simple — an artist is a person who makes art — and treacherous. In the context of Arts Management, cultural policy, or public practice, your particular definition will necessarily exclude most people from the circle, and celebrate a narrow few within.

Whenever you’re dealing with complex and entangled issues of human behavior (and honestly, when AREN’T you?), there are three words that can help you find a path to clarity, insight, and positive action. The latest episode of my #ArtsManaged video series shares these words and takes them for a spin.

Episode 4 in the #ArtsManaged video series explores the concept and components of a “business model.” As I continue the search for the cleanest and clearest definition, I’m still drawn to Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, et al’s version in Business Model Generation: “A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and […]

A brand new episode in the #ArtsManaged series focuses on what a nonprofit arts organization is, and why they exist. You’ll also find an overview of three broad “sectors” within which we aggregate and animate people, money, and stuff – the private sector (where somebody owns the money and the stuff), the public sector (where […]

Back in November, I posted about Twelve Functions of Arts Management as a first attempt at a list of key/core clusters of action in the arts manager’s toolbox. I received some great feedback and challenges (thanks to you all!) and have been stewing on it since then. And now I’m focused on the Ten Functions […]

As I wander the web, I notice only a few basic and foundational resources for arts and cultural managers, or those who aspire to the work. This is particularly true among short-form, video/media resources where people often turn for first-cut insights on a topic or task or career. As one drop in that blue ocean, […]

Why is it that some arts initiatives or disciplines tend toward commercial markets, others non-commercial? Some tend toward complex and durable nonprofit organizational forms and some toward episodic projects? Some are independent of major media companies and others deeply dependent? And how and why do some initiatives evolve from one dynamic to another over time […]

Ask any arts professional or arts-management academic about the “functions” of arts management and they will likely have a ready list in mind… But I haven’t seen many efforts to capture and sort these functions in more durable and consistent ways.

Way back in 2011, I took a shot at defining what a master’s degree in Arts Administration (aka Arts Management) was about. A decade later, my definition of Arts Management has evolved a bit.

It is strangely common to talk about our brain and our body as separate entities. Or to consider our senses and sensibilities as opposites, at war with each other. And yet, even a cursory exploration of the question exposes an obvious truth: our brain is entirely in and of our body, not just in its […]