{"id":1164,"date":"2008-05-01T09:27:13","date_gmt":"2008-05-01T16:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2008\/05\/three_words_three_problems\/"},"modified":"2008-05-01T09:27:13","modified_gmt":"2008-05-01T16:27:13","slug":"three_words_three_problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/three_words_three_problems.php","title":{"rendered":"Three words, three problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the recent Association of Arts Administration Educators<\/a> conference here in Madison, the increasing proficiency and professionalism around our collective conversation was both a source of pride, and a cause for pause. As a field of educators, researching and teaching cultural management and leadership, we’re clearly growing in reflection, connections, and success. But what if we’re doing so at a time when the profession, as we’ve defined it, is changing rapidly? What if we’re all getting increasingly proficient at a decreasingly relevant part of the ecosystem?<\/p>\n

Consider, for example, the three-word phrase that often crops up at such conferences: ”professional arts organization.” This phrase captures, in shorthand, the specific category of cultural endeavor we tend to be discussing. Professional arts organizations require professional management, aesthetic integrity, curatorial control, and stable but responsive structures to hold them together while moving their mission forward. These are the standards that drive our teaching and learning about the field.<\/p>\n

But each of those three words — ”professional,” ”arts,” and ”organization” — is in radical flux at the moment. That suggests that a phrase (and an assumption) combining all three could mean less and less in shorthand form.<\/p>\n

This concern may come from my current reading matter, Clay Shirky’s new book Here Comes Everybody<\/i><\/a>, about the increasing opportunities for collective action without<\/i> traditional organizational structures — think Flickr<\/a> or Wikipedia<\/a> or iStockPhoto<\/a>. But there’s something rumbling in the world that questions our basic assumptions about arts and cultural management. Let’s take a look at each word in the phrase, in reverse order:<\/p>\n