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Cultural Management
Cultural institutions around the world face all kinds of different challenges – a shortage of funding, unstable political circumstances or an insufficiently high profile. Cultural managers address such challenges and play an important mediator role.
Culture preserves and changes
Culture means both tradition and modernity – preserving but also changing. The term "culture" is wide-ranging and cannot be understood merely as a grouping together of artistic spheres such as theatre, dance, art or film. By culture we also mean communication and ways of life. Culture penetrates every aspect of our lives. Culture is dynamic, creative and innovative, for it enables mobility, networking and cultural diversity. It provides impetus and allows new perspectives. A culturally active environment improves quality of life, enhances society’s strengths and fosters cohesion – irrespective of a country’s level of development.
Culture creates jobs
Culture is also a sector of the economy that offers jobs, e.g. in arts and crafts, in the fashion or film industry, or in product design. Culture must therefore hold its own in an internationally competitive market just like any other branch of industry. If a country provides financial incentives to promote the cultural sector, it will thus also be promoting the country’s development. New opportunities can be opened up for a country if there is cooperation in the fields of cultural and economic policy, education, the environment, administration, urban development and tourism planning. In recent years, increasing importance has therefore been attached to culture as an economic and locational factor.
It has also been recognized on an international level that culture is an important factor when it comes to the sustainable development of changing and globalized societies. In 2007, UNESCO adopted its "Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions". Ever since, cultural aspects have been taken into account in development policy and international cooperation has been fostered.
Working in the field of cultural management
Cultural management is a fairly new field for which a standardized programme of training exists in only a few countries. Generally, cultural management is an interdisciplinary profession which people enter from areas such as art, marketing, politics, business, personnel and others. A handful of universities do now offer degree courses for cultural managers, however, such as Wits University Johannesburg in South Africa, which runs a course in "Arts, Culture and Heritage Management", and Hildesheim University in Germany which offers a course in cultural education and mediation.
Culture needs managers
Cultural managers plan, organize, monitor and market cultural institutions and projects. Their job is to combine and make best possible use of the financial, personnel and material possibilities available. Ideally, they achieve this by combining their knowledge and expertise in sociology, economics and the arts. They act as mediators between artistic production and audience and ensure that culture is able to develop its full potential. Cultural managers can thus play an important role when it comes to influencing the way culture is perceived and the opportunities it has in a country. A cultural manager should thus be in control of a cultural event’s planning and financing, while at the same time pursuing effective public relations work and establishing international networks. These networks should include artists first and foremost, but also decision-makers. Reconciling these two different areas is sometimes viewed critically by people who work in the field of culture due to the fact that the work pursued by cultural managers in the area of independent art and culture is often guided more by economic interests than by creative aspects.
Culture and regional conditions
Cultural managers are still exotic rarities in most regions of the world. In Africa, for instance, formal training is the lesser problem – the tough conditions under which everyone in the field of culture works there pose the greater difficulties. These include political pressure, a shortage of funding and the fact that huge geographical distances or a lack of infrastructure make working together with other organizations more difficult. What is more, people who live on less than 30 dollars a month are hard to persuade of the benefits of art and culture. The Internet offers some possible solutions in this respect. In 2007, African cultural managers created the "Arterial Network" with the aim of sharing information about culture in Africa via the Internet and establishing networks. So far, 28 African countries have joined up.Advanced training programmes and projects for cultural managers worldwide
Further reading
- Culture 2.0 – using the Internet for cultural management
- Culture at the Alumniportal Deutschland
- Advanced training programmes and projects for cultural managers worldwide
- Discussion in the community group "KULTUR - CULTURE": culture and management – opposites or mutually complementary?
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Maija Kale
Wednesday 30, 2011 15:41:20 PM
When people talk about globalization and the global culture management, I always think that globalization is not yet a complete project because senses of humour differ so much around the world...we can all eat the same McDonalds food but are still not laughing about the same jokes....!
Pablo David
Saturday 19, 2011 21:29:33 PM
Cultural Management is a success factor in every business that intends to enter a globalized economy, there’s no way to succed in another country or culture, if you do not understand how business and things should be done there.
I work as a Sales and Marketing Director for a Company in Colombia that exports to 25 countries, and it is clear that for example in some countries in order to succed we must have a sales representative, meanwhile in other we can sale directly from Colombia and visit them a couple of times within the year.
Relations with the customers are much closer in some countries rather than in others, and that should be known in order not to have problems.
Florence Mukanga
Monday 07, 2011 09:51:32 AM
‘Indeed the internet and social media are very important for a continent-wide network of artists, cultural managers, civil society organizations, donors and cultural institutions working in the creative sector of Africa- Arterial network.’
a. African civil society in the creative sector identified the need for information to empower/inform their work, so we launched artsinafrica.com – directory of information, now also to be published
b. Not only is financial means necessary for sustainability but also effective leadership and cultural managers, so we provide tools online for use e.g. Artists Handbook, Cultural Policy Toolkit and soon, Toolkits on fundraising, arts marketing, arts advocacy
c. Not everyone has access to the web or internet in Africa, but there is a sufficient critical mass in cultural sector to distribute this info and to use web and internet to build and sustain the network continentally.
d. We are currently running online working groups on cultural policy. The internet is being used as the ‘online’ facility for our working groups. Of course there are always challenges associated with connectivity in Africa there are sufficient people to participate in these working groups.
Adel Rizk
Saturday 05, 2011 05:24:36 AM
Culter Maneger are used in all our life by using operatin resarche
Georgiana
Thursday 03, 2011 18:07:03 PM
Hello to all,
I am currently making a master on Intercultural Management at the Department-UNESCO Chair for the Study of Intercultural and Inter-religious Exchanges from the University of Bucharest, Romania. I chose this after gaining a university degree in communication and PR. I was thinking it might be a wise choice related to my passions and my career plans but as it turns out the interdisciplinary courses are very good but the job opportunities are missing. I am not sure where I might find in the future research institutes that are active in this field in Europe or where I could find a suitable job for my qualification. It seems that the job is so special that nobody is looking for it or the job market, at least in Romania is not yet opened for such professions...What do you think?