Today cultural institutions are facing important dilemmas in many aspects of their management. Over the past decades, a new figure has emerged that of the art manager. Imagine you went to work every day to connect artists with audiences, vision with reality, and money with a mission. That is what managers in the arts do, they play an essential role in transforming the minds, lives, and communities through creative expression. This course has been conceptualized to address the need of skills and techniques to help professionals and managers in running art and cultural institutions. Learning Objectives There are three objectives to this course. First, we will approach the biggest issue cultural institutions face, the coexistence of managers and curators and giving evidence as to when, how, and why they can get along. Second, we will focus on some contemporary facets on what is means to manage a cultural institution and what cultural managers should expect and be able to face. And lastly, we will provide models and tools to design and implement appropriate courses of action to satisfy customers (visitors and audiences) and build an advantage over the competition. Course Structure The course is divided into six sections. Five sections are dedicated to specific aspects and themes of managing cultural institutions, while the sixth section is dedicated to individual interviews of prominent cultural institution managers on specific topics. The involvement of professionals and managers gives an incredible value to the learning experience of this course. Each module is paired with a quiz and discussion forums to reflect on the variety of the heritage management, its complexity, and the power of the network that we will build together during the course. Successful completion of the quizzes is required for a course certificate as explained in the Grading Policy page. If you love art and want to make an impact in this unique and fantastic sector, this course will support you in understanding the peculiarities of this sector and how to leverage on its tools to make a bigger impact. Look forward to meeting you online! Acknowledgements: Vatican Museums: www.museivaticani.va Cenacolo Vinciano: www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1283837989.html (ITA) FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano): eng.fondoambiente.it MUVE (Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia): www.visitmuve.it The National Trust: www.nationaltrust.org.uk The Archeological Site of Paestum: www.museopaestum.beniculturali.it whc.unesco.org/en/list/842 Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence): www.museumflorence.com Museo del Violino: www.museodelviolino.org _________________________________ Disclaimer - Since some of the videos are conducted with those whose native language is not English, we have decided to sometimes preserve their more emphatic speech to keep a tighter match between the audio and subtitles.
1.1 Heritage Management: An Introduction
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From the course by Università Bocconi
Arts and Heritage Management
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From the lesson
CURATORSHIP Vs. MANAGEMENT
Curators & Managers: What do art and heritage need? How do products generate value for the customer and how so those customers value these products and their quality.
Meet the Instructors
Andrea RuraleDirector
Master in Arts Management and Administration (MAMA)
We have often been told that to discover the new, we need to study the old,
and to invent the future, we need to understand the past. Thomas Eliot also helped us in understanding the
relationship between the contemporary and the past. Thomas Eliot wrote that, "Tradition cannot be possessed, it needs to be
reinvented and, mainly, rediscovered." All in all, we need to bring heritage to life.
We also need to consider that present cultural heritage is under a constant, urgent state of threat.
Because of this situation, new forms of
research and mainly management are implemented in order to allow people of contemporaneity to enjoy the heritage of the past.
In these days, we are facing examples of politically deliberated and motivated destruction of heritage:
what is happening in Syria and Iraq. Heritage is also under the risk of being destroyed
by climate change or also by natural disasters. Then there are, after a war, for example, looting and theft.
After a war, the invader robs and destroys the cultural heritage, taking, to their own country,
the heritage of a specific site, and this is happened during the Second World War,
but it is still happening in contemporary life.
In a way, we can say that heritage is under the risk of being destroyed and destructed.
Therefore, because of this urgency, new tools and new forms of
management and, at the same time, research need to be implemented in order to convey
and provide a proper experience for the visitors of a museum, heritage site, and/or archaeological site.
Technology is helping a lot with this goal. We are now able to print, with a 3D
printer, places that have never been seen before.
Through scanning, we can arrive to a very detailed way of seeing
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel,
or a lot of details inside caves, that in the past, were never possible to enjoy
and to see in such detail. Technology, on the other side, cannot be the solution of the problem.
Technology is a tool. At the same time, we need to implement evidences of storytelling narrative engagement:
so, using the tools in order to engage and convey the message that the heritage represents
and wants to say. This is leading, in a way, to the big dilemma of heritage management,
which is the role played by the curatorship and research and on the other side management
and tools. Technology, web, and
digital enjoyment can allow the consumer to enter in contact with a work of art,
but the same work of art needs to be studied and researched in order to convey the original message that the work of art itself
but the same work of art needs to be studied and researched in order to convey the original message that the work of art itself
originally represented. The outcome of this dualism is also present in the form of organization and managing
the heritage site.
We can have, therefore, a dual relationship, so a sort of conflict between what is represented by the
curator and what is represented by the manager. Who is the person that needs to lead and be in charge of directing a museum,
archaeological site, or heritage site? There are four forms of,
in a way, managing and heading a cultural institution. An institution can decide to choose one person that is
endowed with a historic and humanistic background,
a person that knows, in a deep way, the history of the collection of the museum,
the history of art that is represented there; or in the case of museums that are not connected with art, the history
and the essence, the core activity of the heritage that is exposed. On the contrary, a director of a museum can be a
manager, so a person that has a management background, in this case,
he does not know anything or at least he does not have, in his CV (résumé),
a proper preparation in the humanities or the topic of the museum itself, but he or she knows the management tools
a proper preparation in the humanities or the topic of the museum itself, but he or she knows the management tools
needed in order to create a business in a way that is economic, efficient,
and effective. Left apart, this form of directorates so management background,
humanistic background it is also possible to organize a sort of diarchy, so two people that are playing the same role of directors inside
a cultural institution,
so people that are working hand-in-hand and divide, in a very precise way, the tools and the activities to be implemented,
and together manage the cultural institution. This is a form that, when it works,
is the ideal form of managing museums. We have plenty of examples of virtuosos in this field.
Here in the Vatican Museums, we have an example of a director with the humanities as a background,
and a representative of the management and administration department.
In this case, we have a third person in between that puts together the two components of the directorate.
This, unfortunately, is not the case spread all over the world, so the dualism between the humanities
and management is still present. Then there is a last opportunity in managing a cultural institution that is a sort of clan,
so a group of people, not one, not two,
but many. This is the case that happened in the past in Chicago for the Museum of Art, where a group of experts of art
decided to implement and start the adventure of a new museum all together with a precise division of roles
of more than two people. Well, we are not in a situation where we can say this is the best and that is the worst.
We cannot say what is the best and most ideal way of managing a cultural institution.
For sure, a profound respect of the role played by the other, a profound and deep respect of the importance of management,
the importance of research and the curatorship is the solution in order to manage museums
and cultural heritage in an effective way. Finally, both the curator and the manager play an important role,
what to say is decided by the curator how to say it is decided by the manager.
Thanks to a deep and mutual respect on the role played by each one, this is,
for sure, the best way to approach heritage and to bring heritage back to life and to also follow the path that
Thomas Elliot stated, so not considering tradition and heritage as
something that can be possessed, but something that needs to be reinvented and reproached day after day.
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