Giep Hagoort is cultural entrepreneur and professor Art ans Economics at the Utrecht University/Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands. His book Art Management, Entrepreneurial Style as un update of Cultural entrepreneurship,  is translated in several European languages. An edition in the Arabic language will be published in 2008. His Inaugural Lecture at the Utrecht University discussed the fundaments of Cultural entrepreneurship (a summary version in English will be publiced on internet www.hku.nl

You wrote a book “Cultureel Ondernemerschap” which was published in Poland by the Jagiellonian University Publishing House in Cracow. The Polish version appeared nearly 10 years ago, what has changed in the field of entrepreneurial culture in Europe and in the world since that time?

Cultural entrepreneurship, 10 years later.

My book Cultural entrepreneurship was strongly oriented on the subsidized cultural sector. This sector, museums, theatre and music ensembles, centers for visual arts had a reactive management attitude: wait and see, to say it in a general way. The environment at that time asked for a more pro active style: audience development, entering Europa without borders, creating sponsoring strategies. This pro active style can be found in the entrepreneurial approach with a strong emphasis on the own responsibility of a cultural institute. Nowadays, more and more, researchers, teachers and authors, each on his or her own way, have introduced the entrepreneurial spirit into their work. Also Encatc, the European network, pays attention to cultural entrepreneurship as an effective management style for the cultural sector.

What has changed now, not only in  The Netherlands but all over Europe, is the importance of the small entreprises of artists, designers and other creative professionals. This  Cultural Small and Medium Sized enterprises (C SME), partly subsidized and sponsored, and partly commercial, is a part of the cultural and creative industry and have an important function for the society, on the economical, social and cultural level. The related management issues are now: teamwork, collective artistic leadership, cultural business modeling (or creative financing), network learning and partnership. Ten years ago we discussed the issues of the cultural sector now we are working in the context of a creative economy.  And in this context artists, designers and cultural managers are playing a crucial role to contribute to a sustainable and creative development.

In my opinion enterprise in culture is not only earning money from culture…It also means projects that don’t bring profit, it means volunteers in culture, culture education, etc. Anything that makes our participation in culture more profound and contributes to its development. That inspires and stimulates the development of culture. What does ‘enterprise in culture’ mean to you?

Enterprise in culture, profit driven?

When we talk about ‘cultural entrepreneurship’ of ‘enterprise in culture’ we do not mean: making profit in the first place. In my Inaugural Speech as professor Art and Economics at the Utrecht University, June this year, I explained on a scientific level that cultural entrepreneurship has two fundaments: artistic freedom and enterprise freedom. Artistic freedom is content oriented on cultural values and will be supported by the more economic oriented enterprise freedom. So, it is important that a cultural organisation has a clear cultural mission in the first place and that this mission can be realised by an economic policy. This policy can be a not for profit one, or a profit one, it depends on the specific situations and circumstances. But in all this cases, to formulate a cultural mission is the most important step. This will say that it is possible that your mission is focused on working with volunteers, amateurs and new groups from the audience on a not for profit base. The next entrepreneurial question is how do you finance your cultural mission.

In your book you focus much on many aspects of management…Does the knowledge of management create entrepreneurial attitudes? Or perhaps management is just the process of proper realisation of culture tasks that result from those attitudes?

Management and entrepreneurship
In my book I made a distinction between management as a technique to run an art organisation and  entrepreneurship as a pro active attitude to be responsible for the functioning of an organisation. At that time art management was the general issue and entrepreneurship a more personal approach from my side. Knowledge of art management in the sfere of ‘how to’ is needed but it will not bring an entrepreneurial style automatically. Entrepreneurship is taking responsibility and is connected with the questions of ‘why’ and ‘what’. A third aspect is ‘cultural leadership’ which is focused on developing a cultural vision and motivating people around you. For the near future this leadership is important if cultural organisations want to play creative role in the society.

In Poland, since the publishing of your book “Entrepreneurial Culture”, no other book dealing with the entrepreneurial culture issues has appeared. How do you think – why? Is the subject so difficult, or maybe it’s just not worth talking about?

Entreprise in culture: Much about nothing?

In general, it is true that  there are just a dozen of writers on art management and cultural entrepreneurship. Traditionally from England and the United States and a strong contribution from Autralia. On the continent of Europe there are a few knowledge centres with a managing professor like me. My observation is that the books are interchangable, 60% has the same table of content. What new is, is the empirical approach: to create knowledge on research data. Books are not important then, but papers, research reports and presentations on seminars.
My own experience is that publishing new and innovative books on art management is a complex activity. You have to combine cultural values with economical and organisational values. In fact you have to be an interdisciplinairy expert in the field of art and culture, and in the field of management. Not everybody has the opportunity, the time and the creativity to explore the combinations which are full of dilemma’s and paradoxes. And let me say it clear: art and culture are on the top of the list, management issues are important but have to play a role on the second place. The dynamics of this hierarchy is one of the fascinating things in my personal and professional life.

In Poland (like in most European countries) culture work is done in three sectors – in public institutions, in non-government organizations and in private companies (culture industries sector). In which of those sectors enterprise is most necessary?

Entrepreneurial style is needed everywhere.
In my observations in all the cultural and creative sectors – governmental, ngo’s and private, entrepreneurship is a key factor for success. The governmental art sector has to develop a pro active attitude to serve the cultural quality of the society and not to function as a bureaucratic dinosaurus. The ngo’s are still at the beginning to be an entrepreneurial knowledge organisation to serve the community and not to be a fortress in the subsidized world. The private sector has to create a societal responsibility besides its profit driven strategy. So, all the three sectors have to improve their entrepreneurial attitude. An important element is that the three sectors together can learn from best practices.

What advice would you give to those who want to pursue their career in culture? Who stands more chance to become an efficient culture manager? A manager with the knowledge of management? Or an artist who knows the specificity of the culture sector and is emotionally attached to it? 

The profile of cultural entrepreneurship?

Is a cultural entrepreneur an artist with management skills, or a general manager with a cultural affinity? My answer is: look to the practice. We see cultural oriented managers from the business schools with a cultural heart on the right place, and we see artistic leaders with a well developed management tool box. So in general we see two types. More specific for art education centres and schools a prefer  a cultural entrepreneur with a strong art educational background because the art pedagogical knowledge is the fundament for the management of centre or school. And also for museums I choose for directors who have a cultural studies background. This background is important to understand artists, to discover talent and to attrack new cultural audiences. And there is also a new area of creative projects (for the local communities, with business people, on schools) which are independend and have a light management structure. These creative professionals can have all kinds of backgrounds (art schools, personnel management, communication, journalism, etc.). Flexibility and networtking are important qualities. This creative entrepreneurial  movement can create a lot of opportunities for thos who want to develop a career in the cultural and creative sector.

I want to thank all my readers of Cultural Entrepreneurship for their interest, and prof Emil Orzechowski for introducing my book to our Polish colleagues and students.