"...... the arts manager’s job is increasingly complex.... More and more is expected of the talented individuals who lead our cultural institutions."
Chris Smith, 2001, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

A manager who is effective in the cultural sector may not be effective in another business sector, and vice versa. There are shared theories and analytical tools, but managing a creative industry requires more than the efficient operation of organisational processes and matters of supply and demand.

Public funding, corporate sponsorship, revenue streams, governance and stakeholders, innovation and creativity, ticket sales, copyright issues, customer service, human resources, philanthropy and endowments, audience development, social inclusion, cultural diversity, e-marketing - all of these have to be managed at the same time as the quality and integrity of the cultural product having to be maintained.

Our cultural organisations manifest the cultural and creative activities that are so fundamental to our existence as social beings. Here are the views of some of the people engaged in this task as to what works and what doesn't.


The archive contains two sets of data. One set is an audio and text record of narrative interviews recorded with managers of major cultural venues or services in the North East of England. The other set is based on recordings of presentations made by visiting speakers who have contributed to the 'Cultural Management in Practice' module on MA programmes offered by the Cultural Management Unit at Northumbria University.

We offer a search facility for archive users. This searches the narrative database and returns links to appropriate pages.