What distinguishes an arts professional from any other professional? Do we follow the same unwritten code of ethics? Michael Baker examines how a common ethical stance binds the arts profession.
What does it mean to be an arts professional? We describe someone as professional if we judge that their attitude and their actions lead to outcomes of an acceptable standard or utility. Indeed, the description that someone has a ?professional attitude?, tends to be a form of admiration. There is an interesting debate, on the other hand, as to whether an attitude by itself, with whatever determination, enables us to describe someone as ?professional?, even though in a given instance their actions do not succeed in achieving the desired end.
Some people would argue that there is only one real version of being professional: when we mean that they belong to a group of people who are in some way accredited or formally qualified. In other words, that their professional ethics are related to the general moral standards required by a certain professional body. As a consequence, (and differently from the professional attitude and action example above) their decisions and actions are determined by a code of practice, possibly derived from their training. Codes of practice and codes of ethics are frequently interchangeable terms.
There are many people who set themselves high standards, which in practice are a form of work ethics, possibly of workplace ethics. These might entail concepts of service, honesty (say, in book-keeping), protection of the weak, attention to skills, willingness to help train others, personal standards of timekeeping and so on.
An unwritten code
Many of us are part of a broad professional community which has no written codes or practices which can easily be identified as the stock in trade of a professional person. Try a test: what ethical guidance would we give each other that would be different from a similar dialogue between our colleagues in the insurance office next door or the managers of the parks and amenities department down the road?
Among the first codes of ethics in the cultural field were those developed in the museum sector in the USA in the mid 1920s. By 2003 there is no similar initiative in the arts in the UK ? and that is not because there are no issues as weighty as, say, conservation or acquisition. If, as arts professionals, we would count our colleagues as people who work to some kind of ethical framework that is in addition to the universal work ethics, then what is that framework? What is different about being an arts professional ? if anything?
Guided choices
One way to work through this is to ask what kind of dilemmas we face which require an answer to the question ?what ought I do?? Ethical dilemmas tend to centre on this kind of question ? not so much which choice of action should we take, but what kind of principles should guide our decisions on this range of choices? Remember that we might choose to let this be our guide to our actions or we may not. Whatever our own working position, do we not believe that this ?arts? thing is very important, indeed that not to support the cause is to deny people fundamental rights? So far, we are suggesting that we have ways of thinking about the term professional but there is a kind of barrier of tradition to arts professionals entering the club.
We have another choice, which is not to bother at all, but as I suggest above, to be a professional is to carry with you a moral code which comprises a mixture of a general culture of ?how we do things and why?, and for many individuals also, a ?how I do things and why?. To pick one common symptom, just about everyone I know who makes decisions in the arts has a deep belief that this is important work and that the world will be a better place for it. You could say that most administrators or managers in the arts are have similar jobs to those in other fields, and therefore the ethical problems are broadly the same. For example, are matters of harassment or bullying in the workplace, or nepotism even, very different in the arts than in other workplaces?
Distinguishing features
I suggest that there are a four features which distinguish the arts management and administration professions. Firstly, a commitment to the practice and enjoyment of the arts is a moral position for many colleagues. They believe that the arts have a valuable purpose if available to all. It helps people see new perspectives or feel better, to entertain, to promote messages, to affect change, to discomfort. Secondly, for many people there are tougher positions still, in that having set out our stall and stated our moral convictions, we should stick to them. Thirdly, not only is there a commitment to the idea of the arts, that in principle their practice is a wonderful and vital good thing, there is also a vehement conviction that the free and open availability of opportunities to be creative are part of basic civil and human rights. Finally, the function of the manager, administrator or organiser is very important, for through their advocacy, ingenuity and efficiency, they create the opportunity for others to create, share and promote their expressive works.
If arts managers and administrators have real jobs in all manner of companies, groups, institutions and communities, if they have real authority as experts, and if we can identify the beginnings of a code of ethics, does that make us a profession?
Michael Baker works as a freelance administrator and project manager in the arts and cultural sectors. t: 01352 758771; e: michael.2001@virgin.net.