Re-Readings in Arts Management

• Published in: The Journal of arts management, law, and society Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 290 - 303
• Main Author: Chong, Derrick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.2000; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Management; Terminology
• ISSN: 1063-2921; 1930-7799
• DOI: 10.1080/10632920009597307

Discusses the adoption by art institutions of the principles and language of management since the 1960s, focusing on the debate since 1970 between the German artist Hans Haacke (b.1936) and proponents of the Harvard Business School approach. The author outlines traditional attitudes towards the administration of the arts, and explains how they have given way since the 1960s to a generic form of management suitable for every type of organization. He suggests that this development fulfils predictions made by Theodor Adorno (1903-69) concerning tensions between old and new approaches to the management of the culture industry - the old school valuing a passive administration role, and the new one an active management role which, in addition, privileges market forces over the qualities of the art it manages. He cites the debate between Haacke - who recognizes the importance of art institutions in shaping perceptions concerning the role of art - and proponents of the Harvard Business School model of management, who helped establish arts management as a subdiscipline. This model, he explains, focuses on the arts as an economic activity, and its emergence coincided with economic recession and reductions in funding for the arts. He summarizes Haacke's predictions concerning the advent of this model of arts management and the views of Pierre Bourdieu on the subject, and concludes by considering the extent to which they have been proved right.