Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Riding The Seesaw Between Artist And Administrator, Elise L. Kieffer Phd

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

The road toward arts administration often begins with art practice. This can be problematic, as artists are educated and trained to be practitioners of their art form. Experience and education in the requisite administrative skills is too often learned on the job, as one is thrust into a new role with entirely new and separate responsibilities and different priorities. This disparity can lead to confused priorities, disorganization, and lack of professionalization of administrative services. Beginning with an examination of classical pragmatism and its historic emphasis on plurality, coherence and integration, moving into the contemporary applications of pragmatism as a mediating …