Arts Management Inaugural Seminar to be Held at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts will host "Why Manage the Arts?: Arts Management Inaugural Seminar," from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sept. 24 in the Screening Room (Rm. 112) of the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The seminar is free; seating is limited and advance registration is required. To register, contact Liz Felmet at 645-2435 ext. 1085 or email efelmet@buffalo.edu.

Arts Management matters because the arts manager is the final mediator between artist and public.

At the present time the artist faces the dual threat of becoming a service industry, attempting to shape society to the chosen ends of the state -- or being used, by the media and the big corporations, as a commodity, with work valued only for its market value.  The Arts Manager has to steer a difficult path between those two extremes and, while negotiating the increasingly complex legal, political and economic bonds that constrain arts management, nevertheless find fresh ways of forging independent links between each work of art and its true audience.

The opening of a new program at UB with a unique collaboration between the UB College of Arts and Sciences, the UB School of Management and the UB Law School provides us with an opportunity to breathe fresh life into the concept of arts management reconsider the proper role of arts management in our society.

The day-long seminar will feature introductions by Thomas Burrows, executive director of the Center for the Arts, Sandra Olson, director of the UB Art Galleries, Uday Sukhatme, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Nils Olsen, dean of the Law School and John Thomas, dean of the School of Management.

The morning program will include "Why Manage the Arts?" by Ruth Bereson, director of arts management at UB, followed by keynote speaker, John Pick, whose talk is called "Defender of Freedom: the Supreme Importance of the Arts Manager."

The afternoon program will include a panel discussion -- "What's to Come: Current Students and Alumni of Arts Administration Respond to Issues in Training, Research, and the Future of the Field" -- led by Matthew Hackler, Board of Regents Fellow in Folklore at the University of Louisianna, Lafayette. The seminar will conclude with "Ways Forward in Arts Management," a presentation by Pick and Bereson.

Bereson holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Arts Policy and Management at City University London. She has a diverse background in the fields of arts management, cultural policy and cultural diplomacy, and has worked in Australia, Asia, Europe and the U.S. in performing, visual and community arts in the profit and not-for-profit sectors, as well as government. Her recent publications include "Artistic Integrity and Social Responsibility: You Can't Please Everyone!" (Ethos Books 2001) "The Operatic State. Cultural Policy and the Opera House" (Routledge 2002) "The Real Politik of Cultural Policy Making, The Nordic Journal of Cultural Policy" (2/2004) and "Advance Australia -- Fair or Foul Observing Australian Arts Policies, The Journal of Arts, Management, Law & Society" (Spring 2005).

Pick is professor emeritus and the founding professor of Europe's first Department of Arts Policy and Management at City University, London. He has held a number of visiting professorships in European and U.S. universities and twice was appointed Gresham Professor of Rhetoric in the City of London. Pick has published extensively and is author of Arts Administration, one of the standard textbooks in the field. His other books include "The West End: Mismanagement and Snobbery," "Managing the Arts: the British Experience," "The State and the Arts," "The Theatre Industry," "Vile Jelly: the Birth, Life and Lingering Death of the Arts Council of Great Britain," "Building Jerusalem: Art Industry and the British Millennium" and "Managing Britannia." He has, in addition written numerous papers, pamphlets and articles and has been a regular contributor to journals and arts magazines for over 30 years.

Pick enjoys a widespread reputation for challenging analysis of arts affairs. He has contributed to conferences, taught and worked as an arts consultant in many different countries including the US, the former USSR, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Australia, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.

Pick's major recreation is still public performance and he is in demand as an after-dinner speaker, music hall chairman, actor and producer. His other interests are writing, occasional broadcasting, art and leisurely gardening.

In his doctoral work, Hackler is focusing primarily on the intersection of arts administration and folklore, investigating the influences of cultural policy, tourism and pop-culture trends on traditional performing arts forms, artists and their communities. He is a graduate of the Program in Arts Administration at Teachers College, Columbia University.

The inaugural seminar is jointly sponsored by: College of Arts and Sciences, School of Management, Law School, Center for the Arts, University Art Galleries, Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs and the departments of Art History, Theatre and Dance, and Music, all at UB.