Training in cultural policy and management: international ... - Encatc

Survey on institutions and centers ...
basic differences are, in fact, in teaching methods and forms of learning. For example, practical
training can be organised within a university itself (management of a performance prepared by acting
department), or as a placement/internship (in a city theater) or on a study research trip (in a certain
region or country). The evaluation of student performance is mostly linked to oral exams and seldom
to their success in development and implementation of individual projects –be it a cultural project or
research (from strategic environmental analysis to marketing audience research or content analysis
within cultural studies), etc.
Art management and cultural development study programmes are based on different background
knowledge and professional practices in a very wide range, from cultural anthropology, theory and
sociology of culture (cultural studies) to the legal system and copyright norms, economic marketing
rules (economics and macroeconomics), and especially methods of social research, management
methods and socio-cultural animation methods 10 , etc. This means that the qualifications and
competencies, the so-called professional skills and knowledge of cultural managers, should be
interdisciplinary but their title and diploma is given according to the dominant major in the course
curriculum.
It depends on the cultural context (tradition, system of education and educational policy, situation
within the cultural field) as well as on cultural policy and its accents, how and to what extent cultural
development and art management training will become a serious academic field, which would demand
certain academic competence, as well as research involvement on one side, or practical competence
and expertise on the other. It seems that this profile of lecturers is rarely achieved in a good balance.
Universities have predominantly academics (which are not involved in art management practice or
cultural policy research), and art schools and NGOs are mostly attracting practitioners, who are
lacking academic background and research expertise.
In addition, NGOs are inviting foreign lecturers who do not have real knowledge about the region and
the problems of cultural context in transition – therefore their lectures, although usually evaluated as
highly motivating and attractive, do not equip students and trainees with real competence for the
work in the Eastern European environment.
Moreover, the demand for professionals in different fields, from policy makers to practitioners in
cultural industries, museum or library institutions, differs from country to country. Employment in art
management is a huge issue, because a student who trains in the field has uncertain employment
prospects after graduation, especially in the cultural sector. Very often, these studies lead to
employment with an international organization in the country, or for a marketing agency (the newly
created agencies have been the first in the region to positively evaluate the quality of achievement of
art management students, the interdisciplinarity of their knowledge and usefulness of the skills, rarely
achieved in the classical disciplinary university system in the region). In a situation where the public
institutional system is considered old fashioned and unattractive for young managers, it is hard to
expect that graduating students will consider it a priority in their career pursuit. The best students
may even explore continuing their studies abroad, and emigrating after getting their degree.
10 A wide range of topics exists within curricula, but they are not, obviously, used on all the courses
and equally developed. Some are hiding under the same title, but with very different content.
10