{"id":750,"date":"2005-08-19T08:35:04","date_gmt":"2005-08-19T15:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2005\/08\/our_version_of_nature_vs_nurtu\/"},"modified":"2005-08-19T08:35:04","modified_gmt":"2005-08-19T15:35:04","slug":"our_version_of_nature_vs_nurtu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/our_version_of_nature_vs_nurtu.php","title":{"rendered":"Our version of ‘nature vs. nurture’"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s an article archetype in the press every few years, about how difficult it is to fill the top slot at America’s leading museums, and about whether boards should search for business leaders or art scholars to plug the hole. This time around, the article is in the Wall Street Journal<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Who should run a big art museum? Executives with corporate skills that could help them manage these multimillion-dollar institutions through major expansions? Or leaders with traditional art-world credentials?….<\/p>\n

Some art-world veterans insist that running museums is not like running for-profit businesses. Museums have long been accustomed to covering their operating costs through their endowments rather than through retail operations or ticket sales. According to [Maxwell] Anderson, currently a principal in cultural consultancy AEA Consulting, the average visitor costs a museum about $80, substantially more than the typical price of a ticket — meaning that museum directors must spend energy raising funds to support a business premised on losing money.<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With 15 art museums across the U.S. currently searching for new directors, the conversation is likely raging in boardrooms from coast to coast.<\/p>\n

There are two shortcomings to this shorthand — the idea that business savvy and aesthetic credibility are mutually exclusive qualities that require a proactive choice. First, all cultural nonprofits are<\/i> businesses…just of a certain kind. Whether trained or not, whether they admit it or not, successful leaders of these institutions have qualities of business leadership.<\/p>\n

Second, aesthetic sense and sensibility are not exclusive to those who have followed the academic\/curatorial track. The fostering\/filtering systems of academia have certainly been tested by time (and haven’t always passed). But who’s to say that a leader who traveled a different path isn’t serious, thoughtful, responsive, and sensitive to the requirements of the art?<\/p>\n

While it’s fun to set up a false dichotomy and to vigorously debate two sides of an argument, it’s likely more productive to admit that there aren’t<\/i> two sides at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s an article archetype in the press every few years, about how difficult it is to fill the top slot at America’s leading museums, and about whether boards should search for business leaders or art scholars to plug the hole. This time around, the article is in the Wall Street Journal. In a nutshell: Who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-750","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}