AAAE 2017

Making the Case for An Arts Degree: Using Alumni Feedback to Improve Advocacy, Pedagogy and Institutional Decision-Making
Sally Gaskill, Larry Epstein

The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) has collected, analyzed, and reported on educational and career data from arts graduates of more than 300 institutions in North America. While SNAAP was not meant to be an advocacy organization, its data can inform us about employment trends and overall satisfaction of people with degrees in the arts and arts administration. This session will (1) demonstrate how SNAAP and other data can be used for advocacy for the arts in higher education, and will include information on trends in arts enrollment and the latest findings from SNAAP; (2) focus on how one institution has begun to use its SNAAP data for institutional improvement, from admissions to curriculum revision to career counseling to alumni relations.

From the Ivory Tower to the Battlefield: Early Careers of Arts Management Graduate Program Alumni
Julie Hawkins, Kathryn Heidemann

This session explores alumni data from graduate arts administration and management programs in two major metropolitan markets in the United States (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), seeking to understand the early career paths of alumni and the relevance of their academic work to their professional experiences. Case studies of the two graduate programs will explore alumni participation in the profession in the first five to fifteen years following graduation, providing a look at how alumni progress in the field. Their readiness to work and the applicability of academic program content and training to their early career experiences will also be examined. A review of existing academic literature on the subject will help provide context for the case studies and illustrate the need for additional research in this area.

“Everyone was dancing” – Exploring perceptions of live music promoters’ in Malta on their practices as cultural producers and intermediaries
Adrian Debattista

This paper investigates the contemporary phenomenon of live music promotion within its real life context. Through the lens of live music promoters in Malta the practice of live music promotion was explored while taking into account structural factors that contribute towards their practices.

The role of Workspace/Arts-laboratory in fostering cultural and creative development in Belgium: The development of the performing arts sector in Flanders
Carlotta Scioldo

Grounding on the consideration of creative economy as a “bifurcated structure1” composed, on one hand, by main official institutions and, on the other, by a large number of NGO’s, self- employed and freelancer offers a framework through which to look at the performing arts field.  Moreover the creative workforce of such a field is featured by “unstable working conditions2”.  A case where these concerns have been successfully tackled is the one of Belgium. The performing arts field, strongly developed from the 1980's, is nowadays known as “the Flemish miracle. This points not only the density of artistic quality, but also the specific architecture of the landscape [policy] in which it originates3”.  On that basis, the case of Flanders represents the ideal starting point to unfold the structural and economic
features that lead the performing arts sector to a sustainable condition while increasing the attractiveness of the Brussels-Capital Region.
Footnotes:
1. Hutton, Pratt, Reconceptualising the relationship between creative economy and the city: learning from the financial crisis, CITIES 33, 2013.
2. ILO REPORT on employment in the media and cultural industries, 2014, pg. 8
3. Performing Arts Flanders, Transformers, Landscape sketch for the performing arts from flanders and beyond, Vlaams Theater Instituut, Brussels, 2014, pg. 21.
Philanthropic Attitudes: Navigating Philosophical Differences Between Bermuda
and the United States While Rehabilitating an Organization
Alicia M. Goodman

A struggling organization extends an invitation to go to a foreign country and help the
organization become healthy again. However, after arrival shock is experienced when attitudes toward philanthropy are different than what an American higher education program is built on. How does one balance fundamentals of education against the very different actualities of life? Beyond that, how does one work to rehabilitate an organization when there is a fundamental difference of philanthropy?
This paper, based on a current project, is an interdisciplinary examination of a struggling nonprofit theatre company through the lens of arts administration and business. This is a balancing act of financial rehabilitation while still remaining true to the charity/theatre organization. This paper examines two areas: first, tools used to diagnose issues of an organization, such as Patrick Leoncini’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team assessment, that fit the bridge of business and nonprofit. Second, this paper will also examine the differences of attitudes of philanthropy between Bermuda and the United States and explores what each country may learn from the other in regards to these attitudes.

Chair: Ursula Kuhar

Cultural Data Systems in the United States: A Brief History and Appraisal
Douglas DeNatale, Ph.D.

During the past 25 years, technological and conceptual advances in data science have provided new approaches to understanding complex systems in various domains. While arts organizations and agencies in the U.S. have been slower than some sectors to adopt new technologies, they have increasingly employed ever more sophisticated vendor systems within their business practices. During this period, public agencies and foundations have sought more reliable data on arts organizations’ activities, and have promoted a variety of new data collection efforts. As the work of cultural organizations has been reconsidered within a creative industries framework and the importance of the arts in placemaking has gained recognition, arts leaders have become increasingly willing to consider and promote their work within a larger social ecology.
The need for reliable, comprehensive data on the work of U.S. arts organizations within their communities to support the development of effective public policy is evident, and significant advances have been made in this direction. While the potential of data to illuminate the role of the arts and inform policy is widely appreciated, the effects of longstanding habits of thought and practical barriers to collaboration remain to be addressed.

Getting on the Map: Developing Learning Outcomes for New Tools and Data Sources
Neville Vakharia

With the rapid growth of online analytical tools and data sources relevant to the arts and cultural sector, new skills and methods of teaching are needed. The ability to make informed decisions using an array of new and emerging analysis tools is no longer a research skill but a leadership skill. As educators, how do we ensure students are entering the field with a working knowledge of these tools combined with the skills to use them strategically? How do we include the use of these tools as part of our coursework and curricula? In this interactive session and group discussion, new and emerging geospatial cultural mapping/research tools and data sources will be shared and discussed from the perspective of their potential for usage in the classroom. Participants will engage in discussions on how these tools can be linked to specific learning outcomes and understand how to incorporate a range of tools and data into arts administration courses and coursework. Ideally, this facilitated group discussion will lead to preliminary consensus on the role of these tools and associated learning outcomes that educators can seek to achieve.

