ABSTRACT
This article reflects on some of the major ontological questions of arts management as an academic discipline and a profession, using the imagined event of death as a model for confrontation, provocation, and critical reflection. One of the questions is relating to the confrontational character of the notions of arts and management and the difficulties in bringing the ideas of management and systems into a framework of the arts where too often there is a need to be unflappable and chaotic, free of structures. The second issue is connected with the relations to power within the field of art and the dilemmas arts management has concerning the positioning relating to sources of power. The third issue discussed is the relation between art management and authorship and legacy-is there a space and need for arts managers to be creative contributors and co-authors in the process of art production? What is the legacy of an arts manager compared to the legacy of an artist? And, finally, the article addresses the question of the need for formal education of arts managers in the context of the society of the post-2010s. The article introduces the concept of Return on Meaning (ROM) and suggests an alternative view of arts management that is in contrast to the role curators take today in the system of visual arts. Rather than an individual position of power it is shown as a shared set of functions within the process of art production.
