IJAM Volume 8 Number 3 (PDF)

EDITOR’S NOTE

This issue explores several different aspects of cultural management. The first article looks at the issues faced by organizations forced to continually adapt – often radically – to changes affecting their environment. This is the case with Italian museums that are undergoing a major structural reform in which leaders play a crucial role.

In a different vein, numerous observers of the cultural scene have highlighted the problems that occur when the supply of cultural products outstrips market capacity. The authors of the second article reaffirm the importance of strategic positioning based on a study of the interaction between the audience, the performance itself and the venue.

Media criticism is a major concern for marketing managers and artists. Indeed, many researchers have explored its influence on the cultural field. The next contribution makes the first attempt at a synthesis of the literature on this topic. It explores the nature of media criticism, the construction of critical discourse and the multiple roles played by critics in the cultural industries.

Few studies have attempted the type of synthesis offered by the next article is this issue, which studies the consumer’s dependency on cultural products using a Markov chain.

The concept of adaptation also applies to categories of artists who face the difficult challenges of career reorientation. Our fifth article discusses this situation as it relates specifically to dancers. In many cases, dancers are poorly prepared for the professional changes that become necessary when their bodies are no longer able to endure the punishing physical demands of their profession.

Finally, the last article presents the case of Steppenwolf Theatre and its gradual adaptation to changes in its environment. This adaptation was not a marketing initiative, but rather the result of decisions made by the artistic director, and it was undertaken without compromising the organization’s artistic mission.

François Colbert
Editor