Arts Leadership: Converging on Change

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Notes

1 New York Times. “Hardcover Nonfiction Bestsellers,” January 8, 2019. Accessed January 3, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/hardcover-nonfiction/.

2 Association of Arts Administration Educators. “Programs.” Accessed January 3, 2019. https://www.artsadministration.org/programs/?programs=all. Neither the Janklow Arts Leadership Program at Syracuse University nor the Arts Leadership program at the University of Southern California appears on this list.

3 Nerenhausen, M. “Arts Leadership, Arts Management, Arts Administration.” Google Books, Ngram Viewer. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Arts+Leadership%2CArts+Management%2CArts+Administration&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CArts%20Leadership%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CArts%20Management%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CArts%20Administration%3B%2Cc0 (chart generated December 28, 2018).

4 In so ambitious an undertaking, it is inevitable that a small number of details will be missed, particularly when they are sourced so broadly. I noted two examples drawn from the United States which Caust, from her Australian vantage point, misunderstood: (1) She cites the dismissal of filmmaker, stage and opera director Julie Taymor from leadership of the live Broadway theatrical production Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark as an example of the lack of respect female creators receive in the American film industry (54); (2) she uses the production Game of Thrones, a series financed and exhibited by venerable cable television outlet Home Box Office (HBO), as an example of filmmakers targeting new audiences through innovative distribution channels (84). These are small bobbles, and neither one undermines the high quality of Caust’s work.

5 Full disclosure: Kenneth Foster and I were contemporaries for approximately three decades in the performing arts presentation field and its professional organization, now known as the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP). While we never, to my recollection, collaborated directly on any projects, we had close colleagues in common and many of my own experiences paralleled those Foster cites in the development of his arguments.

6 “I began my career as a theater director, and there is no better training for leading an arts organization than directing an ensemble theater piece” (Foster 2018, 88).

7 Mark Nerenhausen, conversation with the author, November 21, 2018.

8 Nerenhausen also mentioned that traditional arts administration and management programs restrict themselves too frequently to the not-for-profit organizational model, thereby neglecting to alert their students to the significant arts-focused career paths available in the commercial theater, music, visual art, film, parks and attractions, and travel/tourism industries.