Thank you for visiting the 6e Updates page. This latest update includes twenty-four pages of added resources for Management and the Arts, 6e.
Thank you for visiting the 6e Updates page. This latest update includes twenty-four pages of added resources for Management and the Arts, 6e. Among the updates are reports on state arts participation, leadership, cultural economics plus deeper dives into scholarly journals and info on new books. I hope students, faculty, and practitioners find these added resources timely and valuable.
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SIXTH EDITION ERRATUM
- In the Acknowledgement, - Page xxvi, the name Joshua Stavros was misspelled
- Chapter 4, page 106, Six Core Questions – The numbering sequence should start with #1 and not #5.
- Chapter 9, page 378, Balance Sheet, the abbreviation should be NA (Net Assets), not NE.
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Chapter 1 – Arts Management Overview
Here is a follow up to the information in Update #6 on Justin O’Connor’s book Culture is Not an Industry. This interview provides additional perspectives on the creative industries.
‘Culture as an Industry Won't Solve Sector's Problems’
An interview with Justin O’Connor by Elena Polivtseva, June 2024, Culture Policy Room https://www.culturepolicyroom.eu/
I spoke to Justin on 6 June, just three days before the European elections, to delve deeper into some of his ideas and contextualise them within the European political reality. We explored what the cultural sector must do today, in politically challenging times, to be understood and valued. [Link to the interview below]
Link to interview: https://www.culturepolicyroom.eu/insights/if-culture-is-not-an-industry-what-is-it-then
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The Cultural Policy Room Think Tank noted that “2024 has been a year of broken hopes if not outright setbacks. Specifically, culture in its own right was once again excluded from the renewed global commitments to sustainable development.”
Cultural Policy in 2024: What’s Changing and Why It Matters
December 17, 2024, by Culture Policy Room
This year, the world has neither regained ‘normalcy’ nor moved beyond the crisis mode we have faced in recent years. Political violence has risen by 15% compared to 2023. There are 56 recorded conflicts to date, and they are increasingly more international. The number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has reached 120 million, marking yet another historic high. Meanwhile, elections in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world have highlighted a shift towards the political right, which is translating into a stronger emphasis on inward-looking policies and shrinking space for newcomers.
One of the dominant trends of 2023 and 2024 - the rapid rise of Generative AI - continues to reshape our economy and social dynamics. This technology is profoundly impacting the cultural and creative sectors. Despite facing increased scrutiny through regulatory actions, the overall reality remains that both policy and public understanding are struggling to keep pace with the speed of the AI boom. [For the rest of the article, click on the link below.]
Link: https://www.culturepolicyroom.eu/insights/cultural-policy-in-2024-whats-changing-and-why-it-matters
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NEW DATA REPORT
50 States of Arts Participation: 2022
A geographical analysis of results from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts by the NEA, National Endowment for the Arts, September 2024
By Thomas Snyder, Jim Lindsay, Ashley Roberts, and Landa Spingler, National Arts Statistics and Evidence-based Reporting Center, National Endowment for the Arts
This report addresses the following three research questions:
1. How do arts participation rates compare across states?
2. How do rates of arts participation compare with participation rates for other types of activities?
3. What types of modalities do people use to access and learn about the arts?
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NEW REPORT FROM NEA ADDED TO 6e UPDATE #7
From the NEA website:
"Educating Ourselves about Childhood Arts Experiences—and Why They Matter"
National Endowment for the Arts, February 11, 2025, by Sunil Iyengar
"A new report from the National Endowment for the Arts re-affirms what we have learned from many other previous studies—namely, that arts education is closely linked with positive academic outcomes and social and emotional development.
The report appears in the wake of new data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), based on survey questions that researchers from the Arts Endowment and NCES co-designed last year. That survey provides estimates of how much arts education is currently being offered by public schools nationwide.
Taken together, the two resources speak volumes about the varying degrees of access to arts learning opportunities that America’s children enjoy, and the measurable benefits of arts education for children of different ages and backgrounds."
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Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem
Phase 1 Background Research, October 2024, Alejandra Duque Cifuentes & Carrie Blake
Understanding Arts Service Organizations in a Changing Arts Ecosystem aims to understand the role, impact, and ongoing evolution of arts service organizations in the United States today. This research focuses specifically on the ways in which arts service manifests within the framework of art as “industry,” and more specifically within the nonprofit industrial complex. (Full article at the link below)
LINK: https://www.consultingadc.com/asoresearch
Chapter 2 – Arts Managers and the Practice of Arts Management
TWO NEW BOOKS
Chapter 2 covers the topic of the role of arts managers and the artists who are also managers. A new publication from the National Center for Choreography in Akron, Ohio, includes a diverse group of contributors discussing “how artist-administrators think and bring ingenuity to the tasks that get art out into the world” (p xi). In addition, Salvino Salvaggio’s new book Orchestra Management in Practice offers arts managers and students an understanding of what it takes to run an orchestra. Lastly, the Dance Data Project issued a report on leadership transitions in dance companies.
