Universities have traditionally treated arts management as a post-graduate study, usually a second choice for graduates of music, drama or fine arts.
Around the country there are a range of options for these students including the Masters of Arts and Cultural Management at the University of Melbourne; the graduate diploma program at the University of Technology Sydney or the Master of Arts Administration offered through UNSW’s College of Fine Arts.
Others have come to arts management via marketing or management degrees, learning on the job the peculiarities of working in the complex not-for-profit environment, juggling subscribers and single-ticket purchasers, grant applications and business partners.
The only full-time undergraduate arts management course at university level is the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). WAAPA set the standard for teaching arts management establishing its course 25 years ago. Now many TAFEs also offer arts or entertainment management courses and there are also private college options such as the Australian Institute of Music and Collarts.
WAAPA Bachelor in Arts Management Course Co-ordinator Dr Helen Rusak said arts management had a different value system for other management courses. ‘The bottom line is not the only judge of success. It’s about developing social capital, not just being driven by making money.’
Rusak said while many business schools had a growing interest in the not for profit and philanthropic sectors, the particular combinations of skills needed by arts managers was quite specific. Students received a strong grounding in law related to intellectual property and gained skills in applying for funding and building philanthropic relationships.
WAAPA’s particular point of difference is the capacity for arts managers to study their profession within an elite performing arts institution alongside other arts professionals. Senior students work on student productions with peers from a range of other disciplines including production and design, classical performance, music technology as well as dance, acting, music theatre and performing arts.
‘At WAAPA they live it. They do everything. They are involved in every stage of the production. They understand the way it works, the artistic hierarchy,’ said Rusak.
Does that mean learning to cope with the prima donnas? Rusak responds carefully. ‘Many of them are lovely and gracious but they can also be a bit temperamental. It goes with the artistic temperament. But then I don’t think I’d want to manage Steve Jobs either.’
WAAPA arts management graduates often move into roles as marketing, sponsorship or development managers, or become events co-ordinators before moving up to general management and CEO roles.
One of WAAPA’s greatest success stories is Ella McNeil, who only a few years out of university has worked in Ireland with the Royal Shakespeare Company, at the Lincoln Center in New York, and is now the Director of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival in Melbourne.
McNeil said she felt lucky to have stumbled across the arts management course as a school leaver with no more experience than a gap year travelling.
‘It’s not the kind of thing you hear about from school careers advisers. I knew I was good at numbers, talking to people and generally being organised but I had always wanted to be involved in something creative so combining the two was fantastic for me.’
She said doing an arts management course meant she was not trying to apply inappropriate business models to the arts but had a head start within the industry. ‘I feel I have a really good understanding of all the different aspects of the business.’
With a growing demand for arts management courses the Australian Institute of Music, which already offers a Bachelor of Entertainment Management at its Sydney campus, will introduce the course in Melbourne next year.
Deparmental Head Rob Cannon said the course prepared students for a range of workplaces including music labels, artists management companies, touring agencies, television and music theatre.
He said an additional advantage of a specific arts management degree was in contact building.
‘Certainly the entertainment industry is based on who you know as well as what you know and the internships allow our students to go into the industry, get some hands-on experience, be mentored by people who are working in the industry, start to create their networks, build on their networks and turn them into jobs and careers.’
Cannon said most of the College’s teachers were currently working in the industry so could bring very practical experience into the classroom.
The WAAPA Bachelor of Arts Management in Perth is open for applications until 30 September. The AIM Bachelor of Entertainment Management is open for applications in Sydney and Melbourne for 2014.
