Managerial Roles and Entrepreneurship in Nonprofit Urban Arts Agencies in Virginia (original) (raw)

What is Arts Entrepreneurship? Tracking the Development of its Definition in Scholarly Journals

Artivate, 2015

In this study, we investigate the ways in which arts entrepreneurship has been operationalized and defined in the literature. We identify eight scholarly journals in arts administration and policy, in business administration, and in nonprofit marketing published during 2003-2013 and review articles published in these journals. Our review found that the scholarly literature on arts entrepreneurship has in fact been quite scarce. We also examine all articles in Artivate, a journal that specializes in arts entrepreneurship. Taking the literature as a whole, we found a plethora of meanings used in the literature, indicating an, as yet, unsettled definition. We suggest that some analytical clarity can be obtained by grouping the many meanings of arts entrepreneurship into five analytical "levels": Personal Character traits, Goals, Strategies, Tactics, and Context. We also suggest a possible general definition: "arts entrepreneurship" is a management process through which cultural workers seek to support their creativity and autonomy, advance their capacity for adaptability, and create artistic as well as economic and social value. This management process involves an ongoing set of innovative choices and risks intended to recombine resources and pursue new opportunities to produce artistic, economic, and social value. Identifying the emerging clusters from the meanings found in the literature, we conclude that to understand arts entrepreneurs, one must focus on the innovative combinations of strategy, individual skills, and mindset operating in each case of arts entrepreneurship and its context. As arts entrepreneurship is a constant exercise in recombination of skillsets, the possibility of flexible recipes begins to reveal what might be regarded as the recombinant DNA of arts entrepreneurship.

Toward a Theory of Arts Entrepreneurship

Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education, 2015

The Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education provides a national inventory of Arts Entrepreneurship programs and currently identifies at least ninety-six institutions offering courses and programs dedicated to the study of entrepreneurship in the context of the arts. Research suggests such courses are commonly associated with new venture creation across the arts and creative sector, as well as the teaching and learning of skills, competencies and behaviors necessary for self-employment in the arts and creative industries. However, despite the existence of such courses and programs, there currently exists no proposed theory or theories of arts entrepreneurship in nascent literature for guiding contextual entrepreneurship pedagogy and practice. In an effort to advance the concept of arts entrepreneurship, this paper identifies challenges to theory building, explores a theory of arts entrepreneurship, and proposes how a theory of arts entrepreneurship can inform program theory development.

Analyzing Entrepreneurship in the U.S. Arts Sector: Identifying arts entrepreneurs' demographics and shared characteristics

Artivate: A journal of entrepreneurship in the arts, 2017

The purpose of this study is to lay a foundation for comparative analysis of arts entrepreneurs' demographics and shared characteristics in a given U.S. arts sector. Guided by a conceptual framework for the U.S. arts sector, I utilized a cross sectional survey design to generate data for analysis. In this article, I reflect on the research process, interpret findings, and utilize new understandings as a catalyst for guiding and informing directions for the emerging arts entrepreneurship research field.

Arts Entrepreneurship vs. the Sum of Its Parts

Artivate, 2015

“Arts entrepreneurship,” like its close relative “arts management,” has a complex pedigree and a sprawling footprint. Its frameworks and practices span many disciplines. Its areas of focus include the person, the process, and the outcome of entrepreneurial effort. But while we argue about the various branches and twists of this evolving ecosystem, we may be missing the forest for the trees. This paper explores and explains an approach to arts entrepreneurship focused on its resource-seeking qualities and the interplay of entrepreneur and environment.

Perspectives on Arts Entrepreneurship, Part 1

Artivate, 2015

Arts entrepreneurship," like its close relative "arts management," has a complex pedigree and a sprawling footprint. Its frameworks and practices span many disciplines. Its areas of focus include the person, the process, and the outcome of entrepreneurial effort. But while we argue about the various branches and twists of this evolving ecosystem, we may be missing the forest for the trees. As an older sibling of arts entrepreneurship, arts management offers some useful markers to find our way. Arts management has been aptly labeled a "borrower's field" (DeVereaux and Vartiainen, 2009, p. 8; Brindle and DeVereaux, 2011, p. 5) as it draws from many disciplines in both theory and practice-visual and performing arts, humanities, business, political science, social science, and on and on. But arts management could also be labeled a "burrower's field" as its practitioners, scholars, and supporters often dig their way into emerging and established domains in search of money, shelter, and positive attention. Centuries ago, the arts found support by burrowing toward the values and vanities of affluent merchants, nobility, or organized religion, and borrowing the trappings of status and class. In the mid-20th Century, artists and arts organizations burrowed toward public purpose, growing philanthropic wealth, and nationalism, borrowing the tools and tactics of the evolving not-for-profit sector. More recently, the arts have burrowed into urban renewal, educational achievement, health and wellness, social cohesion, and a range of other favored foci of philanthropy and policy, often borrowing the processes and practices of each related field. So it's no wonder that "arts entrepreneurship" faces a similar kerfuffle about what it is and what it isn't, and how we might practice, promote, or study it. The larger concept of

Understanding Arts Management in the US: From Context to Professional Tasks

In this paper, I address the issues of professionalism for arts administration in the United States. I deconstruct the impact of government changes, private foundations involvement and mass communication development in shaping the life of arts organizations. In particular, I analyze how these factors impacted the professional skills of arts organization in area such as education and community program, development, and marketing and communication. Drawing from these findings I suggest guidelines for curriculum development.

A Theory of Arts Entrepreneurship as Organizational Attack

Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, 2019

Arguably, success and failure in arts entrepreneurship does not depend upon one’s ability to employ themselves or create a business. Given that the academic field of arts entrepreneurship is still emerging, it is not surprising that arts entrepreneurship theory is underdeveloped. As a result, arts entrepreneurship researchers have had to import other theories from outside of the arts literature to provide a rationale for their conceptual frameworks, models, hypotheses, and research conclusions. While a theory of arts entrepreneurship could help answer the recurring question (i.e., What is arts entrepreneurship?), without a theory or theories based on repeated observations that are verifiable, what arts entrepreneurship “is” may be based on individual subjectivity, discipline-based bias, and untested assumptions. To address this gap in the arts entrepreneurship literature, I propose a theory of arts entrepreneurship evidenced by repeated observations that are verifiable via case study experiences.

Arts Management Newsletter "Perspectives on Cultural Entrepreneurship"

The field of cultural entrepreneurship is reconsidering the intersection of culture, technology and entrepreneurship. It uses the new dynamics that arise to the cultural sector to revolutionize current business and financing models and redefine the impact of the arts. The boom of the creative industry and the Global Entrepreneurship Index show that applied creativity that extends beyond artistic products is becoming increasingly important for economic and societal development in different parts of the world. Here, cultural entrepreneurship serves to pursue a higher goal, to improve daily live and to use culture to cause social impact. Cultural entrepreneurship therefore needs public demand, visions and pioneers who want to create conditions for new forms of creativity, creative work or social roles, and to apply these conditions for the purpose of society in the future. Therefore, cultural entrepreneurship is about demonstrating shortcomings, developing new perspectives and ways of thinking, and questioning pre-existing structures. Cultural managers thus have to become change agents whose aim is to promote purpose, provide the courage to lower internal as well as external barriers, accept new ideas and withstand setbacks. In this way, approaches are needed that attempt to anchor economic and entrepreneurial thinking in the arts, to use resources and ingenuity to recognize opportunities, and to develop business acumen that increases revenue and ensures self-sustainability.