Artists on Creative Administration – A Workbook from the National Center for Choreography
Edited by Tonya Lockyer, The University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio, 2024
OVERVIEW
Brilliant artists share stories on artistic life and business, full of lessons we can all learn about living a creative life. Featuring the voices of thirty artists and arts workers, Artists on Creative Administration: A Workbook from the National Center for Choreography provides first-hand accounts of creative administration in action. The book pairs big topics with actionable tactics, addressing themes like equity, activism, design thinking, leadership, collaboration, family, ethics, and care. Provocative, candid essays and interviews expand our view of what creativity and leadership can be, as each chapter closes with experiments for the reader to try and adapt to their own thinking, work, and life.
Artists on Creative Administration emerged from the National Center for Choreography-Akron’s acclaimed Creative Administration Research program. As editor, Tonya Lockyer shares: “This book is for anyone looking for paths forward; for anyone who believes we are in an exceptional moment of change—change is happening and needs to happen.”
LINK: https://blogs.uakron.edu/uapress/product/artists-on-creative-administration/
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Orchestra Management in Practice
By Salvino A. Salvaggio, Routledge, New York, NY 2024
OVERVIEW
Introducing the business models, organisational structures, and fundamentals of orchestras, this book takes readers on a journey through the evolution of orchestra management.
The author explores the dynamics between artistic excellence and financial sustainability. Key aspects of orchestra management are examined in detail, including artistic programming, strategic planning, financial and compliance/legal matters, audience development, resilience and adaptability, governance and board relations, diversity and inclusion, partnerships, and the role of technology and innovation.
With actionable resources, such as checklists, templates, and frameworks, for current and future orchestra leaders and managers, this comprehensive guide empowers readers in education and practice to navigate the complexities of orchestra management confidently and effectively.
LINK: https://www.routledge.com/Orchestra-Management-in-Practice/Salvaggio/p/book/9781032626017
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NEW REPORT ADDED TO 6e UPDATE #7
The Dance Data Project (DDP) issued a new report on January 27, 2025, examining "gender distributions of choreographers in the 2023-2024 season... DDP's findings reveal a notable disparity in the number of works by men compared to women within the Largest 150 companies." [p2]
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REPORT
Dance Data Project Annual Leadership Transitions Data Byte
Dance Data Project ’s fifth annual Leadership Transitions Data Byte details changes among artistic directors, executive directors, resident choreographers, associate artistic directors, and school directors at international and U.S.-based ballet companies, contemporary/modern companies, prominent schools/ conservatories, dance venues, and dance festivals which occurred in 2024 or have been announced for 2025 and later.
[Also see Chapter 9 Update – Dance Data Project: Endowments and Building Book Value Report 2024]
For other Dance Data Project reports, go to: https://www.dancedataproject.com/
Chapter 3 - Adaptive Arts Organizations
Research Article – Deeper Dive
Chapter 3 examines factors that influence how arts organizations respond to changing environments, demographics and feedback from audiences and communities. The article below offers insights that can be paired with the information about cultural and social environments on pages 83 to 85 in Chapter 3. While the authors indicate more studies are needed to verify their findings, values do seem to be diverging globally and regionally. This divergence can also be looked at through the eyes of arts managers pondering what changing values audiences may be bringing to the events they attend.
Worldwide divergence of values
Joshua Conrad Jackson, & Danila Medvedev, Booth School of Business, Univ. of Chicago Nature Communications, April 2024 - OPEN ACCESS
ABSTRACT
Social scientists have long debated the nature of cultural change in a modernizing and globalizing world. Some scholars predicted that national cultures would converge by adopting social values typical of Western democracies. Others predicted that cultural differences in values would persist or even increase over time. We test these competing predictions by analyzing survey data from 1981 to 2022 (n = 406,185) from 76 national cultures. We find evidence of global value divergence. Values emphasizing tolerance and self-expression have diverged most sharply, especially between high-income Western countries and the rest of the world. We also find that countries with similar per-capita GDP levels have held similar values over the last 40 years. Over time, however, geographic proximity has emerged as an increasingly strong correlate of value similarity, indicating that values have diverged globally but converged regionally.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46581-5
Chapter 4 – Planning and the Arts
Do the Research, Then Plan
Chapter 4, pages 101 to 104, introduces core ideas about planning and its processes. However, there is not much said about the research and data gathering required before developing the various drafts of a plan. To that end, a recently published book on research could be a valuable resource for arts management staff and students. While the focus of the book is on scholarly research, it offers practitioners excellent ideas for developing questions, collecting data, and thinking more deeply and critically about the problems the management team is trying to solve in the arts.
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NEW BOOK
Researching the Creative and Cultural Industries - A Guide to Qualitative Research
By Simone Wesner, Routledge, New York, NY, 2025
OVERVIEW
Research into creative and cultural organisations has proliferated, benefiting from insights from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Starting a research journey can be daunting in such a diverse field. This book provides expert insights into research process and practice, with a qualitative focus.
