• The student should be able to account for the theoretical positions presented in the syllabus.
• The student should be able to discuss the various positions in arts management and cultural entrepreneurship prensented in the syllabus.
• The student should be able to apply the various positions prensented in the syllabus to empirical cases and discuss the consequences.
• The student should be able to present argumentation in support of an action oriented solution to an empirical problem based on the theoretical contributions presented in the syllabus.
• the students should be able to put concepts of art and culture into a wider societal perspective.
• The students should be able to generate solutions to empirical problems in arts management and cultural entrepreneurship.
• The student should be able to apply tools and models introduced during the course to empirical cases.

Managing artists and cultural institutions has traditionally been equal to mastering in depth knowledge of the subject matter: stage directors have become theater directors, art historians have become museum directors, music conductors have become orchestra directors, and librarians have become head librarians. Arts management in this sense, has been primarily about securing artistic quality within more or less well-defined borders, oftentimes drawing on the director's personal taste as a main source of inspiration for managerial decision making. Thus, as pointed out by Hewison (2006) 'there has been no shortage of great artists having stamped their personality onto arts institutions'.

In our postmodern, globalized era, however, knowledge of artistic subject matters and references to personal taste have shown insufficient as toolkit for arts managers. A much broader competence repertory is needed in times with increasing pressure on public and private funding, ongoing challenges from social media and new technologies, multicultural demography, and what seems to be an increasing crisis of legitimacy for cultural institutions out of sync with their time and social contexts.

During the course we'll see arts management as linked to various aesthetic claims which since the Age of Enlightenment have established arts as an autonomous position beyond the social. Yet, this positions, often referred to as 'artistic freedom' protected by the arm's length principle in most the Western world, is challenged, and arts management needs to renegotiate its position.

The course offers an insight into how arts management can renegotiate this positions in order to develop a new sensibility towards the current challenges and possible means to overcome them. We look further into the complex processes of changing arts institutions, many of which date back to the Age of Enlightenment, to bring them in line with the expectations of contemporary audiences, and to provide them with renewed societal legitimacy. We explore cultural entrepreneurship by looking into the swarm of people, who enabled by social media and new available technologies, launch themselves as artists and cultural entrepreneurs in the DIY or DIE age. And we inquire into how arts and culture are used not only as a means to pursue personal interests, but also as a driver for social innovation and business.

 

Tentative literature:
 

Bourrieau, N.2002. Relational Aesthetics. Les Presses du réel, Dijon OBS

Chong, D. 2010. Arts Management. London: Routledge.

Eco, U., 1989. The Open Work. Harvard University Press OBS

Goffman, E. 1990. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Londong: Penguin Books.
Street, J., 2011, The Popular, the diverse and the excellent: political values and UK cultural policy, Cultural Policy, vol. 17(4) 380-393
Inglis, D. & Hughson, J. (eds.),2005, The Sociology of Art, Palgrave MacMillan
Tepper, S.J. & Ivey, B. (eds.), Engaging Art The next great transformation of America's cultural life, Routledge
Varbanova, L., Strategic Management in the arts, 2013