Zarządzanie Kulturą, tom 6 (2013), nr 2 / Culture Management, vol. 6 (2013), no. 2
Monika Kostera1 (University of Warsaw, University of Leeds) HELICON PLC, OR: ART, MANAGEMENT AND INSPIRATION
Keywords: art in management, art of management, organizational aesthetics, organizational imagination, narrative collage, text analysis, systems thinking Abstract: The recent years witnessed a vigorous development of a strand in management studies dedicated to the art enterprise. The management of art and culture organizations demands a different approach than is represented by mainstream economic methods. At the same time, a broad turn in management studies, regarding management itself as an art, has been gaining popularity. This paper uses narrative methods to explore the domain of imagination in order to throw a light upon the relationships between art and management in a broader cultural context.
When I was a visiting lecturer teaching management at the Warsaw Academy of Art, I initially encountered a complete rejection of the subject by my students. For them, the term “management” was associated with aggressive incomprehension of art, with ideology ordering them to renounce what they believed in and what was central to their value system. Later on, with real astonishment, they discovered that it is not necessary at all and that, on the contrary, there exists a humanistic perspective in management where the system of values they represent is not only accepted but respected and esteemed . That particular group of students, learned to appreciate management and to understand that it did not have to be foreign or hostile to what they were engaged in. During the remaining part of our classes, we were talking mainly about what can do together to mutual advantage of humanistic management and art. But is it always like this when Art meets Management? I am particularly interested in what such a meeting looks like within the space of imagination (Kostera, 2014) because this is from that space that inspiration for change, innovation, renewal and creation of new ideas and structures derives. Art of Management In recent years a turn in management connected with art enterprises has been developing and thriving. In his book devoted to art management, Dag Björkegren (1992) defines the art enterprise as an organisation which commercially takes advantage of a certain kind of experience called art. High uncertainty is characteristic of this activity; therefore, the possibility of control is limited. One may try to govern it either on commercial basis, which is relatively simple but fatal for art, or on terms dictated by art itself, which is complicated and not very profitable – but creative. Within the scope of the art of management turn, several authors present different art enterprises and show how they are managed and what consequences there are of the different approaches to their management. Dag Björkegren (1994) shows the trials and tribulations of a film enterprise indicating typical traps and 1
The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement no 627429.
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