The book helps readers to plan, execute, and analyse research, turning their work into data, results, and new knowledge. Taking an individual perspective, the author addresses a trio of paradigms, methodologies, and methods, and applies them to the whole research process, from start to finish. The book seamlessly links theoretical and conceptual aspects with best research practice along the way.
A book for researchers at all stages of their work, the resources are also valuable for students and reflective cultural practitioners who want to know how to plan, implement, and evaluate their research project.
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RESEARCH ARTICLE – Deeper Dive
The Challenges of Planning
Chapter 4, page 104 notes that “Planning in an organizational setting is also a social activity” and stresses the importance of a shared vision for the arts organization. However, one of the multiple factors that influence how well the planning process may go is the information used in decision making. This article provides insights and suggestions to deal with the fact that those engaged in the planning have information limits and biases. The topic of the “illusion of information adequacy” (see bolded text I added below in the abstract) is one of the factors that can have a significant impact on the planning process. The link is to this open access research article.
The illusion of information adequacy
Hunter Gehlbach - Johns Hopkins University, Carly D. Robinson - Stanford University, Angus Fletcher - The Ohio State University, PLOS – Public Library of Science, October 9, 2024
OPEN ACCESS LINK: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310216
ABSTRACT
How individuals navigate perspectives and attitudes that diverge from their own affects an array of interpersonal outcomes from the health of marriages to the unfolding of international conflicts. The finesse with which people negotiate these differing perceptions depends critically upon their tacit assumptions—e.g., in the bias of naïve realism people assume that their subjective construal of a situation represents objective truth. The present study adds an important assumption to this list of biases: the illusion of information adequacy. Specifically, because individuals rarely pause to consider what information they may be missing, they assume that the cross-section of relevant information to which they are privy is sufficient to adequately understand the situation. Participants in our preregistered study (N = 1261) responded to a hypothetical scenario in which control participants received full information and treatment participants received approximately half of that same information. We found that treatment participants assumed that they possessed comparably adequate information and presumed that they were just as competent to make thoughtful decisions based on that information. Participants’ decisions were heavily influenced by which cross-section of information they received. Finally, participants believed that most other people would make a similar decision to the one they made. We discuss the implications in the context of naïve realism and other biases that implicate how people navigate differences of perspective.
Also, see the article in the Chapter 6 update on The Board of Directors in an Arts Organisation: How Co-existing Institutional Logics Limited the Board’s Strategic Contribution
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Oregon Shakespeare Festival Revisited
In Chapter 4, pages 116-117 covers planning strategies (stability, growth, retrenchment) and Box 4.4, page 123 highlights OSF’s Values Statement and Audience and the Audience Development Manifesto as an example of how an arts organization can share its planning goals, objectives, and tactics as of 2021. In subsequent updates to the sixth edition (see Updates #4 and #5) I shared some of the challenges OSF was grappling with coming out of the pandemic shutdown and its leadership changes (Save Our Season). In November 2024, a story was published about OSF’s new plans as it prepared for its 90th season. As you will see, their planning is grounded in bringing back former staff and marketing strategies from its past and appears to be using a combination of strategies discussed in Chapter 4 (mostly growth and stability).
One brick at a time: Rebuilding the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Artistic director Tim Bond and board member Amy Cuddy talk about what is in the wings for OSF as the festival seeks to build back from the Covid years and prepares for its 90th season.
By Lucie K. Scheur, Nov. 15, 2024, Oregon Artswatch, Arts & Culture News, https://artswatch.org
The sustainability, continuity and revitalization of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) post-Covid were the main focuses of a community forum “One Brick at a Time: Rebuilding the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” part of the Big Ideas series, sponsored by the Jackson County Library and the Association of University Women (AAUW) in a room filled to capacity at the Ashland Public Library earlier this week.
The two main presenters, Amy Cuddy, current OSF board member, former administrator with OSF, philanthropic advisor and regional director for Southern Oregon Community Foundation, and OSF Artistic Director Tim Bond, previously OSF’s associate artistic director under Libby Appel from 1996 to 2007, essentially laid out a two-tiered plan (marketing and broad-appeal programming) for how the festival would gain financial sustainability by implementing old and new approaches for attracting larger audiences to OSF’s upcoming 90th season. (Full article at the link below)
Link to article: https://www.orartswatch.org/one-brick-at-a-time-rebuilding-the-oregon-shakespeare-festival/
Chapter 6 – Staffing, Board, and Volunteers
An Art Museum and One of its Unions
Chapter 6, pages 214 to 218, (plus Text Box 6.3, 6.4 and an “In the News: Union Activism” article) provides a brief overview of unions and the arts. Here is a recent story about union activities and a recent settlement in the Seattle area.
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OPINION PIECE
I’m a Guard at the Seattle Art Museum. This Is Why We Plan to Strike. After 27 months of union contract delays, we’ve had no choice but to take drastic measures.
