Recognizing the "art" in artist management: An analysis of artist management as an artistic practice

Artist Management is largely considered to be scientific in nature by people external to the practice. This essay proposes that artist management goes beyond the linear scope of traditional business management and should be considered as a process driven creative practice. Artistic administration is presented as a solution to some of the key issues plaguing the practice of artist management. This essay takes the position that artist management, and arts administration to some extent, should be situated as a creative practice. In fact, this essay proposes that artistic administration is performative in nature, and the exposition of artistic artist management is a performance in its own right. An artist manager's process driven work is their performance, and their 'stages' can be anything ranging from a cellphone or a webcam to a conference room.