As I’ve worked and talked with arts professionals, funders, artists, and boards over the years, I’ve been continually struck by a nagging question: Why isn’t this work more fun? After all, many of these people are doing the very thing they longed to do — connecting audiences to art, creating or enabling new work, performing or presenting masterworks of human expression. While certainly the pay can be low and the resources skimpy, the work can be compelling, meaningful, and transformative.
So why does the career and administrative work of artists and arts organizations so often seem like such a chore? Does it have to be? Or, are there ways of making our logistical and tactical work more artful? Of bridging the disconnect between the art we long to advance and the many other tasks required to get there?
Those are the questions driving a new special topics course I’m co-developing and co-teaching with my colleague Stephanie Jutt at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall. Called ‘Arts Enterprise: Art as Business as Art,’ the course is intended to bring business, community, and strategic skills to students exploring a creative career. But it seeks to do so by imagining such skills as part of the artist’s palette rather than separate from it.
Our primary tactic in advancing the conversation is to bring in extraordinary artists and business leaders who are exploring the same path — connecting their aesthetic visions to their businesses, their venues, and their everyday work. Among these will be choreographer Elizabeth Streb, creative entrepreneur Lisa Sonora Beam, arts journalism maven Doug McLennan, cultural policy wonk Bill Ivey, and many others. And we’ve gathered an astounding group of students — undergraduate, master’s and PhD — from all across campus to learn along with us.
We’ll be posting audio interviews with most or all of these people on-line, and video captures of our three public forum sessions. And we’ll be blogging, twittering, and otherwise sharing the journey all along the way to include as many of you who want to join the conversation.
Can we find a more seamless interplay between art, business, community, and career? I’m honestly not sure. But we figure it’s worth a try.
Great course idea, Andrew. And a terrific opening list of presenters. I look forward to begin able to access the content as you proceed.
Matt
I’m pretty sure the problem with this work not being more fun is that thing about resources being skimpy. Most of the time as managers we are the intermediaries between someone else’s creative and artistic vision and a community of supporters/patrons/donors — it’s not a lot of fun to do that when the resources to be effective are not available or when you are making personal sacrifices that become, in your view, a way of subsidizing someone else’s vision.
But I guess that’s why they call it work, eh?
Another thing that drains the fun out of this is that it is hard to live on the fringes of society — what creative enterprises do, as creative enterprises, is in this day and age viewed as marginal. It doesn’t hold the cultural currency of even a low-performing indie film or a cable television drama.
Finally, it’s no fun to be told for years that it is important to run more like a business — and then see the businesses that have always been held up as models collapse and bring down everything around them, making the margins you existed on even more marginal.
Well enough bellyaching…time to take a few layers of skin off the nose at the grindstone.
This is wonderful Andrew!! Excited to follow the conversation.
Victoria
This sounds fascinating! I’m interested in it personally, but do you think we could also chat about a possible release or article through UComm? If so, I’ll pitch it in our next writers’ meeting.
I am seriously jealous that this wasn’t around when I was at UW. Congrats on getting it off the ground and I can’t wait to hear more!
This sounds very interesting. I am the director of The Actors Fund Work Program. The fund is a national 127 year old human service organization for everyone in the performing arts and entertainment industry. We provide social services, housing, and health services. I encourage you to visit our site.
The work program is designed to help those in the industry find meaningful work outside the industry to complement their careers. The reality is most need parallel or portfolio careers and waiting tables is not the answer.
We’ve recently been involved in helping artists develop their artistic business side. Would love to chat.
The class sounds fascinating. On the side of the individual artist I have found colleges and universities doing an OK job of trying to teach students about their respective artforms, but no time is spent on teaching these same artists the business side of the world they are entering.
I’m just finishing a four day program at the University of Texas Butler School of Music in which I have answered more questions about the nuts and bolts of the opera business and how to live and work in it than the time spent actually auditioning these young artists. It is astounding to me on one level that there is such a fundamental lack of understanding of how the business, in this case opera, functions. However, I do applaud the students for their desire to actively participate in the discussion.
If you are only taught to create and not how to function in the environment to which you are entering you are most likely going to have a very difficult and not so fun time.
I am an artist and art consultant. I work primarily with communities to help them develop public art programs.
I have always thought that there needs to be more of a connection between the business community and the art community.
It is creative integration that makes every facet of life more palatable especially business.
I love the idea for the course. I look forward to the interaction with you.
I think for some people working in the arts becomes a chore because administrators are being asked (forced) to work farther and farther away from the actual art form that brought them to the business in the first place. If you spend all your day on cash flow, raising money, HR issues, and governance – it doesn’t leave a lot of time for “art.” One of the things I have learned to do in the course of my career is to find time to specifically either think or participate in the “art.” I drop into rehearsal, I read a play, or now that I am managing a group of performing arts facilities, I go backstage and just look out into the hall and imagine what is going to happen when an orchestra begins or a play starts. It’s not ideal – but it helps.
I agree with John Ferderico. More education is needed in the field of business as to just how much the arts contribute to the local economy. As a board director for a small arts non-profit I spend a lot of time trying to convince people (not necessarily art minded) that there is a vitally important connection between business health and growth, and that the (insert your arts organization here) is worth their support.
I am a new graduate student of arts management SUNY at Buffalo. And I am a new job hunter in the arts.
I think, the problem is ” How do you make the business interesting or fun? ” Accountants may be regarded as the most boring job forever. However, behind the numbers, you can understand everything about the most interesting business. It just depends on whether you like to play with numbers or not. The same as the arts administrators. Are they more enjoying the arts, or more enjoying making the arts happened?
I think, enjoying the business makes ” Art as business as art” .
I think Jieshan has an intersting take, but I agree with Ken. How many arts administrators still get to “do” art? I would imagine the art side and not the administrative side is the first love – I know it is for me even though I don’t do art anymore.
Can doing art become a part of your job profile – not to add more work, but 1/2 or 3/4 or whatever is administrative and the rest is artistic? But then does that lead to higher payrolls because you need to hire two more people to do half-time jobs? I’d prefer to think it is more work for the artist, so they don’t have to wait tables…
Here’s a series about creative approaches to managing the arts in crisis that you might enjoy.
The ballet story is particularly inspiring:
http://www.capradio.org/news/special.aspx?keyword=tsmgo