By Josh Davis, November 25, 2024, Hyperallergic.com
Recently, I’ve entered my 11th year as a gallery guard at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). Since 2022, I’ve also been a member of the SAM Visitor Service Officers (VSO) Union, where we have been working to organize gallery guards to achieve better wages, restoration of our retirement benefits, and greater worker protections at the museum. In recent weeks, after 27 months of contract delays by SAM, negotiations have reached a breaking point, and workers have had no choice but to take drastic measures. (The full article can be read at the link below.)
Link to article: https://hyperallergic.com/969283/im-a-guard-at-the-seattle-art-museum-this-is-why-we-plan-to-strike/
UPDATE
On December 11, 2024, the Seattle Art Museum and the union (VSO – Visitor Service Officers) announced they had reached an agreement resolving the strike.
The union’s website announced that “SAM agreed to a union shop provision in the Tentative Agreement, a term SAM leadership previously declined to entertain. SAM also increased their offer on retirement for VSOs to restore the employer-matching 403b contributions to pre-pandemic levels over the next 3 years. SAM immediately announced, after sharing the Tentative Agreement, that they would extend the new benefit (increased retirement) to the entire museum staff, effectively restoring all staff’s retirement benefits to pre-pandemic levels. VSOs are proud to have contributed to all SAM staff’s quality of benefits in this tangible material way. SAM VSO Union will continue to represent and advocate for a strong unionized security department and better workplace conditions for us all.”
Link to Union’s website: https://www.samvsounion.org/
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Examples of Recent Job Postings
In Chapter 6, Text Box 6.1, page 197, there are two sample job postings. Here are two more recent postings for positions at the Orlando Ballet. One is for a Database Administrator and the other is for an Individual Giving Officer. Both give you insights into the KSA’s (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) arts organizations are expecting and what they are willing to pay. According to their 2023 IRS 990 form, the ballet had total revenues of $9 million and expenses of $7.9 million. Reports about the cost of living in Orlando indicated that you need an annual salary of $100k in order to “live comfortably” in this part of Florida.
One of the most consequential changes that impacts all artists and staff members working in cultural organizations in the U.S. since the sixth edition was published in June of 2022 is the steep rise in rental and housing costs. In larger cities, the cost of housing (and insurance) has risen much faster than salaries and inflation. This has made it hard for artists and those working for arts organizations to eke out a living. For more information about this topic, go to Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Both job postings are in the link below:
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RESEARCH ARTICLE – Deeper Dive
Supporting Creative Workers
This Cultural Trends journal article, while focused on Europe, can easily be adapted to contemplate the support available to a wide range of cultural and creative workers worldwide. For example, in the U.S. there is a fragmented network of organizations that perform the functions discussed in this article. Some of these support organizations include Creative Capital, Entertainment Community Fund, MusiCares, Jazz Foundation of America, and service organizations such as Opera America, DanceUSA, Theatre Communication Group and USITT, to name just a few. However, to the best of my knowledge there is no national coordinating entity that functions as a clearing house to help creative workers find these resources. That being said, Americans for the Arts does provide additional information and resources for artists and its primary mission is advocacy.
Who cares for creative and cultural workers? The role of intermediaries in Europe’s creative economy
Tamsyn Dent (King’s College, London), Roberta Comunian (King’s College London), and Jessica Tanghetti (Universita Ca’ Foscari, Italy) Cultural Trends, 2024, VOL. 33, NO. 5,
OPEN ACCESS: https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2023.223698
ABSTRACT
Who cares for cultural and creative workers (CCWs)? This paper considers the impact of a declined welfare support system across European states on CCWs and investigates the role played by creative intermediaries in providing care for those employed within the sector. Building on both quantitative and qualitative data taken from a range of European creative intermediary organisations, the paper applies Joan Tronto’s politicised framework of care to articulate how work undertaken by intermediaries can be understood as a form of care work. The findings highlight the range of creative intermediaries working to support CCWs across Europe and illustrate their role in conducting research on the sector in response to the lack of available robust data at a more official governance level. It explores how these organisations are filling both a welfare and knowledge gap, however, that this support is ad hoc, supported by various funding models which place the intermediary organisations themselves in a precarious position. In response to this, the paper calls for investment in collaborations between higher education, policy makers and creative intermediaries to strengthen support for CCWs. (The full article can be accessed at the link below.)
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RESEARCH ARTICLE – Deeper Dive
Chapter 6, pages 218 to 225, discusses core concepts related to an arts organization's board and its role within the overall operation. This paper focuses on strategic development and control and the roles of the board in each.
