Letter from the Director
Dear Readers,
As always, it has been a whirlwind spring! We are delighted with news of alumni promotions and new jobs and encouraged by their recognition as well trained and hard working professionals by institutions in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Meanwhile the faculty of the Arts Administration have been traveling, researching, advising and yes, teaching.
One significant accomplishment that culminated this spring is the work conducted by Professor Ximena Varela in the design and development of the Drexel Arts Administration Online Program, to be launched in January 2009. Without Ximena’s diligent investigation of what is needed to launch the construction and support of an online master’s degree, we would not be this far along in the program’s inception. Many thanks to Ximena for her work in making this happen.
In addition, thanks go to Dean Allen Sabinson for his support of the endeavor and for his support of the Arts Administration Graduate Association. Events such as the Art Auction and the appearance of Ben Cameron of the Doris Duke Foundation would be much more difficult to produce without the encouragement of the Dean.
As a result of our attendance of the Association of Arts Administration Educators’ annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin, I am pleased to announce that we will be sponsoring next year’s meeting in Philadelphia in late April 2009. AAAE joins the ranks of the Americans for the Arts, The Guild of Community Schools of Art and Music, and the American Association of Museums in holding their annual conference in Philadelphia through next year, beginning with AFTA in June. The graduate students will be involved in all of these conferences as volunteers, hosts, and attendees. The conference will be jointly sponsored by the Arts Administration Program and the Drexel undergraduate Entertainment and Arts Management Program who have recently become members of the Association.
Regarding teaching, we are pleased to welcome Donna Harris to our adjunct faculty. Donna has extensive experience in the preservation and historic house museum field; she will be teaching a course entitled Issues in Historic Preservation this summer. Also offered are Writing for the Arts, taught by Brian Moore, Human Resources in the Arts, taught by Jay Spivak, Leadership in the Arts and a new course entitled Cultural Organizations in Transition, which I am teaching. In ‘Transition’, we will explore the vulnerability and resiliency of cultural organizations at critical junctures, and how they adjust to times of economic downturn, influences of technological innovation and leadership transition. We will be working with several Harvard Business Review cases on managing volatility and discussing the only certainty for the future: change.
I would be remiss if I did not close this letter with a great thanks to the graduate assistants for this year, Sarah Ellison, Monica Fonorow, and Laura Keegan. Sarah did a fabulous job assisting me and editing this newsletter; Monica was very successful in promoting the events of the Department of Performing Arts and in creating their annual brochure and Laura stepped in to manage the Pearlstein gallery with grace and aplomb. These very bright, highly effective leaders have a great future ahead of them and we are very thankful for their hard work.
I wish you a restful summer; we are looking forward to another incredible incoming class in the fall.
Cecelia Fitzgibbon
Program Director