Parallel Tracks Approaching the Same Station: The “Arts Entrepreneurship” and “Cultural Entrepreneurship” Constructs in US and European Higher Education 
Linda Essig

Expanding on a paper presented at the most recent ENCAT conference, and using new data recently gathered by the authors about US arts entrepreneurship education, this paper asks: how has ‘arts entrepreneurship’ developed as an academic field of education and inquiry in the US and in what ways is it the same or different from ‘cultural entrepreneurship’ as it is conceived of in Europe and Australia. ‘Cultural Entrepreneurship,’ especially as conceived of in the European context, seems to have matured both earlier and on a somewhat different but parallel track from ‘arts entrepreneurship.’ As Kuhlke, Schramme, and Kooyman (2015) note, “In Europe, courses began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s…primarily providing an
established business school education with an industry-specific focus on the new and emerging creative economy.” Conversely, the development of “arts entrepreneurship” courses and programs in the US seem to have been driven as much or more from interest within arts disciplines or even from within the career services units of arts conservatories as a means toward supporting artist self-sufficiency and career self-management This paper looks at the parallel conceptual development of “arts entrepreneurship” in the US as differentiated from “cultural entrepreneurship” in Europe and elsewhere, the ways in which the two fields are converging or not, and draws on new data about the US landscape of arts entrepreneurship education to consider where the field may be heading.

Creative Vacuums Suck: Using Problem-Posing to Connect Diverse Identities in Arts Education & Outreach
S. Rebeqa Rivers 

Who selects which established knowledge from history to use in arts education and outreach? Culturally biased definitions of quality and established knowledge produce a creative vacuum and prohibit artistic diversity. Additionally, traditional approaches to education and outreach can propagate historic systems of oppression and bias, leaving many voices missing or minimized in mainstream arts conversations. Consequently, many people do not see their identities reflected in the arts or feel empowered to participate. This session explores collaborative, problem-posing approaches to arts education and outreach that challenge political patterns of exclusion. Problem-posing generates dialogue and requires us to examine the relevance of established knowledge against a range of diverse identities. This session will also examine successful examples of problem-posing arts education and outreach. By cultivating responsive conversation, arts education and outreach can move away from the creative vacuum of culturally biased knowledge to enfranchise a more equitable, vibrant, and global community.

Enabling Change, Encouraging Challenge
Ellen Rosewall 

Today's arts managers are facing the same challenges as many other industries - the emergence of new audience participation patterns, fluid organizational structures, and changing social norms. On her recent sabbatical, Ellen Rosewall visited with organizations around the country who are innovating, and used these conversations as a base for research on how the arts are developing new programs, new structures, and new ways of participation in the arts. This session will explore some ways we can work with our students to engage them in the task of rethinking the arts for 21st century arts and audiences. (Spoiler alert: it does not involve lowering artistic quality)

Does Curating Have a Role in the Arts Administration Curriculum?
Sandra Lang

Often so much emphasis is placed on acquiring business and technical skills in arts administration programs that the art form is overlooked. The arts manager should know his or her discipline, but to what degree should that be a part of the curriculum? In the visual arts field, knowledge of curatorial history, methods for interpreting exhibitions, and installation and display techniques are essential. Given the nature of arts organizations today, - how their cultural roles have changed, the importance of public engagement, the influence of technology and the impact of globalization, - understanding the variety of exhibition types and the process of organizing visual presentations is an important component for any emerging visual arts manager. Comprehension of the curatorial context behind an art exhibition, be it in a museum, gallery, biennial, art fair, or alternative space, is achieved through studying the theory and practice of making exhibitions and developing critical assessment skills. This presentation explores how the role of the curator can be addressed in the visual arts administration curriculum.

Bill T. Jones & The Creative Proposition
George Sampson

Artists in Residence programs are an important method by which students of Arts Administration at the University of Virginia advance this year’s conference theme of New Places, Spaces and Faces: Exploring Possibilities and Crossing Borders. I propose to lead a session that will illustrate UVA’s transdisciplinary approach to arts administration through a discussion and film screening of an extended artist residency with two-time TONY awardee and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, choreographer Bill T. Jones. The film is a 28-minute PBS-broadcast film by Kartemquin Films called The Creative Proposition. The film, unavailable online, tells the story of a week-long residency in 2008 which crossed the borders of UVA’s campus by assembling a company of 90 students and community members who joined the 10 professionals. At Bill’s request, the company was diverse by gender, race, age, dance experience and town/gown affiliation. Bill was thus able to try out choreographic ideas for what became his 2009 piece Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray, created for the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, commissioned by the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Il. Kartemquin Films was part of the commission and the film is an inside look at the intense, 3-day creative process by which Bill and the troupe created 100 Migrations, a locally-staged re-creation of the Civil War in dance. In the Southern town of Charlottesville, Virginia, ten days after the election of Barack Obama as 44th President of the U.S., this was an incredibly powerful experience and the first half of the film captures it well. The film’s second half continues the story of UVA’s involvement with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company over three visits in 2011, when Bill and Company developed and rehearsed a subsequent work called Story/Time. A product of the vision of then Vice Provost for the Arts Beth Turner, these return visits illustrate how broader institutional goals/outcomes can grow from one residency. Outcomes included the engagement of a UVA music professor as composer for Story/Time, the power of Bill’s studio visits with architecture, engineering and art students, in dialogue with medical students & employees, with the Board of UVA’s Art Museum and elsewhere. The discussion session following the screening will align and extend the conference and the film’s mutual themes of crossing borders to explore possibilities and utilize new places, spaces and faces.