The Board of Directors in an Arts Organisation: How Co-existing Institutional Logics Limited the Board’s Strategic Contribution
By Trude Høgvold Olsen, and Elsa Solstad, International Journal of Arts Management, Vol 27, Number 1, Fall 2024
ABSTRACT
Even though there has been a growing research interest in the boards of directors’ strategic contribution in arts organisations, we need more knowledge about how such boards work with strategy. In this paper, we report on a qualitative case study exploring how the board of directors in an arts organisation worked with strategy. We followed the board’s work over 18 months through board documents, observations of board meetings and interviews. We found that the board engaged more with strategy control than strategy development. We interpret this finding applying institutional logics which acknowledges the plural rationalities of arts organisations. We suggest that the emphasis on strategic control was a result of an implicit ranking of co-existing logics. The art logic was ranked highest in strategy development, limiting the board’s strategic contribution, while the public logic was highest ranked in strategy control, allowing the board to make strategic contributions.
LINK: https://master-in-international-arts-management.com/the-board-of-directors-in-an-arts-organisation/
To access the full article, you need to be a subscriber to the International Journal of Arts Management. Check to see if your university subscribes to this journal or become a subscriber. Go to https://gestiondesarts.hec.ca/en/ijam/.
Chapter 7 – Leading in the Arts
Defying Gravity: Conversations with Leaders from Nonprofit Theater
A report prepared for the National Endowment for the Arts by Anna S. Caruso, Dec. 2024.
This report distills and analyzes key themes from 12 listening sessions that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) convened in the spring and summer of 2024.
In each two-hour listening session, participants were provided with four main prompts, and then were invited to engage each other in conversation. The prompts covered the following topics:
• The most pressing challenges for participants’ organization and the field, including systemic issues underlying surface issues or well-known problems in the field (e.g., staffing, funding, and audiences).
• Examples of new ways of working in their organization, or elsewhere in the field, which have been successful post re-opening, including the elimination of practices or introduction of new innovations.
• Areas of expertise lacking in their organization or in the field that are needed to succeed.
• Possible approaches or strategies toward creating the future of the industry if broader external conditions could be addressed.
Link to report: https://www.arts.gov/impact/research/publications/defying-gravity-conversations-leaders-nonprofit-theater
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RESEARCH ARTICLE – Deeper Dive
Arts managers spend the majority of their time communicating with different people every day. Being able to identify when either the leader or follower is not being forthcoming in their communication is a valued skill. However, spotting someone lying remains a challenge for human beings. Chapter 7, pages 274 to 281 covers communication skills needed by leaders and managers as well as highlighting theories related to communication. There is also a brief discussion about formal and informal communication on page 278. This research article does an excellent job of explaining the complexity of nonverbal communication and tackles the topic of “Pseudoscientific Lie Detection.” (Also see Tables 2 and 3 in the article.)
Reading Lies: Nonverbal Communication and Deception
Aldert Vrij, Univ of Portsmouth, UK, Maria Hartwig, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, and Pär Anders Granhag, Univ. of Gothenburg, Sweden, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 70:295-317, January 2019 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103135
OPEN ACCESS
ABSTRACT
The relationship between nonverbal communication and deception continues to attract much interest, but there are many misconceptions about it. In this review, we present a scientific view on this relationship. We describe theories explaining why liars would behave differently from truth tellers, followed by research on how liars actually behave and individuals’ ability to detect lies. We show that the nonverbal cues to deceit discovered to date are faint and unreliable and that people are mediocre lie catchers when they pay attention to behavior. We also discuss why individuals hold misbeliefs about the relationship between nonverbal behavior and deception—beliefs that appear very hard to debunk. We further discuss the ways in which researchers could improve the state of affairs by examining nonverbal behaviors in different ways and in different settings than they currently do.
Link: https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103135
Chapter 8 – Economics and the Arts
Research in Cultural Economics
Chapter 8, pages 296 to 302 and 304 to 311 discuss various aspects and terms related to the economic impact and value of the arts. This article provides a more in-depth focus on topics covered in Chapter 8. Here are a few quick reminders about terminology before reading the article. Contingent Valuation is a method of estimating the value that a person places on goods or services, and Externalities “occur in an economy when the production or consumption of a specific good or service impacts a third party that is not directly related to the production or consumption of that good or service” (Investopedia). In this article, the key concept is that positive externalities in consuming culture create a value similar to those produced by education.
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RESEARCH ARTICLES
The values of cultural goods and cultural capital externalities: state of the art and future research prospects
By Trine Bille, Journal of Cultural Economics, Volume 48, pages 347–365, (2024)
OPEN ACCESS
ABSTRACT (bold text emphasis added)
Cultural economics has largely looked toward environmental economics and used non-market valuation techniques such as contingent valuation to estimate the total economic value of cultural goods. These methods are well suited to the valuation of cultural heritage goods, where the benefits are mostly related to the level of supply and mainly take the form of existence and bequest values. This stands in contrast to cultural institutions such as theatres, libraries, exhibitions, and concerts, where the value is produced, when the goods are consumed. For this type of cultural goods, I suggest that cultural economics rather turn to find inspiration in the economics of education. The value of schooling can be divided into private returns and social returns (human capital externalities). Likewise, the value of cultural consumption can have a private and a public component, where I suggest labeling the public component cultural capital externalities. The idea is that when private consumption of arts and culture is taking place, the individual will accumulate cultural capital. This accumulated cultural capital can impact other people (e.g., through changed behavior, future decisions or interactions) and create externalities, i.e., the cultural capital externalities. The size of the externalities is expected to increase (or decrease) with the level of consumption. Without the consumption by the users, no externalities are produced. While this is one of the most fundamental arguments for cultural policy, it has not yet been extensively studied within cultural economics.
