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The Artful Manager

Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture

Chasing beauty without losing balance

February 24, 2023 by Andrew Taylor 1 Comment

Photo of a running and jumping dog.

One of the main takeaways from the classic in-depth case study of Steppenwolf Theater is that “self-sufficiency, sustainability, and success pull in different directions.” This tension is a constant balance and bother for arts managers who want to play the long game.

What’s in a name: Arts Management?

February 15, 2023 by Andrew Taylor

Graph of phrase frequency in Google Ngram.

The Google Books Ngram Viewer offers an interesting way to track the popularity of a term over time. The service draws from the scanned contents of tens of millions of books encoded by Google. And it can offer a glimpse at the rise (and fall) of phrases, topics, or subjects over two centuries. A search […]

Six Paths to Support Working Artists

February 8, 2023 by Andrew Taylor

Opportunity Scan

To imagine and explore other opportunities to support working artists and creative projects, Fractured Atlas commissioned an “Opportunity Scan” of six possible paths forward.

What are we planning, exactly, when we plan?

January 20, 2023 by Andrew Taylor

Photo of a tray of coffee cups.

If you and I make a plan to meet for coffee, next Tuesday at 1:00 pm, in a cafe on the second floor of a building downtown, what are we doing exactly? It’s easy to say that “we’re planning to meet for coffee,” but you can’t define a term using the term itself. No fair.

Announcing #ArtsManaged

January 11, 2023 by Andrew Taylor

#ArtsManaged logo

I’m thrilled to announce the public launch of a new experiment, the #ArtsManaged initiative – a series of digital resources exploring and advancing the practice of Arts Management.

Calibrating complexity

November 7, 2022 by Andrew Taylor

Paper clip, Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Managers of all sorts, including arts managers, frequently have to decide about complexity. When we select technology tools, rent/build/buy buildings, make policy, build teams, or develop work processes, we’re calibrating how complex those things need to be against how much time, attention, and money our audiences and organizations actually have to navigate them. If a […]

Imagining the Present

October 27, 2022 by Andrew Taylor

Photo by Braxton Apana on Unsplash

The more I learn about cognitive science, the more I realize that our work in purposeful collective action – such as Arts Management – is built on faulty premises. We think, talk, and act in arts organizations as if we’re dominantly rational beings, making sense of the world and the work through conscious and explicit […]

Beauty and the Balance Sheet

September 12, 2022 by Andrew Taylor

Photo of man drawing on glass

The balance sheet may be a “beast of boredom” for many in the world of the nonprofit arts. But I propose that it’s one of the most essential and evocative lenses on our work. The balance sheet (aka, the Statement of Financial Position) sets the scene that shapes our capacity and constraint. And it describes a foundational difference between for-profit and nonprofit endeavor.

How We Move and Act in Time

August 25, 2022 by Andrew Taylor

Hourglass

This will be far off in the strange-o-sphere for many, but I’ve been working to describe lived human experience in a way that’s useful to practicing, learning, and teaching Arts Management. I’ll explore why this might be useful in a future post. But for now, here are the building blocks. I’d be grateful for specific […]

Which Style of Arts Manager Are You?

August 19, 2022 by Andrew Taylor

Which Style of Arts Manager Are You?

The new episode in the ArtsManaged video series explores the PAEI Framework by Ichak Adizes, which defines four styles of management, or “concern structures,” that might be dominant in you or in members of your team. The styles – Producing, Administrating, Entrepreneuring, and Integrating – each contribute essential impulses and actions to a thriving enterprise. […]

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The #ArtsManaged Initiative

Three evolving #ArtsManaged logodigital resources on the practice of Arts Management: Field Notes (weekly newsletter), Field Guide, YouTube Channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Artful Manager: The Book!

The Artful Manager BookFifty provocations, inquiries, and insights on the business of arts and culture, available in
paperback, Kindle, or Apple Books formats.

About Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor is a faculty member in American University's Arts Management Program in Washington, DC. [Read More …]

Recent Comments

  • Sadia Akram on Chasing beauty without losing balance: “Hey… I am working with a company where we buy 100 posts in 1 month. I want to work with…” Mar 2, 06:56
  • Andrew Taylor on What’s in a name: Arts Management?: “Thanks Ken! Grateful for your insights on this. I agree that it’s like screaming into the wind to decide upon…” Feb 19, 13:41
  • Ken Foster on What’s in a name: Arts Management?: “Hi Andrew. Totally agree with your focus of concern on the “Arts” word rather than the second word. I have…” Feb 17, 13:52
  • Andrew Taylor on What’s in a name: Arts Management?: “Thanks Jim! I’m so glad to have the link to your book review in JAMLS. Somehow I missed it the…” Feb 15, 15:17
  • JIm O'Connell on What’s in a name: Arts Management?: “Love this, Andrew! It’s clear that Google has scanned a lot more material since my article in JAMLS (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10632921.2019.1588817) which…” Feb 15, 14:27

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