SARC 5100 / ARAD 5050, Fall 2013         

Wednesdays 10:00 am-12:30 pm, Fayerweather 215

      

Arts Marketing Theory & Practice

 

Instructor: Maggie Guggenheimer, mog3b@virginia.edu, 434-882-5040 

 

Arts administration is an interdisciplinary field that studies the practical management of arts, cultural, and entertainment organizations and businesses and raises questions about the role of the arts in our society. The metaphor of a crossroads is useful to illustrate the meeting of commerce and art, where artistic creation seeks an audience and the artist and community most intimately interact. The arts marketer is a key animator of this crossroads, balancing the needs and desires of the audience with the necessity to nurture and facilitate artists and their work. 

 

As an important interpreter of the work, the arts marketer uses tools of business: management, strategy, marketing, financial accounting, operations, and negotiation; and tools of community building: fundraising, development, education, outreach, engagement, volunteerism, public policy, and partnerships; to create thriving cultural connections between artists and audiences. Arts Marketing Theory & Practice lays a foundation of traditional arts marketing techniques and addresses the 21st-century need to balance innovative web-based communications with new strategies to attract diverse audiences through relevancy, accessibility, and interactivity.

 

In this course, students will explore arts marketing theory and practice through readings, class discussion, guest lectures, Harvard Business School case studies, and assignments and projects related to University and Charlottesville arts and cultural organizations. Group work and presentations for real-world marketing projects will be balanced by individual work in responses, case studies, and a required final paper outlining a marketing plan. 

 

The course is designed to be highly participatory, with weekly class discussions anchoring students’ understanding of the concepts introduced through readings. Project work extends that learning through hands-on application. Additionally, the course activates connections between students and the broader University and Charlottesville cultural community through regular guest lectures, hands-on response assignments, and real-world projects.

 

Upon completion of the course, students should understand core concepts of arts marketing and be able to apply them to current issues in the field, producing a final arts marketing plan rooted in market research, strategic analysis, and creative thinking.