Małgorzata Sternal, Management and entrepreneurship – what do they mean for artists?

Zarządzanie Kulturą, tom 6 (2013), nr 1 / Culture Management, vol. 6 (2013), no. 1

Małgorzata Sternal (Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland) MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP – WHAT DO THEY MEAN FOR ARTISTS?

Key words: art, professional musician, management, entrepreneurship.

Abstract:The article discusses some aspects of the relationship of art and management, arts and business cooperation and perception of entrepreneurship as a significant factor of culture management today.

A short overview of viewpoints on mutual usefulness of management and the arts is followed by a brief presentation of a pilot research on the opinions of professional musicians on the importance of entrepreneurship in their professional life

Art and business, the arts for business, art and management, the arts for management, artist-manager, manager-artist - such combinations, comparisons, contradictions have been made for many years [Chiapello, 1998]. A lot has been written on the subject of „why” and „how” the arts and culture may/should benefit from the business management body of knowledge. It seems that the opinion expressed over thirty years ago by Greyser and Raymond [1978] is still valid. They underlined that arts and business have got in common a host of operating imperatives: the need to define an organisational purpose, the need for careful planning, the need for sensible financial administration, the need for effective audience development and promotion (that is marketing), the need for sensitive handling of human and labor relations, and, in case of larger entities, the need for a sound structure [Greyser, Raymond, 1978, p. 124]. In other words, management methods developed by business should be used by the arts and culture organisations. Numerous academic handbooks and research reports concerned with management in various spheres of contemporary societies base on the knowledge and skills originating from management of business organisations which operate for economic profit. Nevertheless, those methods have been adapted and modified according to the requirements of a particular field in which they are applied.

Last decades have brought a growing interest in the „reverse movement” - the influence that the arts exert on business management. How can the arts contribute to the for-profit management? The issue now is not only the image benefits resulting from business sponsorship of the arts and culture institutions and projects, but also the meaning of the involvement of artists and „arts-based inititatives” for the development of companies, for increased ability of value (including economic value) creation, staff competence development and motivation, as well as stimulating organisational changes. [Schiuma, 2009, p. 7]. A thought that in the 21st century management the arts have become one of the management resources and tools has been expressed more than once, therefore the question of the value of arts for business. That question was asked by Giovanni Schiuma in his book titled accordingly: The Value of Arts for Business [2011]. The author attempts to explore the subject through other questions, such as Why do twenty-first century organisations need to use the arts as a management tool? How are organisations experimenting with the use of the arts to solve their business problems? How can we classify and analyse the managerial use What are the organisational benefits of ABIs and why should organisations invest in them? How can ABIs support the achievement of business objectives and organisational growth? How can managers and arts-based [initiatives] providers manage ABIs with the aim of driving business performance improvements? [Schiuma, 2011, s. 21].

The questions quoted above might sound controversial, especially considering instrumental approach towards art and artists. This problem was discussed by a British leadership trainer (former actor and theatre director) - Piers Ibbotson, in his paper prepared for the Art of Management and Organisation conference in 2012. In the presentation titled „How I helped to cause the banking crisis and became

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Zarządzanie Kulturą, tom 6 (2013), nr 1 / Culture Management, vol. 6 (2013), no. 1 a whore”, Ibbotson recalled a training focused on creativity and risk taking that he and a group of actors had delivered for young bankers. He mentioned some reasons why the participation in „the arts interventions” delivered for business companies to prostitution [Ibbotson, 2012].

Discussing the role and place of artists and their creative activity in for-profit companies gets far beyond the scope of this text. However, it might be worth noting that the subject is not entirely new.

Starting from the conception of the experience economy presented by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore [Pine, Gilmore, 1998], exploring the part that emotions and individual experience (including aesthetic experience) play in decision making has been increasingly discussed. And it concerns not only the buying customer decision making, but also the context of efficient management and business results achievement.

Looking at organisations in the aesthetic perspective, and comparing management to artistic activity has become a distinct trend in management research recently [Kostera, Śliwa, 2010]. A good example might be the research activity of one of the most important business schools in Europe - Centre for Art and Leadership, within the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)1.

