ABSTRACT
Arts management, since its emergence in the 1960s, is a more complex term than one first imagines. The original attention on supporting prominent not-for-profit arts organizations, often in receipt of public subsidy, now includes complementary commercial organizations operating in the creative industries. Thus an art market system includes public art museums and intermediaries such as art dealers and auction houses. Opera houses, which rely on public subsides, and commercial music companies represent different business models. This introductory chapter is organized into six sections with attention devoted to how conventional boundaries defining arts organizations – public/private and not-for-profit/for-profit – are being challenged. Charged debates as arts managers need to reconcile managerial, economic, and aesthetic objectives are raised.
