Derrick Chong, Arts Management (second edition), London and New York (Routledge) 2010.
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter is organized into six sections with attention devoted to how conventional boundaries
defining arts organizations – public/private and not-for-profit/for-profit – are being challenged.
Foundations of Arts Management
Arts management emerged in the USA during the 1960s. Multiple institutions showed an interest in
the arts during this period of time. Though, there was an imbalance: The USA’s arts and culture
record did not match the country’s leading geopolitical and economic position. The USA has helped
to advance a nexus between business and the arts, including business sponsorship and the art and
culture as subjects of economic inquiry, which other countries have adopted. However, they spoke a
very commercial language about art and they often had no knowledge about the art world.
Art management has taken root at leading business schools through USA and UK. Also, specialist and
private universities in the commercial worlds of arts and culture have thrived. Even trainings for
senior posts require a combination of skills desired nu arts and cultural organizations.
Defining Arts Management
Chong provides four different authors with different definitions of arts management.
The significance of the extend to profitable organizations should be accentuated in the
definition of arts management as it sets conditions for arts managers and trustees.
Three sectors of the economy:
1. The private sector, or the market economy, emphasizes profit maximization for the long-
term interests of its owners (stakeholders or stockholders). These are removed from direct
control of the business, now in control of salaried managers. Smaller commercial business in
the arts such as art dealers are owner-operated (personal capitalism).
A direct buyer-seller relationship
2. Wealth distribution takes place via taxes to provide public services for citizens in central to
understanding the public sector, where the relationship is one between the state and the
citizens. The state has competing demands for tax expenditures with the arts often trailing
behind health, education and social wealth.
3. Not-for-profit (nonprofit, voluntary or third sector) has been described as offering so-called
humanistic service by filling a gap between private and public sector.
Two sets of stakeholders: donors and recipients.
The line of demarcation between ‘purely administrative functions’ and ‘producing the artistic work’
with arts management focusing on the former, means that the insights of artists and cultural critics
on the relationship between the arts and management may be sidelined.
Keywords in Arts Management
- Arts and culture
- Management
- Creativity
- Culture industry
- Consumerism
Rise of Managerialism in Arts Management
It is beneficial to consider the interventions of artists and cultural critics when examining the
relationship between the arts and management, even if one is conducting an exercise to identify
legitimate areas of managerial intervention in the name of effectiveness and efficiency.
1
, Art Management Systems
Martin (1998) distinguishes between ‘public, nonprofit art organizations’ and ‘private, commercial,
for profit artistic entities.’
Two forms of private, commercial, for profit artistic entities:
1. Publicly listed firms such as Sony and Sotheby’s, which represent a form of managerial
capitalism.
2. Personal capitalism associated with owner-operated enterprises such as art dealers and
independent record labels.
The classical industrial economy, represented as a three-stage process from production to
distribution to consumption, is relevant to arts organizations. Artistic creation (production) is linked
to artistic reception material (distribution) through the intermediation role of arts organizations
(consumption). Second, arts organizations need to address three mutually supporting commitments:
to excellence and artistic integrity; to accessibility and audience development and; to public
accountability and cost effectiveness. Third, key stakeholders are even more important for arts
organizations not motivated by profit maximization.
1. Production – distribution – consumption
o Identity (consumers tend to look to products they consume to affirm their overall
identity)
o Reputation
o Connoisseurship
2. Three commitments of arts organizations
o Excellence and artistic integrity
Falsifying
Consumer does not know what he wants
o Accessibility and audience development
Sustainability and longer-term impact
Barriers to first-time visitors
o Public accountability and cost effectiveness
Financial stability is needed to allow aesthetic programming to take place
3. Managing relationships with stakeholders
o Owners, employees, suppliers, customers and society.
Organizational Metaphors
- The machine view metaphor
- Political systems metaphor
- Psychic prisons metaphor
- Instruments of domination metaphor
The Louvre
The use of metaphor to engage in problems associated with ‘reading’ organizations has benefits.
