Listen to the conference keynote address of Joan Shigekawa, Senior Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Her keynote title is ''Arts.Gov: A Report from the Front.''

It is a great pleasure to be here today to discuss my favorite subject: arts management training. I have long believed that the biggest problem facing the arts today, on a worldwide basis, is not a shortage of singers, or dancers, or playwrights, or conductors. It is a shortage of trained entrepreneurs to employ these artists.

We gather in a time of great stress for the professional arts community. In the wake of the global financial crisis—a crisis which, as our constantly yo-yoing Dow Jones tells us, may be far from over—the nonprofit arts have been deeply challenged.

Thanks to all who joined us in Washington, DC, June 3-6, 2010, for Making Connections: Preparing Cultural Leaders for Future Challenges. The American University Arts Management Program and George Mason University's Arts Management Program were extraordinary co-hosts. More details to come.

The environmental forces at work these days – social, technological, environmental, economic, political – make this a particularly challenging time to lead or manage an arts or cultural enterprise. I hear from our alumni and professional colleagues daily about old models no longer working, tested strategies missing the mark, new innovations in process or practice, or growing pressures to deliver more value with fewer resources.

Bernard "Bernie" Sahlins is an American writer, director, and comedian best known as a co-founder of The Second City improvisational comedy troup. His keynote speech to the 2007 AAAE conference in Chicago spoke to the power of the intersection of art and entrepreneurship...reaching back into the 16th century to make the point. We publish his remarks here with his permission, and with deep thanks for his insights on our field.