Since the universe for arts and cultural enterprise is evolving quickly these days, and since I happen to run an MBA degree program that claims to prepare high-performing leaders for that universe, I spend an unreasonable amount of time trying to define what I do for a living, and how I do it. That effort is a key engine behind this blog, which helps me frame and float ideas for all of you to shoot at or refine (and honestly, I love both kinds of responses, so keep them coming).
In the process of defining what I do for a living, I’m continually drawn back to the Albert Einstein quote: “The best models are as simple as possible…but no simpler.”
So what is the simplest (but not over-simplified) way to describe what an MBA in Arts Administration does, or can do? What might define and refine what my colleagues and I do every day? Here’s what I’ve got at the moment:
“We foster a more elegant invocation and allocation of people, time, and other resources toward expressive ends.”
There’s a lot to unbundle in that sentence, so perhaps I haven’t hit Einstein’s mark just yet. But two words that evolved for me over the summer will be my focus here: invocation and allocation.
“Invocation” includes any activity that draws resources toward an artistic or expressive effort — talented artists, craftspeople, and technicians; staff and support personnel; board members and volunteers; audiences; earned and contributed income; space and equipment and raw materials. “Invocation” arose as the best word, because all of these resources are truly about summoning energy toward you, calling for aid and insight and inspiration. That’s an invocation.
“Allocation” includes anything you do to align, assign, direct, constrain, or evaluate how those resources are applied toward the expressive end. This involves, often, more control and analysis functions like accounting and finance, but also a full range of strategic efforts toward what my colleague Russell Willis Taylor calls “doing less better.”
These two bundles of effort require different skills and abilities, and often live in tension with each other. So, the other thing that “elegance” requires is continual balance and care.
It might be shocking to some that the word “creation” isn’t anywhere in my summary sentence. But to be honest, I don’t prepare people to create artistic works. My graduates support, advance, sustain, connect, commission, encourage, and refine creative works toward their successful expression and stewardship. Creative and expressive work is the center and purpose of all that they do. But the work they do is primarily invocation and allocation.
And that’s what I’ve got for now. Shoot at it, or refine it, please.
It’s difficult to say much about your General Theory of Arts Management (to follow the Einsteinian metaphor,) exactly because it is very general. A good test might be to apply it to specific arts institutions that have had trouble and where management’s actions have been controversial.
A good case would be the Detroit Symphony. The CEO, Anne Parsons, had some good ideas, but her execution of them seemed to lack an understanding of the internal dynamics of orchestras. I don’t have the exact details of what happened, but from outside observation I get a very strong impression that her invocation and allocation alienated the musicians in ways that were largely avoidable.
She made too many decisions herself about revising the musicians’ job descriptions instead of consulting and working together with them. For example, she seems to have basically told the orchestra it would be more involved with chamber music and community education projects. Anyone familiar with professional orchestras knows that approach will bomb in a major way – even though there are always members of orchestras who are fanatics about chamber music and educational projects.
She should have turned to those specific individuals in the orchestra who are naturally enthusiastic about chamber music and education and said I have x sum of money this year for you to organize chamber music concerts and educational programs with your colleagues. (The chamber music and educational types in orchestras are usually not the same people.) Orchestra musicians are almost always willing to join with one of their colleagues who has a budget for a project he or she is really enthusiastic about. (I’m not sure why that is, but I know that’s how orchestra musicians think. They love joining with a colleague who is enthusiastic about something.) Find the folks in the orchestra who will inspire and lead their colleagues. To a considerable degree an artist’s work has to come from her heart. It’s better to let them inspire each other, and this almost always works in orchestras.
Once that is done, let them lead those individual artists lead the way while helping them with the organizational and financial skills they need. That type of administrative collaboration with artists should be the end result of invocation and allocation.
The management of the Chattanooga Symphony had almost exactly the same goals as in Detroit. They took the approach I describe about invoking and allocating internal leadership and it worked wonderfully, while the same goals in Detroit failed miserably because management’s methods were far too top heavy.
I fear that the MBA-ization of arts management is one reason management has trended toward a dysfunctional top heaviness. Businesses and groups of artists have very different internal dynamics. Anyone who wants to manage an orchestra would do well to spend ten years playing in one. Then they would understand the true meanings of invocation and allocation and how to make them work with a group of 80 to a 100 orchestra musicians.