This viewpoint is linked to distinguishing creativity as a crucial quality of manager. A belief that only artists can teach how to be creative has become a basis for numerous arts trainings for business people, and the source of a conviction that „MFA is the new MBA” - [Adler, 2006].

Controversy aside, it is definitely worth paying attention to some aspects of the relationship of arts and business, which seem significant from artists viewpoint, their professional activity and development, and - consequently - the role of the higher education in the arts. It is necessary to keep in mind that in Poland we do not have sufficient data on the artists labour market size and structure, regional differences, trends, etc. The arts academies, obliged to monitor professional careers of their graduates, are only starting relevant research, and do not have enough data to be able to reach any conclusions.

It is not easy to find a clear answer whether contemporary artists need the knowledge of management, understood as a type of activity - set of skills and expertise. However, the Report on arts education [Raport of szkolnictwie artystycznym] prepared for the Congress of Polish Culture in 2009, quotes the opinions of graduates of arts academies, expressing their disappointment that there had been no opportunity during their studies to get tools which would enable them to organise their own work or the activities of ensembles they lead. Is it necessary for every artist to have those skills in order to get satisfaction from the artistic work to which they have been preparing themselves through a long and demanding education? In this text we shall concentrate on musicians, as they are most often presented as models of leadership (conductors), team work (orchestra members and chamber musicians), or ability to solve problems in a creative way (jazz musicians).

Let us take an example of a symphony orchestra conductor. The metaphor „manager is like a conductor” proposed by Peter F. Drucker in the mid-20th century, has been widely exploited, but also questioned - mostly because there is a significant difference between the work that a conductor is doing while rehearsing a piece and the work on the podium during a performance [Mintzberg, 2009, p.31-32].

Many descriptions of this occupation include activities going beyond the artistic work on the interpretation, preparation with a music ensemble and public performance of a composition. The entry in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians explains that contemporary conducting [conducting / direction d’orchestre / Dirigieren] combines at least three functions. Conductor not only makes interpretation decisions regarding a musical work and effectuates these decision during rehearsals and performances, but also participates in the administration of a musical ensemble. Such understanding of conductor’s profession is not at all a new approach. Hector Berlioz was recognised as someone who knew that conductor’s work was not limited to rehearsals and performances - being a conductor he had to be organiser, teacher, psychologist, and entrepreneur who provided the orchestra with energy [cf. New Grove…, p. 267]. We know from the history od music in Europe that combining the roles of composer, performer (conductor in this case) and concert organiser had been not unheard of, however - starting from the 19th century - when conducting gained a position of a separate occupation, based on an artistic skill of interpreting and mediating music composed by someone else, conductor became a particular figure, 1

http://www.cbs.dk/en/research/departments-and-centres/department-of-management-politics-andphilosophy/center-art-and-leadership

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Zarządzanie Kulturą, tom 6 (2013), nr 1 / Culture Management, vol. 6 (2013), no. 1 charismatic and crucial for the right presentation of musical work. Tasks going beyond this area have been marginalised and today it is not expected automatically from a conductor fulfilling roles other than artistic interpretation and performance. Still, in the Polish Klasyfikacja zawodów i specjalności [Classification of occupations] based on the standard classification of the International Labour Organisation, in the description of professional tasks of conductors, in the section titled „additional tasks”, we can find „managing arts institution (philharmonic orchestra, opera theatre, music ensemble) and cultural centres”2.

And this is confirmed by the custom of employing conductors as chief executives in Polish philharmonic orchestras - almost half of the public orchestras in Poland are currently managed by conductors.

Chief executive or artistic director of an orchestra has to combine administrative duties with artistic leadership of the ensemble and its members. Even if this person is working with a small ensemble and not a philharmonic orchestra, it is eventually evident that artistic skills are not sufficient to build a strong team and to create internal and external relationships of the group. It becomes quite obvious that conductor’s training should involve at least general introduction to management issues.

Another important subject in the arts-business relationship has been recently much discussed, both in specialist publications [Beckman, 2011] as well as during conferences and arts schools network meetings.

