Arts organizations, heritage sites, exhibition centres, galleries, museums, archaeological sites, and performing arts institutions, both public and private, are increasingly being pressured to improve operational efficiency, to take a more commercial view of their purpose and activities, but also to demonstrate a positive impact on society and their communities.
Recent social and political pressures (e.g. migration, populism, repatriation of artworks, sustainability, COVID-19…) have further contributed to transforming arts organizations.
In this complex context that increases organizational tensions and paradoxes, the very nature of these organizations is called into question: their core activities (such as collecting, curating, exhibiting, performing, researching, teaching, creating and interacting with the public) depend enormously on the management of increasingly constrained resources and responses to institutional pressures. Processes of privatisation and ‘managerialisation’, as well as increased entrepreneurial activity, are often suggested as the solution for the survival of such entities, and, equally often, are challenged.
In this context, the aim of this 2025 workshop in Bologna is to provide a forum for ongoing dialogue between diverse and in some cases conflicting views on the management of arts organizations and cultural institutions.
The 9th EIASM Workshop on Managing Arts and Cultural Organizations is co-organized by EIASM and the Department of Management.
Extended abstract submission deadline: September 1st, 2025
Learn more and register: EIASM website