93-811 Performing Arts Operations
6 units, Carnegie Mellon University
The performing arts industry has had a varied and lively history in the United States for the last 175 years (essentially once train travel allowed for broad distribution of artists across the nation). In the beginning the arts were for entertainment and profit. Today, the need to entertain and pay the bills persists, yet it is set within a (mostly) nonprofit landscape in which performing arts organizations produce works to transform audiences and serve their community via one or several intersecting art forms. Producing a successful season entails selection (planning) and implementation (managing) of programs, something that is neither easy nor consistent. Driving and complicating the situation is the common bifurcated management structure. Managers must find a way to implement the vision an Artistic Director - an individual with an aesthetic framework that shapes an institution and its artistic offerings. Arts managers enable his or her artistic vision within the context of the physical, geographical and financial situation of a company. Combining and mixing these forces is frequently messy and always an adventure. Organizational history, indeed the history of the art form, provides a vexing structure and habit to the process that must be dismantled to meet the demands of a socially just, 21st century model. If a career of 'doing the same thing' is the goal, then a different field might be recommended. This course will examine approaches to producing a performing arts season of programming with an emphasis on the nonprofit season structure that meets the demands of a post-Covid, anti-racist reality. Over 7 short weeks we will attempt to answer the following questions: 1)...Please visit the Heinz College course catalog for the full course description: https://api.heinz.cmu.edu/courses_api/course_detail/93-811/
Prerequisites: none listed
Offered: Fall 2026, Fall 2025
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