2
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter is organized into six sections with attention devoted to how conventional boundaries
defining arts organizations – public/private and not-for-profit/for-profit – are being challenged.
Foundations of Arts Management
Arts management emerged in the USA during the 1960s. Multiple institutions showed an interest in
the arts during this period of time. Though, there was an imbalance: The USA’s arts and culture
record did not match the country’s leading geopolitical and economic position. The USA has helped
to advance a nexus between business and the arts, including business sponsorship and the art and
culture as subjects of economic inquiry, which other countries have adopted. However, they spoke a
very commercial language about art and they often had no knowledge about the art world.
Art management has taken root at leading business schools through USA and UK. Also, specialist and
private universities in the commercial worlds of arts and culture have thrived. Even trainings for
senior posts require a combination of skills desired nu arts and cultural organizations.
Defining Arts Management
Chong provides four different authors with different definitions of arts management.
The significance of the extend to profitable organizations should be accentuated in the
definition of arts management as it sets conditions for arts managers and trustees.
Three sectors of the economy:
1. The private sector, or the market economy, emphasizes profit maximization for the long-
term interests of its owners (stakeholders or stockholders). These are removed from direct
control of the business, now in control of salaried managers. Smaller commercial business in
the arts such as art dealers are owner-operated (personal capitalism).
A direct buyer-seller relationship
2. Wealth distribution takes place via taxes to provide public services for citizens in central to
understanding the public sector, where the relationship is one between the state and the
citizens. The state has competing demands for tax expenditures with the arts often trailing
behind health, education and social wealth.
3. Not-for-profit (nonprofit, voluntary or third sector) has been described as offering so-called
humanistic service by filling a gap between private and public sector.
Two sets of stakeholders: donors and recipients.
The line of demarcation between ‘purely administrative functions’ and ‘producing the artistic work’
with arts management focusing on the former, means that the insights of artists and cultural critics
on the relationship between the arts and management may be sidelined.
Keywords in Arts Management
- Arts and culture
- Management
- Creativity
- Culture industry
- Consumerism
Rise of Managerialism in Arts Management
It is beneficial to consider the interventions of artists and cultural critics when examining the
relationship between the arts and management, even if one is conducting an exercise to identify
legitimate areas of managerial intervention in the name of effectiveness and efficiency.
1
, Art Management Systems
Martin (1998) distinguishes between ‘public, nonprofit art organizations’ and ‘private, commercial,
for profit artistic entities.’
Two forms of private, commercial, for profit artistic entities:
1. Publicly listed firms such as Sony and Sotheby’s, which represent a form of managerial
capitalism.
2. Personal capitalism associated with owner-operated enterprises such as art dealers and
independent record labels.
The classical industrial economy, represented as a three-stage process from production to
distribution to consumption, is relevant to arts organizations. Artistic creation (production) is linked
to artistic reception material (distribution) through the intermediation role of arts organizations
(consumption). Second, arts organizations need to address three mutually supporting commitments:
to excellence and artistic integrity; to accessibility and audience development and; to public
accountability and cost effectiveness. Third, key stakeholders are even more important for arts
organizations not motivated by profit maximization.
1. Production – distribution – consumption
o Identity (consumers tend to look to products they consume to affirm their overall
identity)
o Reputation
o Connoisseurship
2. Three commitments of arts organizations
o Excellence and artistic integrity
Falsifying
Consumer does not know what he wants
o Accessibility and audience development
Sustainability and longer-term impact
Barriers to first-time visitors
o Public accountability and cost effectiveness
Financial stability is needed to allow aesthetic programming to take place
3. Managing relationships with stakeholders
o Owners, employees, suppliers, customers and society.
Organizational Metaphors
- The machine view metaphor
- Political systems metaphor
- Psychic prisons metaphor
- Instruments of domination metaphor
The Louvre
The use of metaphor to engage in problems associated with ‘reading’ organizations has benefits.
2