(Note: The terms in bold are in italics in the paper’s abstract. I added the bolding to maintain the emphasis the author placed on these terms and to stress the concept of externalities.)
Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10824-024-09503-3
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Research Article - Deeper Dive
Chapter 8, pages 325 to 332, also covers key concepts in pricing strategies employed in arts and entertainment. This second article examines “how consumers value different ticket attributes, and how these values vary among consumers, can help musicians craft better ticket pricing strategies.” The use of VIP ticketing strategies is not new, but the author’s research illuminates several ideas that could be applied beyond popular music concerts.
Front row or backstage? Evidence on concert ticket preferences from a discrete choice experiment
By Dylan Thompson, Journal of Cultural Economics, Volume 48, pages 463–491, (2024)
OPEN ACCESS
ABSTRACT
Sophisticated ticketing practices have become widespread in the concert industry in recent years, with a wider range of musicians now experimenting with different ticket pricing schemes. The aim of these practices is to help musicians manage ticket capacity and maximize their concert income. However, there is limited evidence on how musicians can optimally allocate and price tickets with respect to how consumers value different ticket attributes. This study uses a stated preference discrete choice experiment and choice modeling methods to analyze consumer preferences for different attributes of concert tickets. The results of the modeling exercise highlight patterns in consumer preferences across different seating areas within a hypothetical venue, as well as average preferences for other common attributes of concert tickets. Finally, this study provides evidence of the significant welfare consumers derive from the availability of new ticketing innovations in the form of VIP packages.
Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10824-024-09512-2
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Research Article - Deeper Dive
Chapter 8, pages 296 to 302 provide an overview of macro and microeconomics and its impact on the arts. In addition, page 450 in Chapter 11 briefly mentions the impact of government policy on charitable giving. In 2017 the U.S. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) which had an impact on charitable giving to nonprofit organizations. At the time, one of the concerns about legislation was its potential impact on charitable giving and its tax deductibility. The new law which went into effect in 2018 raised the amounts used in what is called the “standard deduction.” By raising the standard deduction, it meant fewer taxpayers would take advantage of itemizing. This study estimates that there was a decline of about $20 billion in annual charitable giving as a result of the law. (See Fig. 1, Effect of Expansion in the Standard Deduction in the report.)
Tax Incentives for Charitable Giving: New Findings from the TCJA
Xiao Han, Daniel M. Hungerman, Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm, Working Paper 32737, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2024
ABSTRACT
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017) eliminated federal charitable giving incentives for roughly 20 percent of US income-tax payers. We study the impact of this on giving. Basic theory and our empirical results suggest heterogeneous effects for taxpayers with different amounts of itemizable expenses. Overall, the reform decreased charitable giving by about $20 billion annually. Using a new method to adjust estimates for retimed giving, we find evidence of moderate intertemporal shifts from pre-announcement of the law. The permanent price elasticity of giving estimates ranges from .6 for the average donor to over 2 for those predicted to be most responsive to the reform.
Link to PDF Download - https://www.nber.org/papers/w32737
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On “indirect” support for the arts
December 10, 2024, by Michael Rushton, For What It’s Worth Blog
This succinct blog post by Michael Rushton does an excellent job of explaining why the tax deductibility of contributions to nonprofit arts organizations cannot necessarily be seen as the government supporting the arts.
Link: https://www.artsjournal.com/worth/2024/12/on-indirect-support-for-the-arts/
Chapter 9 – Control: Operations, Budgeting, and Finance
Chapter 9, pages 378 to 396, presents information about financial statements at assets, and pages 384 to 386 discuss investment strategies. This report from the Dance Data Project provided insights into how dance companies are working to improve their longevity by managing their financial reserves and endowments.
REPORT
Endowments and Building Book Value Report 2024
This is Dance Data Project ’s first report examining the endowments and building book values of dance companies in the U.S. This report fills a crucial gap in available research on endowments within the dance community, providing valuable insights into the financial foundations of ballet companies.
Endowments are one tool, along with holding adequate cash reserves, and strategic planning, to promote long-term financial stability for performing and fine arts institutions. Endowments, if large enough, may support an organization’s operations by establishing a stable stream of income and growing assets, reducing the strain of inconsistent funding. [See the full report at available at the link below.]
