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Gary Beckman
Director, Entrepreneurial Studies in the Arts
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695
As entrepreneurship education becomes an ever increasing part of arts training, two significant (and related) issues in the growth of the field will need to be addressed in the near term. First deals with the position of arts entrepreneurship educators in faculty groups and the second concerns preparing the next generation of educators. Without due thought on these two topics, the field may suffer some significant consequences.
Emerging academic fields are typically birthed by a need for either scholarship or training. Our field is blessed (or cursed) with both. It is understandable that these fields (as they move to disciplinary status) are usually nurtured by faculty (or interested parties) whose primary responsibilities lie elsewhere, such as the applied arts. This has been the case in our field as it is the lucky few who’s contractual obligations are dedicated to entrepreneurship education in the arts. However, it appears to be time to consider (or at least advocate for) a reconsideration of part-time arts entrepreneurship faculty educators in favor of a model that matches disciplinary development.
My suggestion for a reappraisal is based on empirical data. This site has identified 72 colleges, conservatories and universities offering roughly 150 courses, degrees or workshops on the topic. Certainly this is not an exact number, but the trend is clear: arts entrepreneurship education is not simply growing during the worst economy since the 1930s, it is becoming part of 21st century arts training. Moreover, students and parents will begin to demand our programs as a part of college choice. (As an aside, with tuition skyrocketing across the country, our programing is a significant “value added” to any arts degree). I put it you: would you want your child’s promising arts career in the hands of someone who is not trained in arts entrepreneurship practice? Certainly, those educators with “real world” experience (and success) are important to our field, but there comes a time when experience and education meet. In my opinion, we are not quite “there” yet, but we will be, and this poses a question for arts higher education: how long will academic positions in our field be marginalized?
Specifically, I am speaking about most of our field’s educators who’s responsibilities are primarily non-entrepreneurship related. When our time is not fully dedicated to helping our students apply their training, we fail them, our academic unit, our institution, our student’s future communities and of course, art itself. With many decision makers fully in agreement with the importance of our efforts, it is reasonable to ask that we do our job - not two, or three, or more. My thoughts here are not from a disgruntled faculty member - quite the opposite. Rather, I simply suggest that action match the rhetoric. If arts entrepreneurship education is so important, then full-time faculty need to be hired whose role it is to do just that. Certainly, acting like an engaged faculty member who is a part of team is important and helping our deans and chairpeople who need to cover other courses on occasion is critical for all involved, especially students. (I would opine that having variety in one’s workplace is critical to preventing burnout and is a great way to recruit students to our programs). The problem lies more in commitment. To repeat and clarify: if arts entrepreneurship education is so important, then our departments, schools and colleges need to put some “skin in the game” and secure those faculty lines that will (in both the short and long term) strengthen their unit, their art form and develop future alumni gifts.
Our students need all of us, all the time - not half the time.
This brings me to my second point. If we do not have full-time arts entrepreneurship educators developing new programing and advanced degrees in this topic, the next generation of educators will not be treated the same way as established faculty, for example, in arts histories. Our generation may not see the majority of us with tenure track positions, but the future educators in the field should at least have a fighting chance. The charge for our generation of entrepreneurship educators is to plan for the future - for our student’s students and art itself.