by Simon Mallett
Given the nature of the Rozsa Foundation’s multifaceted support for the arts community, it’s important for us to stay abreast of the current needs, trends, challenges, and opportunities in the sector. Our daily work affords us a good deal of insight into the Alberta and Canada-wide state of the arts, but there are fewer opportunities to learn about the challenges and solutions facing the international arts community, and how we might gain insight from them.
In seeking insight into those international perspectives, I learned about the International Conference on Arts & Cultural Management, which brings together academics, students, and practitioners from around the world every second year to reflect and share management practices and successes in the field. In late June, I attended the 2024 conference in Lisbon, Portugal to understand how arts and cultural organizations are faring globally.
The 2024 conference was its 17th edition, bringing together 356 participants from 49 countries. As an academic conference, the format consisted mostly of presentations of academic papers and case studies, highlighting concepts as diverse as the presenters themselves. At any given time during the day, there were between six and eleven sessions to choose from, so I could only scratch the surface of the full range of content being shared. That said, it also ensured that there were plenty of options for sessions that resonated with front-of-mind issues.
Perhaps the best way to provide some insight into the array of topics is to share the titles of just a few of the more than two dozen presentations I attended, which include:
Founders Syndrome or Systemic Malady?
Collective Directorship and Participation in Theatre Companies
Cultural Policy Roles in the Non-West
Abusive Leadership in the Arts and the Crisis of Accountability
Towards an Organizational Model of Cultural Leadership for Australian Symphony Orchestras
Strategic Pricing in Cultural Organizations: The Case of the Swiss Science Centre Technorama
Audience-Centric Practice in Arts Organizations
Can Immersive Digital Art Bring Visitors to Museums?
Cultural Entrepreneurship and Cultural Economics: Impact of the Royal Opera House, Mumbai
Education as a Leverage Point for Sustainability
It made for a busy three days!
It would be near impossible to convey the wealth of information I took away from the conference, though I’ve certainly found myself using examples in various conversations I’ve had over the past two months. I will, however, share a couple of quick takeaways that I’m thinking about in terms of how to allow my observations and learnings to influence our own work moving forward.
The Most Useful Solutions Are Context-Familiar
Aside from being the best people to hang out with at the conference, the delegation of Australians also proved to be the most productive conversation partners. Perhaps more than any other country (except maybe the US, but it’s close), the Australian context strikes me as being most like Canada’s, including navigating challenges around a geographically spread-out population, reconciliation with Indigenous People, government funding structures, and more. It’s little surprise that the presentation on Australian symphony orchestras echoed many of the same challenges facing Canadian orchestras, including seeking a refreshed definition of public value amidst shifting social expectations.
My sense is that, in terms of sourcing more immediately applicable solutions and opportunities from international colleagues, recognizing the similarities in operating context is essential, as the viability of those ways forward are likely to be higher than those where, for example, government funding is providing the vast majority of necessary resources to an organization (more on that shortly). The familiar context can also lead to deeper and more reciprocal learning relationships, as not only are the interventions more viable, but the entirety of the journey is more aligned.
How might we forge these kinds of international learning opportunities and integrate them into our ongoing practice? Certainly, some larger organizations and international coalitions prioritize this inter-continental learning, but many lack the capacity or knowledge to build and maintain the necessary relationships.
Newfound Alliances Close to Home
Attending an academic conference as a practitioner is an interesting lens through which to consider the role of post-secondary research on professional practice in arts management. On one hand, academia is inherently lagging the practice in the field in a chronological sense in that academic research is based largely on prior situations and cases, and by the time the research is ready for presentation, it can, in some instances, feel quite dated by current practice standards. It means that some of the stories are interesting, but perhaps not the most useful to draw from in informing new ways forward.
However, the research-based approach of academics in the field of arts and cultural management also uses data and theoretical models and frameworks to inform their work in a way that many arts organizations may not have the time, capacity, or skillset to do (as Lisa discussed in our last newsletter). For example, research done for the Swiss Science Centre Technorama utilizing Van Westendorp's Price Sensitivity Meter gave them incredible insight into the perceived value of the visitor experience, but the ability of many Canadian organizations to undertake research and experiment around particular models is often limited.
In some instances, consultants are bringing these tools to the table, but how might the complimentary skillsets of academics and practitioners bring about new collaborations that focus on tangible change?
Funding Opens Doors to Innovation
This may be less of a practically informed takeaway and more a call for continued advocacy in the sector, but I couldn’t help but be struck by the ability of organizations to be adaptive and responsive to their communities in areas of the world where government and philanthropic support for the arts is strong. Meaningful progress in power-sharing, experimentation, and innovation is enabled by organizations having space to worry less about the day-to-day viability of their organizational business model.
This isn’t a revolutionary realization by any stretch, but hearing about the power of escaping a scarcity-based model certainly makes me want to be a part of a reality where the creative power of artists and arts managers can truly be unlocked for the betterment of society. As we advocate for a context that provides a stronger foundation for arts organizations, how can we simultaneously create adaptive change capital within the sector to demonstrate the tremendous outcomes that could be possible in such an environment?
I’m certain that I’ll be pulling on many more threads from this conference as we undertake our work over the next two years and am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend. If you’re interested in learning more about The International Association of Arts and Cultural Management (AIMAC), you can visit their website at https://www.aimac-culturalmanagement.org/. Their next conference will take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2026.
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