Link to full report: https://www.dancedataproject.com/ddp-research/endowments-and-building-book-value-report-2024/
Chapter 10 – Marketing and the Arts
Research Article – Deeper Dive
Chapter 10, pages 404 and 405 briefly touches on diversity and marketing. A recent report from the League of American Orchestras offers strategies that can be employed to diversify audiences, and it includes six case studies that highlight how these strategies are working. Most, if not all, of the eight strategies outlined in the report, could be deployed by other types of arts organizations seeking to fulfill the goal of developing more inclusive audiences.
Audience Diversification Strategies Benchmarking Report
Lead Author: Theodore Wiprud and Contributing Authors: Dr. Karen Yair and Donna Walker-Kuhne, League of American Orchestra © 2024. Published Jan. 2024
INTRODUCTION
The makeup of attendees at our events shows starkly how we matter to our communities. The diversity of those who attend is a key measure — perhaps the ultimate measure — of our impact. As orchestras face questions around the continued relevance of their work and its financial sustainability, many are recognizing the urgent need not only to broaden their base of audience and donors, but also to redefine their own understanding of the term “audience” to go beyond ticket- buyers and embrace the full spectrum of communities making up their home cities.
As demonstrated in this Catalyst Guide, individual orchestras have been making efforts to become more welcoming. However, the field as a whole is making limited progress when compared to other cultural organizations: the proportion of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) people purchasing orchestra tickets has barely increased since 2019 [1] despite equal levels of interest in classical music across all racial/ethnic groups. And, overall, almost 50% of Americans believe that symphony orchestras are “not welcoming to people like me.” [2]
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RESEARCH ARTICLE – Deeper Dive
In Chapter 10, page 420 discusses the topic of social media marketing. A variety of strategies for deploying various social media platforms is covered. However, this recent research study argues that organizations are over reliant on social media as an information tool and are underutilizing these platforms to engage in the important work of building community and using action messages when communicating with their patrons and donors.
Evolution of the “Hierarchy of Engagement” Model Over a Decade: Examining Social Media Use to Inform, Activate, and Create Community
Zeeshan Noor (Louisiana State Univ.), Leigh Hersey (Louisiana State Univ), First published: October 5, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1877, The Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing, John Wiley.
[NOTE: This article is NOT Open Access, but it can be accessed for 48 hours for as little as $10]
ABSTRACT
The use and underuse of social media by organizations have garnered significant attention from scholars. The findings indicate that most public and nonprofit organizations primarily use one-way messaging in their social media communication. In 2012, Lovejoy and Saxton presented a “Hierarchy of Engagement” framework to categorize nonprofits' social media communication into Information, Community, and Action (ICA) messages. Since its publication, more than 100 research articles, reports, etc. have referred to this framework. This study presents a systematic review of 48 published scholarly articles that applied and expanded the ICA typology over 10 years (2012–2021). We find that the messaging strategy has not changed much from how the authors initially framed it. The social media accounts reviewed by this literature average share 51% information, 24% community, and 26% action messages. This study offers practical implications for nonprofit professionals, marketers, digital media managers, and scholars.
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nvsm.1877
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RESEARCH ARTICLE – Deeper Dive
The idea of Marketing Mix is discussed on pages 401 and 402 in Chapter 10. As noted in the chapter, the MET Opera has been doing live broadcasts at cinemas around the world for a number of years. This new article tries to answer the question whether these broadcasts have any impact on bringing new audiences to opera in Spain. They observe that attenders are “More educated people are more likely to have the cultural capital needed to understand and appreciate highbrow cultural goods.” Of course, the lack of “cultural capital” remains an issue around the world but at least in Spain the barrier may not be as steep in other countries (See Table 4 in the article).
Attracting new audiences to high culture: an analysis of live broadcasted performing arts at cinema theaters
Fernanda Gutierrez-Navratil, Maria J. Perez-Villadoniga & Juan Prieto-Rodrigue, Journal of Cultural Economics, Volume 48, Vol. 3. pages 387–404, (2024)
This is an OPEN ACCESS article
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze the potential contribution of broadcasting live performing arts in movie theaters to the democratization of high culture. To accomplish this, we analyze the profile of attendees to these events to explore whether this new form of cultural consumption can attract individuals who do not normally attend live performances, thereby renewing high-brow audiences. Using data from the Spanish Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain (2018–2019), we find that individuals who frequently attend movies are more likely to attend live opera broadcasts in movie theaters, even those who do not consume live opera or even do not listen to opera at all. This is a positive insight suggesting that this initiative may be successful to engage new audiences to high culture.
LINK: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10824-023-09500-y
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RESEARCH ARTICLE – Deeper Dive
Chapter 10, pages 406 to 413 (also see Text Box 10.3) explores marketing research and audience development. This article, which is based on research done in Melbourne, Australia, in connection with an Asian-themed festival, employs techniques that arts organizations can use to better identify and track who is attending their programming (See Table 2 and Figures 1 and 2).
