Training Leaders of Cultural Groups

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

To the Editor:

A more thorough examination on Nicole Lewis’s part of the issue of training for arts managers (“A Leading Performance,” May 26) would have revealed an entire system of universities across North America, Australia, and Europe that have comprehensive programs devoted specifically to this purpose.

These courses of study are offered by over 45 programs at the graduate and undergraduate level. These programs, a few of which are over 30 years old, have grown beyond the retelling of the experiences of a single individual to deliver a comprehensive curriculum designed to develop students’ capacities as fund raisers, planners, marketers, and financial managers in the nonprofit and for-profit arts.

Given the current challenges of arts and cultural organizations to survive in an increasingly competitive business environment, the need for highly trained and skilled managers is growing. Programs at the undergraduate and graduate level are preparing students to balance aesthetic understanding with specialized skills in generating income, managing boards, stimulating public access, and sustaining the vision of organizations whose primary purpose is the delivery, presentation, and preservation of culture.

Many different degrees are available in the study of arts administration, and such degrees may be offered and housed in different schools within a college or university. In all cases they have the support of the entire institution and are not solely dependent upon the fortunes or circumstances of a single donor.

Recognition of arts administration as a profession is a recent development. Because formal education was not begun until the mid-1960s, the profession is still in its adolescence, even as arts institutions are demanding higher levels of sophistication from their administrators. Higher education remains the appropriate response to these demands and to the present and future management needs of the arts. Recently the association, in collaboration with its members, began the development of educational standards in order to assist programs in structuring and reviewing their curriculum.

There are many qualified active practitioners and educators that make these programs successful educational programs that balance theory and application. They form a comprehensive team of experience, knowledge, and education instruction to provide those wishing to lead cultural organizations with a highly organized and strategically developed education designed to meet the need for expertise in the management of culture.

Cecelia Fitzgibbon
President
Association of Arts Administration Educators
New York
Director
Arts Administration Program
Drexel University
Philadelphia