Does the art end when the management begins? The challenges of making ‘art’ for both artists and arts managers

Abstract

The terms ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ can produce powerful and contradictory responses in the context of arts organisations. There are different expectations or understandings about the ‘construct of leadership’ and the ‘construct of management’ in the arts as elsewhere. It is argued that in arts organisations the ‘leadership’ is provided by the artistic director or artistic leader and the ‘management’ is provided by the administrator or general manager. But is this the case? Doesn’t the artistic director ‘manage’ and the general manager also ‘lead’? And what about everyone else in the organisation; the other artists, administrators and board members, do they contribute to the leadershi..