As a concert presenter, I find that my job consists of keeping three constituencies happy: artists, audiences, and supporters.
In my mind, both the Detroit story in the previous comment and today’s news of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s public rejection of the Board and Staff’s strategic plan (for not really involving the orchestra in its preparation) raise an issue for Arts Administration programs. I don’t have a problem with MBAs or MBA programs; I have one myself, serve on arts boards and consult to arts organizations. In fact, I find some of the MBA curriculum quite helpful in doing so. The issue is applying what one knows in different cultures.
In my experience, organizational cultures in the arts vary by genre; a theater company is different from a chorus is different from an orchestra, just by virtue of what they do. In addition, each orchestra, say, has a different organizational culture than other orchestras. I prepare myself for working with two very different kinds of engagements when I walk into a high-tech company and, say, a steel mill. Equally, I know I have to couch my recommendations differently at IBM and at Apple.
I am waiting for comments on the word ELEGANT. That word implies a judgment that is administratively practical, artistically tasteful, and emotionally moving. Combining Bach’s b Minor Mass with transparent accounting must be the hardest task you have. Edwin
As the manager of the Chattanooga Symphony, it’s nice to see us mentioned so positively in William Osborne’s post. Thanks!
Having a Master’s in Arts Administration, my latest job offer is to serve meals to people in a retirement home. Honestly, my degree in this field does not help me open any doors whatsoever. I try to not tell people what my degree is in because it is hard to justify the student loan expense it took to get it and just as difficult to explain exactly what it is I am “supposed” to be doing career-wise.
The value as I see it, is to be able to say I have (in my case) an M.S. and that’s about it. Guess I could teach what I know about the subject. Philosophically and morally I would have a hard time preparing others for a career that is virtually nonexistent.
Sorry for my negativity, but I am ready to accept the meal serving job so I can eat.
@Jill-
I’m so sorry that you haven’t had any luck finding a job. I know how you feel- I’m looking for a job with my new Arts Admin degree as well. It’s a tough world out there right now. I’m sure you’re already doing everything possible to find jobs and apply for them, but if you’d like to give me your contact information and what you’re looking for, I’d be happy to pass along some of the jobs I come across, as my colleagues have been so kind to do for me.
For now, I would say that there’s nothing wrong with taking a job “waiting tables” (we’ve all done that) or otherwise biding your time until a better job comes along. Your degree WILL serve you well once you get that job. You will know how to do things- which, having worked in arts admin without a masters in it, I can tell you is very helpful! And once you get in to that career, the degree will allow you to go further than if you didn’t have one.
I’m not sure where you are in your career- if you had work experience before you went to get your masters, for example. It’s very hard to find the right fit- for those without that job between undergrad and masters, they don’t have experience, and it seems that no one is willing to give it to them. For those with approximately 3-6 years of work experience between undergrad and masters, we are overqualified for the entry-level jobs and “underqualified” for the managerial jobs- argh! The only people it seems to pay off for quickly are those with 10 or more years of experience who go straight to director positions.
But, I know it will pay off for us soon. Don’t quit and don’t give up trying. No one said it would be easy (and those that did lied). Don’t expect your degree that you just worked so hard for to do all the heavy lifting for you. It can’t open doors on itself- you’ve got to work your networks and keep sending those (high-quality, aggressive, and tailored) cover letters out the door. Please don’t feel like you’ve wasted your time getting a degree. Brush your shoulders off and reach out for help.
my twitter name is crystalewallis- you can contact me there if you’d like.
I’m sorry to hear that so many folks are having trouble finding work after completing their arts admin degree. I do feel a need to defend this area of study, so here is my brief story:
I’ve experienced great success since finishing school in December 2010, but I have also had to work very hard for it. I entered my arts admin program with the goal of working in New York City theatre and that is exactly what I am doing now. It took completing an internship, taking on many extra projects, making connections, maintaining those connections and going on a lot of interviews first.