Entrepreneurship - the term appears in my varieties and combinations (intrapreneurship, artepreneurship) and is linked to various areas of artistic activity in all sectors - public institutions, cultural industries, the third sector organisations, as well as individual projects. This skill or quality - which is difficult to classify - is usually mentioned when debating the young artists labour market problems. It is quite challenging, though, to define precisely what exactly is the art entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial artist, etc. The difficulty in clarifying the meaning should not come as a surprise, however. Similarly, business entrepreneurship has not been a clear term and the views on the role on entrepreneur as creating disturbance within existing conditions or rather seeking balance through filling in identified gaps, have been opposing [Kirzner, 2008].

There is an agreement, that entrepreneurship is not reserved for economic areas only [Beckman, 2005, p.14] and that in the arts world it means both setting up new businesses (or organisations) and a specific attitude characterised by ability to recognise opportunities or readiness to innovate [Beckman, Essig, 2012].

Another dimension of entrepreneurship in the arts (and broader - in culture) - as an indispensable aspect of arts organisation management, was broadly described by Giep Hagoort [Hagoort, 2001].

In Polish language, „entrepreneurship” has got strong connotations with setting up and running one’s own business, and therefore it is not a skill expected in a natural way from a professional artist.

However, getting back to the simplest dictionary definition (internet version of Słownik Języka Polskiego PWN3), is helpful to see that przedsiębiorczy - entrepreneurial, means: „willing to undertake various things, activities”, therefore: ready to act, showing initiative. Before we continue to present some views proposed by those who have been long offering courses on music entrepreneurship, representing American, British or Canadian higher education institutions, let us have a look at results of a small pilot research (2012).

Several graduates of an Academy of Music have been asked how they define entrepreneurship, and what they think on the necessity of this skill / quality in professional artist. All respondents (7) were professionally active, the shortest professional experience covered 6 years, the longest 20 years. They work as: instrumentalists (soloist and orchestra player), music educator in a non-school setting, choirmasters, vocalist, music theorist and therapist, composer, instrumentalist and concert organiser. The choice of respondents was made on the basis of their pro-active approach to their professional career - mostly through changing the places of work and getting new qualifications. For most of them entrepreneurship means organisation of professional activity in economic context. Here are some answers: Entrepreneurship is looking for opportunity to play and earn money.

It is the ability to organise your professional life linked to earning money. You are entrepreneurial when you find an idea for your own professional life.

It is activity that leads to getting profits. If you work fro pleasure, you are not entrepreneurial.

Some answers indicate other aspects:

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Cf. Klasyfikacja zawodów i specjalności. Opisy grup i zawodów – Dyrygent, http://www.psz.praca.gov.pl/klasyfikacja_zawodow/index.php?klasyfikacja_zawodow_id=1304 3 http://sjp.pwn.pl/slownik/2509990/przedsiebiorczy

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Zarządzanie Kulturą, tom 6 (2013), nr 1 / Culture Management, vol. 6 (2013), no. 1 Entrepreneurship is earning money in my own field, if I propose an idea, carry it out, make use of my qualities and skills in various dimensions, not only in narrow specialisation; if I know with whom, where and what for I want to cooperate.

I am entrepreneurial when I try to organise my own work, take steps leading to profits not only in economic terms; I am doing this to work better, to develop, to get to a higher level of professionalism.

Entrepreneurship is taking steps towards development of my own business, such as: organising my workplace, searching contacts, networking, promoting my own output, learning, self-development.

The opinions quoted above show that the organisational and economic aspects prevail, and innovation is only sporadically mentioned as indispensable for entrepreneurship. Routine organisational tasks, „daily office management” were presented as entrepreneurial activity. However, when respondents were asked to give examples of characteristics of entrepreneurial musician, their answer draw closer to conceptions of great entrepreneurship theorists - Peter Drucker and Joseph Schumpeter, who pointed out innovation and risk taking as basic for entrepreneurial behaviour [Kostera, 2010].

Some responses defined entrepreneurial musicians as follows: They cannot be afraid of assessments and risk taking; they have to be willing to be good at what they do, become a model; willing to be with people, adapting to various situations; they are not afraid of results of their activity, they have to be consistent.

Brave, not afraid of challenges and strange ideas; creative.

But again, there were also descriptions of routine, daily administration tasks: Able to search and send proposals, deal with correspondence, presenting one’s own achievements.

