In asking students if and how they would want to learn about arts entrepreneurship, we found that they were eager to do so and wanted a combination of curricular and non-curricular offerings. When thinking about an arts entrepreneurship class, participants said they wanted a class that was a combination of lectures, guest speakers, and projects. Even better, they reported, would be a class that was combined with a non-curricular club or student organization that would provide meaningful experiential learning opportunities in a low-risk environment. An organization like this would allow students to work with like- and diverse-minded colleagues to think about some of the problems artists face and how to create meaningful solutions for them.
What’s concerning is conclusion number three, that students and graduates are unaware of or don’t take advantage of arts entrepreneurship offerings on their campuses. This could mean one, two, or all three of the following inferences: (1) students don’t have arts entrepreneurship offerings on their campus; (2) arts entrepreneurship offerings are not effectively publicized; or (3) existing arts entrepreneurship offerings are not attractive to students for some reason (scheduling, topics of course, etc.). I’m willing to believe reason number one, that some students don’t have arts entrepreneurship offerings as the movement, and the consequential move towards creating classes is still very much in progress. I’m not as opt to believe reason number two, as it would be in the entrepreneurial spirit for arts entrepreneurship organizers to effectively market their product, be it club or class. As for reason number three, I think this might be a sad reality for initial arts entrepreneurship offerings being formed by an administration that is not in tune to the interests, anxieties, and realities of the 21st-century music student. Consider, for example, a response from one student survey participant:
"[My institution] offers has an MBA program, an Entrepreneurship program, and a certificate in Nonprofit Management. I enrolled in the certificate as part of my doctoral studies so that I can be a stronger teacher, leader, and organizer in the arts. What I discovered was that many of the classes are inflexible and designed to fit a butts-in-the-seat style of teaching. The teachers cover theory and literature, but are not able to cope with the diverse backgrounds of their students or [their fields of interest]. Entrepreneurship should be more like private coaching so that individual attention can be paid to the specifics of each field."
This arts entrepreneurship program was created and implemented without enough input from students—or better yet, recent graduates—who can articulately voice what they want to learn, their impressions of the 21st-century economy and how it effects the arts, and their anxieties about their careers. Thankfully, some educators understand the nature and importance of the arts entrepreneurship:
"Arts Entrepreneurship is thinking outside the box and allowing our students to relate to the music field in new and meaningful ways that may differ from previous generations. As educators, we need to honor the creativity and authenticity of our students and nurture their own development as artists and professionals. We need to serve as mentors who are not just interested in creating clones of ourselves, but rather embrace the new visionary models of what it means to be an artist in the 21st century."
It’s an inspiring—and selfless—quote from an educator who clearly understands the nature of the current arts field. This participant recognizes that students have creative potential and original ideas. They just need guidance to turn these ideas into meaningful endeavors.
Finally, when asked to think about their ideal arts entrepreneurship offerings, participants wanted a program that would be flexible and able to be tailored to their personal interests and needs. I suspect this is in response to a desire to be proactive and opportunistic coupled with an incredible amount of anxiety when it comes to thinking about their futures. Although it might be obvious to some, here are some things artists are worried about:
"That I will have done all this training, have all these loans to pay off, and be exactly where I was when I graduated from undergrad—lost, worried about finances, and stuck in a job I had been working too long and really hated. Unhappy."
"I have no idea where to begin. And I feel that no matter how prepared I am my career will be left mainly up to chance (being in the right place, at the right time)."
"That I won’t be prepared for real life as a working musician outside of the school environment, that I will have to give up my artistic pursuits in order to make a living for myself, that all of the time I spent preparing to be a performer was not time well spent after all."
"Being culturally irrelevant."
Then we have to overcome–or at least work around—obstacles that institutional cultural creates:
"Faculty, students, and others in the [arts] field stigmatize training diversification, which is ironic and disappointing, given that the 21st-century artist needs [a broader variety of] skills and a good balance of them in order to get started. Artists should be cultural citizens and artistic ambassadors, and getting the word out and drawing others into artistic experiences is absolutely crucial. I wish I had more options and knowledge of what’s out there. I might have taken a different path."
