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July 31, 2003
The Art of Gobbledegook
Friend and arts manager Mark Nerenhausen in Florida sent a link to this article in The Guardian about the leadership shake-up at the Royal Shakespeare Company subtitled "Debate over business in art rages as Foy quits." The article points to a classic struggle among boards and administrators...do we hire an artist or a businessperson to run the show?A favorite quote from the article:
Some theatre insiders acknowledged Mr Foy's talent but felt the moment was right to call time on the management "gobbledegook" of business involvement in the arts.
The story exposes once more this common assumption that business thinking and artistic mission are mutually exclusive qualities. While this may be true in specific instances, it cannot be a universal truth. An exceptional arts manager uses the tools and, yes, the 'gobbledegook' of business to serve an artistic mission. Whether that manager self-identifies as an artistic thinker or a business thinker is irrelevant, as long as he or she is actually both.
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