6c Literature Reviews

Literature Reviews

During the course of this module I have begun collecting relevant literature and resources that relate to my professional inquiry. I have tagged many links on my Delicious page, which some of you might find useful as well. The following are three different literature reviews I found that relate to the key themes and ideas of my inquiry.  

1.      Beyond Performance

Mindy Levine Advocacy Report

Article can be found at:  http://www.iotpd.org/beyond_performance.pdf

My first review is taken from Beyond Performance: Building a better future for dancers and the art of dance by Mindy N. Levine. It builds on a three-year research study, Making Changes: Facilitating the Transition of Dancers to Post- Performance Careers. It aims to set out actions that people in the dance field, organizations and the government should be taking in order to aid a dancer’s career transition. They found that dancers are not very well informed of the challenges faced in career transition. Their research highlights common problems artists currently face:

-          Low compensation

-          Short career duration

-          Unstable employment

-          Management support

-          Absence of contractual protections i.e. health benefits

-          Information gaps (uninformed of the challenges)

This research was carried out internationally and showed that dancers tend to be badly compensated not only compared to regular jobs but to other art disciplines as well. This leads dancers to having to pursue other paid work, such as the promotional work I take in between contracts in order to continue auditioning. Due to the short career as a dancer we have less time to save up funds to aid career transition such as re-training. Also highlighted is a dancer’s unstable employment, which I can relate to. Jumping from contract to contact means my income can differ year to year. Taking time out to audition costs money and full year contracts are hard to come by making access to benefits much harder. In the survey carried out support from management in a company was very low where the majority of support came from family and friends. I feel that the current company I work for will help aid me in my career transition, however I agree that my family have always been the main support throughout my career.

The article points out that “At a juncture when most adults are hitting their professional stride, dancers must embark on second careers”. This is exactly why I have embarked on this degree course in order to have sufficient educational knowledge for a second career. A dancers career is short lived, they must have a back-up plan.

“Professional dancers face unique career transition challenges, which diverge significantly from professionals in other arts disciplines and other physically demanding fields.” (Beyond Performance)

This research is relevant to my inquiry as it highlights how tough it is for dancers to make a career transition successfully. It even suggests arts organizations are not paying enough attention to their artists in helping them through this process. This is something I feel very strongly about and hope my inquiry might be able to change this especially in my current workplace where it is a new company. By reviewing this piece of literature I developed a new inquiry question:

How can arts companies help their artists/performers through career

transition from onstage to offstage?

2.      Matching managers to the mayhem, madness and miracle

of America’s professional theatres

Jim Volz. Grand Valley State University Theatre Management Article

 Article can be found at: http://www.gvsu.edu/theatre/index.cfm?id=4BC6D102-F34F-35D5-DBF364A0474C5DB5

(This article originally appeared in the January 2007 issue of AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE.  It is reprinted here by permission of the author.  Jim Volz is the author of HOW TO RUN A THEATER [2005] and THE BACK STAGE GUIDE TO WORKING IN REGIONAL THEATER [2007] and a professor at California State University, Fullerton)

Jim Volz is one of America’s leading theater consultants with over three decades of work with theater, dance, music, museum and arts center management. He has carried out research into over a thousand regional theatres across America. In this article he points out we are coming to an arts crisis whereby theatres are finding it hard to hold down their managers. Many leave the stressful, under-paid and over-worked life in the theatre for a more stable position somewhere else.

He goes on to ask about University training as opposed to practical experience. John M McCann argues that there is no specific way of breaking into the arts management field as many aspects such as accounting, human resources and production can either be learned in school or on the job. I agree with this statement as I am currently assistant producer and choreographer for our upcoming Broadway show. Having never done either before it is a case of trial and error along the way. I am learning what works and what doesn’t in order to refine my professional practice. However, I feel formal training helps to give a solid base of knowledge to then take into the workplace. Volz points out that even having a degree will not guarantee employment as a manager. His view is that practical experience can be gained from internships and work experience (paid or unpaid). Text books can only prepare someone so much for the real life work situations that arise.   

Another way to break into management may be to rise through the ranks. However few theatres have the time or money to support professional career development. This echoes a point from the article ‘Beyond Performance’ where they found the majority of career transition support came from family and friends rather than employers. This is something I wish to explore further in my inquiry, looking into the theatres that do have in-house employee development programs and how successful they are.

Something that really struck a chord with me was when Jim asks whether we should adopt a new mantra of trying to make a “life worth living” rather than the old “work for the love of the art”. He points out that many great managers end up leaving theatres because of being over-worked and under-paid and there are many turn-offs to the business that is leading to an arts crisis. I personally have known many great creative minds that have left the entertainment industry to either re-train for or pursue a more financially stable position.

3.      Managing the Arts: Leadership and Decision Making under Dual Rationalities

David Cray; Loretta Inglis; Susan Freeman

Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society; Winter 2007; 36, 4;

 Article can be found at: http://www.jamk.fi/download/29488_Reading_3.pdf

This article tries to draw similarities between models of leadership with that of art organizations.

Something this article does point out is that “much of the sparse literature in arts management is framed in terms of “best practice” based on a few isolated cases. A more systematic approach is needed, one that uses existing concepts and models to understand precisely how arts organizations operate”. There seems to be little research on the structure of arts organizations. In my current company managers take on many different roles for example the Artistic Director also acts as Producer and Managing Director.

“Many arts organizations espouse participatory styles of leadership” Participative leadership involves all team members in defining goals and developing ways in which to achieve them. I feel this is the type of leadership my theatre currently has as it is a relatively small theatre and everyone in management has an active role in developing ideas. Many of the managers are ex-performers and they have been allowed to have creative input as well as using their talents in various shows or promotions. David Cray, Loretta Inglis and Susan Freeman have also explored aspects of management and leadership in arts organizations in Australia and found they are often led by more than one person just as the theatre I work at is run between the Artistic Director, technical director, producer and administrators. When they conducted interviews the feedback they gained was that in a small theatre environment a dictator does not work. They operate more like a small family, which reflects the way in which my company works. They conclude that the organizations studied do not have a single leader, but that leadership is shared and there was strong evidence that all the leaders studied were transformational leaders. Transformational leaders emphasize trust, their most important values, confidence and are admired as role models. Again I feel this reflects the style of leader I am working under.

It is important to recognize leadership styles in arts organizations if trying to transition into this career. Looking at this research shows how leaders in arts organizations differ to many other businesses, leadership is often shared and therefore comes with different challenges.

Most recently arts organizations have been under pressure to become more professional on the managerial side of the business in order to gain funding. With this being said, arts organizations have aesthetic concerns that managers must take into consideration. If a theatre presents a profitable but quickly and badly thrown together show it is sure to gain criticism. On the other hand if it comes up with a new and original show it is likely to have financial stress.