The jobs are out there, you just have to have the connections to find them. Most of the places I interviewed at didn’t even consider applicants who weren’t personally referred. It wasn’t that they didn’t like the other people- they didn’t even look at their resumes! The job search process suck, but it is possible to find a job you love. Just keep working at it and tapping into your network. Many of my colleagues from school (including myself) are doing well but had to face a lot of interviews and rejection first. Good luck!
That sentence is everything that’s wrong with an MBA program in arts administration. An MBA delivers the practical–the greater understanding of finance, business, and management. Otherwise, you can’t replace on-site learning.
And if you learn the economics, you’ll eventually understand the cyclical nature of it all. I graduated over 30 years ago with a BS in Arts Education and instead of waiting tables did substitute teaching for 3 years waiting for teaching jobs to open up. I eventually ended up in a partially gov’t sponsored (horrors!) job training program that placed me in a non-profit arts organization learning from the bottom up. No MBA program could offer that on the job experience, but the MBA would have certainly helped me read and develop a financial report.
Elegance, expressiveness, sure–but it’s a bit fictitous, too. The bigger issue is that MBA students expect more financially from struggling non-profit institutions. Do they deserve it? Yes. Can they wait it out til they reap the “reward?” I guess we’ll see!
Having graduated with my MA/MBA fifteen years ago, worked in the in that time, and hired (and trained) a few graduate students, I can’t tell you that a grad degree isn’t the magic key to employment in the arts. It is incredibly competitive, and in this economy, recent grads are competing with experienced folks who have lost their jobs (I went through the same thing, on a smaller scale, when I started out). I do think that anyone contemplating a grad degree seriously analyze the cost before signing up. It will be many many years before your salary makes up for serious loan debt. This is one reason I now advocate anyone work a few years, and build up some savings. Also, I think we shouldn’t encourage students to go straight from undergrad to grad schools in arts management. I don’t really think that grad programs can give folks necessary on-the-ground skills, not even when the program has a strong internship program. Grad programs can impart certain skills (accounting, budgeting), as well as long-term skills (like strategic planning, etc). But I sincerely think that a couple of years at an organization, absorbing as much as you can about everything, does wonders for your hire-ability and your ability to eventually lead an organization. My advice to recent grads is to take a job, any job, and build your skill set in other ways – produce a show, write grants as a contractor, volunteer. It doesn’t have to be in the arts. Your passion for the arts will always come through, and experience, skills and perseverence are far more important.
As a person working in professional arts administration, I believe I can confidently assert that paying jobs in this field are not “allocated” based on education (though maybe unpaid internships are). Experience is probably 10 times more important than education.
I’m in the finance function, which has different hiring criteria than other functions, naturally. We might like that you took a nonprofit accounting course or two in your arts administration program, but if you can’t show that you know how deferred revenue works on the accounting test that all applicants to my department take, it won’t matter. Two years experience in an accounting department at a software firm would be FAR more useful to us than a Masters in Arts Administration.
I have an MBA, myself, which I had just begun, part-time, when I got this job. I’ve used many of the business skills I learned, of course, but I definitely didn’t need the MBA to get the job, or keep the job. And I’m not sure it will help me advance in the field, either, at least not for many years (top finance managers in the arts are often recruited from the corporate world–we’ll see if that’s still the case in a decade or not). I’m extremely privileged in many ways, but in this case that my wife and I were both working while I completed my program, so I could finish without the massive debt load that is so common among MBA’s and Masters in Arts Administration.
I am not recommending that future arts administrators get masters degrees, unless they are flexible and willing to travel down future paths that they never intended.
All that said, I do like your one-sentence description. It’s lovely. So long as you don’t let that elegance get in the way of teaching hard lessons and doing everything possible to put your students into practical situations where they will gain essential experience.
Thanks Aaron. And yes, a vibrant mix of theory and practice is always what we’re shooting for. Neither, in isolation, gets the job done (not suggesting that the only way to theory is through higher education…it’s not).
The more slogan-ish version of what we’re shooting for is this:
“High-level thinking. Street-level skiils.”
Fantastic conversation! Wish my mother was reading this. I run arts schools network, a national consortium of arts schools (and some international) and am loving it! Earned an arts mgmt masters at college of charleston and consider it worth every penny. we are all 3 degrees from seperation and continually building our field. bravo to all of you this Labor Day weekend.
Best,
kristy