Editor's Introduction

Authors

  • Linda Essig California State University, Los Angeles
  • Gary Beckman North Carolina State University

Abstract

This issue of Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, while long in coming, represents a new stage in the development of the journal and, by extension, the field of arts entrepreneurship. In Volume 2, Issue 3, Artivate expands its reach across the Atlantic with the inclusion of an article by Johan Kolsteeg on the discourse surrounding cultural entrepreneurship in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In “Situated Cultural Entrepreneurship,” Kolsteeg describes both the national and local contexts for entrepreneurial activity by cultural organizations and posits a framework for understanding the relationship between cultural entrepreneurship and politics.

In “Culture Coin: A Commons-based, Complementary Currency for the Arts and Its Impact on Scarcity, Virtue, Ethics, and the Imagination,” Vijay Mathew and Polly Carl take on the US arts ecosystem's challenges to individual artist and arts organizations' viability. They boldly offer a remedy in the form of “Culture Coin.” The “complementary currency” they propose is both an entrepreneurial endeavor in itself and supportive of the independent entrepreneurial activity of artists, specifically theatre artists working in the nonprofit sector.

Jason White turns our attention back to the state of arts entrepreneurship education in the academy. His analysis of Strategic Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) data and arts program accreditation standards reveals barriers to the development of more robust arts entrepreneurship curricula. Artivate's co-editors wholeheartedly support his assertion that arts entrepreneurship education is “essential” to a professional arts degree, an assertion echoed at a recent convening of arts entrepreneurship educators. White's article also provides us with the opportunity to fulfill our goal of publishing the work of first-time authors.

Finally, Artivate expands its scope in this issue to include book reviews. Stephani Etheridge Woodson reviews arts activist and entrepreneur Arlene Goldbard's newest book, The Culture of Possibility. Future issues will include reviews of Lynn Book and David Phillip's Creativity and Entrepreneurship (Edward Elgar Press) and Michael Rushton's edited collection on New Growth Theory, Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development (Brookings Institution).

Author Biographies

Linda Essig, California State University, Los Angeles

Linda Essig is Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at California State University, Los Angeles. She previously was director of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Programs for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, including the Pave Program in Arts Entrepreneurship. She was the founding director of the School of Theatre and Film at ASU where she also served as Artistic Director of the school’s MainStage Season from 2004–2010. She previously served as Director of University Theatre and chair of Theatre & Drama at University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2012, she launched Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, the first-ever research journal in the field. Her articles have been published there as well as in Cultural Trends, Entrepreneurship Research Journal, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, Theatre Topics, Stage Directions, Theatre Design and Technology, and elsewhere. Formerly a professional lighting designer, Essig’s design for Suzan–Lori Parks’s “Venus” was part of the USA National Exhibit of Scenography at the Prague Quadrennial in 2007. She has designed for theatres throughout the country including Cleveland Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Missouri Rep, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Skylight Opera, La Mama ETC, Pioneer Theatre, and others. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on both arts entrepreneurship and lighting design, and three books: Lighting and the Design Idea, The Speed of Light: Dialogues on Lighting Design and Technological Change, and The Arizona Arts Entrepreneur Toolkit. At ASU, Essig taught courses in Arts Entrepreneurship, Arts Management, and Arts Policy. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Association of Arts Administration Educators.

Gary Beckman, North Carolina State University

Dr. Gary D. Beckman is Director of Entrepreneurial Studies in the Arts where he developed and administers the nation’s first and largest campus-wide Arts Entrepreneurship Minor.   Before arriving at NC State, he developed the nation’s first Music Entrepreneurship Minor at the University of South Carolina’s School of Music. In addition to recently being honored with the naming of the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education’s research impact award, he also co-founded and co-edited the world’s first academic journal on arts entrepreneurship education, edited the field’s first essay collection, “Disciplining the Arts: Teaching Entrepreneurship in Context” and co-founded the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education (societyaae.org).   Dr. Beckman earned a Ph.D. in Musicology from The University of Texas at Austin, a M.A. in Musicology from the University of New Hampshire and a B.A. in Music from the University of Southern Maine. At UT Austin, he was principle investigator of the first nation-wide study of arts entrepreneurship efforts in higher education, funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.   His articles on the topic of arts entrepreneurship, arts leadership education and Intellectual Entrepreneurship have appeared in Planning for Higher EducationSymposiumMetropolitan Universities JournalArts Education Policy ReviewThe Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society and various essay collections.
Linda Essig

Downloads

Published

2013-01-01

How to Cite

Essig, L., & Beckman, G. (2013). Editor’s Introduction. Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, 2(1), 1–2. Retrieved from https://artivate.org/index.php/artivate/article/view/12

Issue

Section

Editorials