Art Management Research and Study Opportunities

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Diving into the world of art: Art Management 101

The arts attract people from various walks of life. Those who produce or perform the arts are, of course, among them. Diversely, others are responsible for ensuring that the commercial side of the art world runs smoothly. You can call them backstage players, but that's where Art Managers come into play!

Art Management (also known as Art Administration) is the application of business management techniques and processes to the field of art. It entails managing the day-to-day activities of private and public art institutions.

Arts Management aims to bring both art and business disciplines together, as they may have opposing goals. The former covers the practical aspects of running a business, such as a resource management, sticking to a budget, and maximizing productivity. The latter is a form of expression that conveys the author's vision and emotions while in the majority of cases being unconcerned with financial gain.

Art Management must value the arts by not suffocating the artist's imagination and right to express themselves. Art should always have the freedom and space to fulfill its place in society: to inspire ideas, to teach, to represent current issues and challenges in society, to form nations and peoples' identities, and to leave cultural legacies for future generations.

How old is the Art Management discipline, you would ask?

The experience of arts organizations in the United States during the 1960s led to the formalization of Arts Management within higher education. In 1966, Yale and Florida State University launched the first two postgraduate arts management programs. As of 2014, The Association for Arts Administrator Educators (AAAE) had more than 40 undergraduate and graduate Arts Management programs. Noticeably, the picture has changed, giving exceptional opportunities to those that find themselves passionate about this sphere. We have mentioned some of these opportunities at the top of this article, so if you have skipped to the contextual part first, it's the best time to scroll up!

What are the career opportunities for an Art Manager?

Art Management: as romantic as it would sound, this discipline offers a wide range of career opportunities, giving a chance to fulfill oneself while working in this creative sphere. Some of them include but are not limited to: 

  • Artist Agent
  • Artistic Director
  • Contemporary Art Advisor
  • Event Producer
  • Exhibition Curator
  • Festival Manager
  • Financial Manager
  • Grants Manager
  • Manager of Artistic Outreach
  • Theater Producer

Sounds exciting, right? Yet, you can all acknowledge that you first need to pursue your related degree to feel like a fish in the water or take short-term online courses. You name it. 

What do Art Management Studies students learn?

Students can gain the expertise and skills they need to work in galleries, museums, performing arts companies, and various other similar fields by pursuing an education in arts management. To create bridges between art, artists, and audiences, the discipline of Arts Management combines business tools (such as management, marketing, and planning) with the audience and community building tools (such as fundraising, creation, education, volunteerism, and so on).

The primary learning objectives of Art Management studies students are as follows:

  • Developing management skills to handle art and culture effectively.
  • Establishing new and innovative thinking in the arts and culture sector's management.
  • When working in the arts field, ensuring an ethical and socially responsible mindset.
  • Acknowledging diverse project management methods for culture-related administrative practices.
  • In the global economy, recognizing and handling various financial aspects relevant to cultural events.
  • Appreciating human resource management in the creative industries, especially when it comes to volunteering.
  • Understanding and applying marketing and networking methods and strategies to the cultural and creative fields.

Art and Cultural Management to Influence Social Progress

Degree programs in arts and cultural management are designed to encourage creativity and leadership in managing art projects. Graduates of these academic programs often find themselves in nonprofit sectors, using art to mobilize communities, raise awareness on various issues and boost effective public advocacy campaigns.

Degree Programs in Art and Cultural Management

This cross-sectoral academic program is a mix of theory, practice, and skills, which focuses on delivering management techniques and exploring art in a broader context. Degree program on art and cultural management is an academic platform to analyze and explore cases and practices where art went further than diplomacy.

Undergraduate programs last from three to four years and tend to deliver broader and general education. Students of bachelor's degree programs in art management analyze and research art in the intersection of society, culture, civic activism, history, and philosophy. Graduate degree program students benefit from intensive interdisciplinary curricula, either research-based or taught, that combines advanced management courses with art disciplines.

Various Universities and colleges generously provide scholarships and fellowships for international students.

Art Management research opportunities

Art-based research can be characterized as the systematic use of the creative method, creating artistic expressions in all types of the arts, as a primary way for both researchers and the people they study to understand and examine art experience. The following are some of the subdisciplines of art management you can focus on while your correspondent research:

Finance and accounting

Individuals, companies (businesses), and nonprofits are all customers of accounting and finance professionals. While many use the words accounting and finance interchangeably, there are essential distinctions between them: accounting focuses on the flow of money in and out of business, whereas finance is a broader concept that analyzes how to manage assets.

Human resources management

Dual management (a common problem in the arts field, whether synergistic or conflictual, of creative and managerial competencies) is often encountered in this industry.

Strategic management

In the subdiscipline of strategic management, two fields of contribution can be identified: project management and innovation management. Many creative practices focus on project creation, such that the art world is used to dealing with inconsistency (the production of a show or a movie, for instance).

Marketing and consumer behavior

Marketing and consumer behavior have become the most active research fields in the field of arts management, according to an overview of AIMAC conference proceedings. Arts marketing has evolved techniques focused on direct contact and interpersonal exchanges, such as "street marketing" or "buzz marketing," in part due to severely restricted budgets and customer interest by word-of-mouth communication.

Competitions and Awards in Art

The competitions and awards in the art are an excellent tool to encourage creativity and excellence. Competitions in photography, film and animation, street art and music, as well as many other fields, happen almost every day in different parts of the world. ARMACAD does this great job of compiling what's happening in art and culture in one database. Check it out!

ARMACAD can guide you on your way to success in Art Management!

Today's arts administrators are faced with a daunting task: bringing art and viewers together. Countless scholarships, fellowships, and grants allow students and existing professionals of the field to deepen their knowledge in the sphere and acquire new skills and competencies. Grab your next study opportunity in Art Management with ARMACAD and open the curtains to a new scope, where business and art exist one to one.

Search with ARMACAD

There is no single reason why you should not choose ARMACAD to search for scholarships and fellowships, degrees, certificates, and online programs in arts and cultural management.

Our electronic database provides the best search system and hundreds of excellent academic and professional opportunities: conferences, summer schools, short-term training, contests, and competitions.