A letter from the president

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.

But those same challenges and changes make this an extraordinary time to observe, study, and teach the leadership and management professionals of our field. As long-standing nonprofit arts organizations refocus or unravel, we have unique opportunities to explore how they were connected in the first place, and what capacities made them more or less able to engage significant change. As governments, foundations, individual funders, and other constituents reconsider their giving strategies and the evaluations that direct them, implicit assumptions about vital organizations become explicit in ways our students can both observe and inform.

It’s clear that the arts and cultural fields are changing shape, changing size, changing scope, and changing strategies. And all of this makes me particularly grateful to have a robust and innovative network of colleagues in the Association of Arts Administration Educators.

When I need to rethink how I teach cultural policy, I have a dozen colleagues who do it brilliantly – just an e-mail, or phone call, or web link away. When I’m struggling to justify the value and impact of my program to my dean, I have another dozen who have framed and won that argument with elegance and persuasion. And when I come to realize that I don’t even know what I don’t know, I can gather with a hundred colleagues at our annual conference to observe and engage the full spectrum of arts administration education.

I know both travel and program budgets are tightening in your organization. They certainly are doing so in mine. But when I consider all the investments I make in the long-term health, success, and impact of my degree program, my membership and full participation in AAAE easily makes the top of the priority list.

There are big conversations and new connections in store for AAAE and its members in the year to come. Please renew now to be sure you’re part of the network.

Sincerely,
 
Andrew Taylor
President

p.s. Take advantage of our secure server and renew your full, associate, individual, or student membership on-line.