Able to sell what they are doing; able to cooperate with people and give them work - but they have to organise everything themselves.

One of the more extended responses focuses on the following aspects: Entrepreneurial musician is willing to monitor the market, cannot be detached from everyday reality, must know the demand. They know how to find a niche that can be filled, know what people need and are aware that they can offer this to them and get professional satisfaction. Then they have to be able to work on that idea: plan, get funding, organise. They must have organisational skills and ability to provide a down-to-earth assessment. They have to be able to resign from a project and not stick to something only because it might bring some financial gains. They have to be flexible and not afraid when getting a proposal to do something that they have never done before, create a new professional profile which they have not envisioned before, to have courage to act and take risks.

This last opinion underlines many qualities that Angela M. Beeching, expert in professional advice for musicians, mentions in her book with a significant title: Beyond Talent. She writes: „Finding your niche within the professional music world may mean creating a niche for yourself. Creating niches is what entrepreneurs do. (…) Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs include flexibility, resiliency, and the ability to find opportunities in the midst of difficulties or challenges. Entrepreneurs are innovators, creative problem-solvers who can attract people and resources to their projects. Able to assess their assets and set attainable goals, entrepreneurs are disciplined, persistent and learn from their mistakes” [Beeching, 2005, p.14-15].

The respondents did not mention innovating or creativity when they defined „entrepreneurship”, therefore it should not come as a surprise that they did not see it as a quality desirable for a professional musician: If a musician is entrepreneurial, it is all right, but it should not be expected from them.

Self-development is important for a musician, and this is a form of entrepreneurship, so - yes, it is necessary. But all those organisational matters, it is better to leave them to someone else.

A professional musician should be entrepreneurial, but there is also a profession of manager, and in an ensemble it is enough to have just one entrepreneurial person.

The current situation leads to being entrepreneurial, young musicians have got a lot of difficulties with finding a job, they graduate and do not work as musicians.

No, a professional musicians does not need to be entrepreneurial, it has never been necessary. As an educated professional musician I have never heard such a word [during my studies - MS], there was no

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Zarządzanie Kulturą, tom 6 (2013), nr 1 / Culture Management, vol. 6 (2013), no. 1 talk on where I wanted to work, and how. The studies were idealistic, nobody was thinking on that [employment - MS] It seems to me that musicians should be entrepreneurial. Those who are not entrepreneurial, they do not develop.

Those responses prove that when we limit the understanding of entrepreneurship to dealing with administration and organisation daily tasks in order to gain material profit, it leads to further limitations and belief that it is something that a professional artist can easily do without. Sometimes it is seen as troublesome necessity, which would be best passed over to a „professional manager”. Why then increasing number of music schools and universities create study programmes and courses titled „Entrepreneurship in Music”. Do artists really need entrepreneurship knowledge and skills, similarly to management knowledge and skills? Maybe even more?

Even though we keep in mind the strong economic connotations of entrepreneurship in Polish language, it is still quite difficult to understand how this term is dismissed by young artists when it comes to outlining their own professional career. Entrepreneurship seen as setting up own business and economic activity has dominated the language, and it is only too easily overlooked that first of all it describes a certain attitude and approach towards one’s own talents and skills - the approach of searching opportunities to develop those talents and present them in full. This creates a genuine challenge for higher education in the arts - not only in our country. Finding a place within the educational process for creating and shaping the pro-active attitude and not only improving skills. How to teach entrepreneurship? There is no one verified and confirmed recipe, similarly to teaching leadership or creativity. Still, there is some hope that while shifting the focus from the „classroom” instructions and exercises towards autonomous creating and realising projects (most preferably outside the university walls) by students, entrepreneurship will cease to be such a distant and strange concept for young artists. Such methods have been introduced in some British music schools, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama being a good example. Students of instrumental performance in GSMD during their bachelor studies are obliged to prepare and perform a small musical project out of the school - in a hospital, care centre, cultural centre, etc. The main reason for such course is the possibility to verify by the students themselves how and in what circumstances apart from a typical concert setting - their talents and skills can be used and appreciated.