Collecting and classifying data on audience identity: the cultural background of festival audiences
Katya Johanson (Edith Cowan University), Hilary Glow (Deakin University), and Mark Taylor University of Sheffield). Cultural Trends, 2024, VOL. 33, NO. 5, Routledge /Taylor & Francis
OPEN ACCESS: https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2023.2212636
ABSTRACT
This article investigates the issues and tensions involved in collecting data from audiences to describe their diversity. It uses data collected as part of a survey of festival audiences to examine (1) how people choose to describe their identity in an open-text question and (2) how classifying complex responses to questions about ethnic or cultural background has implications for analysis. First, data provided through an open-text question in the festival survey were used to establish two classification systems. The results show patterns in the relationship between how people choose to identify themselves and their arts knowledge and appetite. It also shows patterns between what they identify about themselves and their arts knowledge and appetite. The article helps researchers better understand the implications of providing open opportunities for audience members to report the way they choose to see themselves, and of establishing classification systems based on this data for analysis.
Chapter 11 - Fundraising and Development
Fundraising Ethics Update
Chapter 11, page 458 and 459 provides an example of the ethical principles of the Association of Fundraising (AFP). However, since the sixth edition was published, AFP has updated its code and here is where to access the updated code and other resources including its values statement.
Code of Ethical Standards
AFP has released its updated Code of Ethical Standards. The AFP Code of Ethical Standards, Board approved in December 2023, is not enforceable until January 2025.
The AFP Ethics Committee created a total of three ad hoc work groups to help update AFP’s educational resources, including interpretative guidelines, case examples, and training materials, as they relate to the updated Code of Ethical Standards, “the Code.”
LINK: https://afpglobal.org/ethics/code-ethical-standards
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Fundraising Reports
Giving trends are highlighted in Chapter 11, pages 451 to 455, and in Text Box 11.2, pages 455 to 457 (also see Update #6 for Giving USA report updates). Here are other recent fundraising reports. You can use these updates to better understand the changes going on in the world of fundraising since the sixth edition was published in 2022.
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Largest Asian and Global Institutional Philanthropies
The Bridgespan Group, By Gwendolyn Lim, Pritha Venkatachalam, Jeff Bradach, Xueling Lee, Denise Chew, Julia Finnerty, and Roger Thompson, Nov. 2024
Asia is a continent of stark contrasts. It is home to more billionaires than any other part of the world, and its economy is the fastest growing of any region in the world. It is also home to more than 233 million people who live on less than US$1.90 a day, 370.7 million people who are undernourished, and 2.1 billion people who lack access to safe drinking water.
Against this backdrop of accelerating wealth creation and unmet needs, The Bridgespan Group, with financial support from the Institute of Philanthropy, embarked on a research project to identify the 20 largest global and Asian institutional philanthropies and to spotlight the practices they employ to produce lasting results. The goal is to illuminate practices that might inspire institutional philanthropies, especially in Asia, to give better, to give faster, and to give more, to meet the urgency and scale of social and environmental needs. [Link to report is below]
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Other Fundraising Reports
Philanthropic Landscape, 13th edition- CCS Fundraising - 2024
Welcome to the 2024 Philanthropic Landscape, the 13th edition produced by CCS Fundraising. This report provides a comprehensive look at the current state of US philanthropy, compiling and analyzing annual data from Giving USA and other prominent research to provide an in-depth examination of significant industry trends.
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Gilded Giving 2024: Saving Philanthropy from Wall Street
Philanthropy in America — the transfer of wealth out of private hands for, ostensibly, the benefit of non-profit organizations working for public benefit — has been captured by the wealth preservation industry.
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The Generosity Commission Report 2024
From the Executives Summary: One of the open questions the Generosity Commission sought to address was the relationship between established patterns of giving to and volunteering with nonprofit organizations and the alternative modes of giving that take place outside the formal bounds of the nonprofit sector—for instance, giving to crowdfunding platforms or political campaigns.
Chapter 12 – Managing and the Arts & Appendix 12.1, Charting an Arts Management Career
The Workplace
This article is of value as you ponder your workload and try to find some balance. The author notes that “My colleagues designed interventions focused on four key pain points: long hours, endless meetings, the guilt people felt about vacations and email.” These seem like common pain points many arts organizations must also work on.
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The Quest to Imagine a Workplace That (Actually) Values Work-Life Balance
By Brigid Schulte, September 24, 2024, Behavorial Scientist
Changing an entrenched work culture is hard. I had a front-row seat to a project that tried. In 2018, the behavioral design firm ideas42 kicked off a project to better understand what drives people to overwork and to test interventions that would improve individual work-life conflict and well-being.
One thing struck me immediately. In conversation after conversation, workers said they spent their days being super busy, rushing from one meeting to the next, jumping on and off the phone, and plowing through their email. It was only at what should have been the end of the paid workday that they realized they hadn’t gotten to the one big thing they really needed to do. Their work hours were constantly interrupted and filled with busy work.
Link to full article: https://behavioralscientist.org/the-quest-to-imagine-a-workplace-that-actually-values-work-life-balance/
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Update #8 will be posted in August of 2025
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