How can we take these anxieties, fears, and old attitudes into account and motivate artists in the right direction to having sustainable, fulfilling, and socially relevant careers? Integrating an arts entrepreneurship program into arts curricula is certainly a workable solution, and as the survey results indicate, students would be in favor of taking a class that would provide a meaningful way for them to learn about arts entrepreneurship. But before creating the class, educators need to be mindful of the realities of the 21st-century (arts) economy and the effect this has on their students’ attitude and perceptions of professional possibilities. A class would need to be able to reconcile theoretical ideas with practical advice from successful young artists who are working in a variety of sectors. The course instructor would need to be available—and be a knowledgeable source—for career counseling, and he or she would need to have the advising finesse to direct students towards meaningful goals without micromanaging.
A non-curricular arts entrepreneurship organization, such as Arts Enterprise (AE), has certainly proven to be a viable attempt at addressing these problems. As AE is entirely run by students with the guiding support of a faculty advisor, activities and involvement level are completely up to the students, so long as they are in accordance with AE’s mission and values, which guide programs towards experiential arts entrepreneurship learning. Among AE’s programs have included business skills and entrepreneurship workshops for musicians, creativity workshops for business students, and brainstorming sessions for students to develop creative ideas working towards success in arts entrepreneurship education. AE has successfully implemented larger programs including a two-campus interdisciplinary service expedition to New Orleans where students helped evaluate the effectiveness of a New Orleans arts programs, effectively acting as researchers and consultants to an area in need.
All these activities help empower students to be successful, proactive, business-minded artists (and creatively-minded business students as well). AE is attractive to some administrators because of its ability to create big changes among student attitudes on a shoestring budget. An arts entrepreneurship that is a combination of the flexibly designed class and an AE chapter could certainly be an excellent solution to the issue at hand. But what happens when artists leave the safe haven of their school and their AE chapter? Who is to advocate for them? How will they have the tools to use their art to be productive members of society?
It’s certainly time to move young artists into the next step of productivity. What that will look like now is unclear, advocating for the value of artists—rather than embrace the image of the “starving artist”—will be central to the movement. The movement will require artists’ desire to be proactive in creating their own careers, creating a cross-disciplinary support group or “tribe” for themselves, and using their pooled resources for the betterment of all. Educators will need to serve as mentors, guiding artists towards their full potential without being micromanaging or self-serving. And we’ll all need to be more open about the professional possibilities for the creative artist, including more than just playing in or in front of an orchestra.
What’s concerning is conclusion number three, that students and graduates are unaware of or don’t take advantage of arts entrepreneurship offerings on their campuses. This could mean one, two, or all three of the following inferences: (1) students don’t have arts entrepreneurship offerings on their campus; (2) arts entrepreneurship offerings are not effectively publicized; or (3) existing arts entrepreneurship offerings are not attractive to students for some reason (scheduling, topics of course, etc.). I’m willing to believe reason number one, that some students don’t have arts entrepreneurship offerings as the movement, and the consequential move towards creating classes is still very much in progress. I’m not as opt to believe reason number two, as it would be in the entrepreneurial spirit for arts entrepreneurship organizers to effectively market their product, be it club or class. As for reason number three, I think this might be a sad reality for initial arts entrepreneurship offerings being formed by an administration that is not in tune to the interests, anxieties, and realities of the 21st-century music student. Consider, for example, a response from one student survey participant:
"[My institution] offers has an MBA program, an Entrepreneurship program, and a certificate in Nonprofit Management. I enrolled in the certificate as part of my doctoral studies so that I can be a stronger teacher, leader, and organizer in the arts. What I discovered was that many of the classes are inflexible and designed to fit a butts-in-the-seat style of teaching. The teachers cover theory and literature, but are not able to cope with the diverse backgrounds of their students or [their fields of interest]. Entrepreneurship should be more like private coaching so that individual attention can be paid to the specifics of each field."
This arts entrepreneurship program was created and implemented without enough input from students—or better yet, recent graduates—who can articulately voice what they want to learn, their impressions of the 21st-century economy and how it effects the arts, and their anxieties about their careers. Thankfully, some educators understand the nature and importance of the arts entrepreneurship:
"Arts Entrepreneurship is thinking outside the box and allowing our students to relate to the music field in new and meaningful ways that may differ from previous generations. As educators, we need to honor the creativity and authenticity of our students and nurture their own development as artists and professionals. We need to serve as mentors who are not just interested in creating clones of ourselves, but rather embrace the new visionary models of what it means to be an artist in the 21st century."