Getting back to the responses in the piece of research discussed above, we can conclude that entrepreneurship is indispensable for contemporary artists to take steps towards own development in order to gain profits which are definitely not only economic. Such conclusion is quite similar to the statement that „entrepreneurship with a small ‚e’ is how to run a business, Entrepreneurship with a big ‚E’ is how to live your life” [Beckman, 2011, p.31] Literature Adler Nancy, The Arts and Leadership: Now That We Can Do Anything, What Will We Do?, in: „Academy of Management Learning and Education”, Vol. V, no 4, 2006.

Beckman Gary D., The Entrepreneurship Curriculum for Music Students: Thoughts towards a Consensus, „College Music Symposium”, vol. 45, 2005.

Beckman Gary D., Disciplining the Arts, Lanham, 2011.

Beckman Gary D., Essig Linda, Arts Entrepreneurship: A Conversation, „Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts”, vol. 1, no 1, 2012. http://artivate.org Beeching Angela, Beyond Talent. Creating a Successful Career in Music, New York, 2005.

Chiapello Eve, Artistes versus Managers, Paris, 1998.

Greyser Stephen A., Raymond Thomas J.C., The business of managing the arts, in: „Harvard Business Review”, vol. 56, no 4, 1978.

Hagoort Giep, Art Management: Entrepreneurial Style, Delft, 2001.

Ibbotson Piers, How I Helped to Cause the Banking Crisis and Became a Whore, www.york.ac.uk/media/tyms/documents/artofmanagement/proceedings_creativity_critique.docx retrieved 12.09. 2013

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Zarządzanie Kulturą, tom 6 (2013), nr 1 / Culture Management, vol. 6 (2013), no. 1 Kirzner Israel, The Alert and Creative Entrepreneur - A Clarification, IFN Working Paper No 760, www.ifn.se/Wfiles/wp/wp760.pdf, retrieved 31.08.2012.

Kostera Monika, Śliwa Martyna, Zarządzanie w XXI wieku. Jakość - Twórczość - Kultura, Warszawa, 2010.

Mintzberg Henry, Managing, San Francisco, 2009.

Pine B. Joseph, Gilmore James H., Welcome to Experience Economy, „Harvard Business Review”, vol. 76, no 4, 1998.

Schiuma, Giovanni, The Value of Arts-Based Initiatives. Mapping Arts-Based Initiatives, London, 2009.

Electronic version available at: http://artsbiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Arts-Based-Initiatives-inthe-Workplace.pdf, retrieved 15.09.2013.

Schiuma, Giovanni, The Value of Arts for Business, Cambridge, 2011.

Dr Małgorzata Sternal – adiunkt at Academy of Music in Krakow (Department of Music Education Research). Her research interests focus on education and professional development of artists and arts managers, culture management, cultural policy and the European cooperation in culture and education.

Her articles were published in Zeszyty Naukowe UJ, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society (Heldref Publications, Washington DC), Acta Academiae Artium Vilniensis (Vilnius).

Zarządzanie i przedsiębiorczość – czym są dla artystów?

Słowa kluczowe: sztuka, profesjonalny muzyk, zarządzanie, przedsiębiorczość.

Streszczenie: Tekst omawia niektóre elementy relacji sztuki i zarządzania, współpracy artystów z biznesem oraz postrzegania przedsiębiorczości jako istotnego aspektu współczesnego zarządzania w kulturze. Krótkie przedstawienie poglądów na wzajemną użyteczność zarządzania i sztuki uzupełnione jest omówieniem wyników badania pilotażowego dotyczącego opinii zawodowych muzyków na temat znaczenia przedsiębiorczości w ich życiu zawodowym.

Dr Małgorzata Sternal – adiunkt w Katedrze Badań Muzyczno-Edukacyjnych Akademii Muzycznej w Krakowie. Jej zainteresowania badawcze koncentrują się wokół tematyki kształcenia i rozwoju zawodowego artystów i menedżerów kultury, zarządzania w kulturze, polityki kulturalnej oraz europejskiej współpracy edukacyjnej i kulturalnej. Autorka artykułów publikowanych m.in. w „Zeszytach Naukowych UJ”, „Journal of Arts Management”, „Law and Society” (Heldref Publications, Washington DC), „Acta Academiae Artium Vilniensis” (Wilno).

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