Frameworks for Educating the Artist of the Future: Teaching Habits of Mind for Arts Entrepreneurship

Abstract

A note to readers: The following article by co-editor Linda Essig was peer reviewed by the Artivate editorial board and edited by Gary D. Beckman.

Social Exclusion in the Arts: The Dynamics of Social and Economic Mobility Across Three Decades of Undergraduate Arts Alumni in the United States

“…Despite the uneasy or unresolved theoretical relationship between art and markets—and therefore art and entrepreneurship—numerous scholars in arts administration have framed entrepreneurship as necessary to arts education (Bridgestock, 2012; Callander, 2019; Callander & Cummings, 2021; Essig, 2013, 2015; Essig & Guevara, 2016; Paulsen et al, 2020; Robinson & Novak-Leonard, 2021; Toscher, 2019; White, 2013, 2015, 2019). In some cases, this focus on arts entrepreneurship informs career pathways themselves (Toscher, 2019), including Cawsey’s (1995) work on “portfolio careers” and Lena and Henaut’s (2021) work on “polyoccupationalism.” In other cases, the entrepreneurial lens focuses on the arts ecosystem itself (White, 2019; Woronkowicz, 2021), including the systems by which the arts are funded (Wilkerson, 2012).…”

Suggestions for Incorporating Entrepreneurship Education in the Classical Performance Studio

“…Both "for" and "through entrepreneurship" programs include experiential learning approaches, but "through entrepreneurship" is focused on teaching entrepreneurship by recreating the learning environment that characterizes the entrepreneurial process. Many researchers expressly support this type of "learning-by-doing" approach to entrepreneurship (Gibb, 1993;Garavan & O'Cinneide, 1994;Cope & Watts, 2000;Honig, 2004;Gibb, 2007;Essig, 2013). Additionally, several anecdotal studies depict favorable outcomes of this mode of entrepreneurship education in institutional courses (Vincett & Farlow, 2008;Mason & Arshed, 2013).…”

“…Kuuskoski (2010) emphasizes the importance of the mentorship role that the professor occupies and suggests that professors capitalize on this in order to effectively encourage entrepreneurial growth in their students. Essig (2013) constructs a framework based on various researchers' mindset theories, presenting an arts entrepreneurship pedagogy that also emphasizes the importance of mentorship and additionally addresses the need for collaborative team projects among heterogeneous disciplines and experiential learning through incubated venture creation. Via naturalistic inquiry of four interviews from arts entrepreneurs in higher education, Pollard and Wilson (2014) argue that arts entrepreneurship should be taught in a different manner than entrepreneurship exclusive to the business realm.…”

“…Experiential learning is a frequent theme addressed in recent entrepreneurship education literature largely because it is the primary way through which entrepreneurs have been observed to learn (McMullan & Long, 1987;Gibb, 1993;Garavan & O'Cinneide, 1994;Beckman, 2005;Vincett & Farlow, 2008;Fayolle & Gailly, 2008;Essig, 2013;Mason & Arshed, 2013;Welsh, Onishi, DeHoog & Syed, 2014;Sirelkhatim & Gangi, 2015). Two ways that brass studio professors may cultivate an experiential learning environment are by encouraging their students to "learn by doing" and allowing for times of reflection after critical learning incidents.…”

“…Bell and Bell (2016) observe that the most successful group from a new venture business creation competition was one that featured an eclectic mix of students from several different disciplines. Pollard and Wilson (2014) and Essig (2013) both emphasize the entrepreneurial value for arts students of collaborating with students from other disciplines.…”