It’s an inspiring—and selfless—quote from an educator who clearly understands the nature of the current arts field. This participant recognizes that students have creative potential and original ideas. They just need guidance to turn these ideas into meaningful endeavors.
Finally, when asked to think about their ideal arts entrepreneurship offerings, participants wanted a program that would be flexible and able to be tailored to their personal interests and needs. I suspect this is in response to a desire to be proactive and opportunistic coupled with an incredible amount of anxiety when it comes to thinking about their futures. Although it might be obvious to some, here are some things artists are worried about:
"That I will have done all this training, have all these loans to pay off, and be exactly where I was when I graduated from undergrad—lost, worried about finances, and stuck in a job I had been working too long and really hated. Unhappy."
"I have no idea where to begin. And I feel that no matter how prepared I am my career will be left mainly up to chance (being in the right place, at the right time)."
"That I won’t be prepared for real life as a working musician outside of the school environment, that I will have to give up my artistic pursuits in order to make a living for myself, that all of the time I spent preparing to be a performer was not time well spent after all."
"Being culturally irrelevant."
Then we have to overcome–or at least work around—obstacles that institutional cultural creates:
"Faculty, students, and others in the [arts] field stigmatize training diversification, which is ironic and disappointing, given that the 21st-century artist needs [a broader variety of] skills and a good balance of them in order to get started. Artists should be cultural citizens and artistic ambassadors, and getting the word out and drawing others into artistic experiences is absolutely crucial. I wish I had more options and knowledge of what’s out there. I might have taken a different path."
How can we take these anxieties, fears, and old attitudes into account and motivate artists in the right direction to having sustainable, fulfilling, and socially relevant careers? Integrating an arts entrepreneurship program into arts curricula is certainly a workable solution, and as the survey results indicate, students would be in favor of taking a class that would provide a meaningful way for them to learn about arts entrepreneurship. But before creating the class, educators need to be mindful of the realities of the 21st-century (arts) economy and the effect this has on their students’ attitude and perceptions of professional possibilities. A class would need to be able to reconcile theoretical ideas with practical advice from successful young artists who are working in a variety of sectors. The course instructor would need to be available—and be a knowledgeable source—for career counseling, and he or she would need to have the advising finesse to direct students towards meaningful goals without micromanaging.
A non-curricular arts entrepreneurship organization, such as Arts Enterprise (AE), has certainly proven to be a viable attempt at addressing these problems. As AE is entirely run by students with the guiding support of a faculty advisor, activities and involvement level are completely up to the students, so long as they are in accordance with AE’s mission and values, which guide programs towards experiential arts entrepreneurship learning. Among AE’s programs have included business skills and entrepreneurship workshops for musicians, creativity workshops for business students, and brainstorming sessions for students to develop creative ideas working towards success in arts entrepreneurship education. AE has successfully implemented larger programs including a two-campus interdisciplinary service expedition to New Orleans where students helped evaluate the effectiveness of a New Orleans arts programs, effectively acting as researchers and consultants to an area in need.
All these activities help empower students to be successful, proactive, business-minded artists (and creatively-minded business students as well). AE is attractive to some administrators because of its ability to create big changes among student attitudes on a shoestring budget. An arts entrepreneurship that is a combination of the flexibly designed class and an AE chapter could certainly be an excellent solution to the issue at hand. But what happens when artists leave the safe haven of their school and their AE chapter? Who is to advocate for them? How will they have the tools to use their art to be productive members of society?
It’s certainly time to move young artists into the next step of productivity. What that will look like now is unclear, advocating for the value of artists—rather than embrace the image of the “starving artist”—will be central to the movement. The movement will require artists’ desire to be proactive in creating their own careers, creating a cross-disciplinary support group or “tribe” for themselves, and using their pooled resources for the betterment of all. Educators will need to serve as mentors, guiding artists towards their full potential without being micromanaging or self-serving. And we’ll all need to be more open about the professional possibilities for the creative artist, including more than just playing in or in front of an orchestra.
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