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Confirming what many of us had long suspected, the Clore Duffield Foundation (p1) has put its finger on the crisis that exists at the highest levels of management of the arts.
There is a broad consensus about the problems which exist in the administration of arts organisations ranging from deficiencies in recruitment practices to poor training, incoherent career progressions and the like. But as with most management structures, whether in the arts, government or business, things are driven by leadership at the top which should cascade pyramid-like through the organisation to ?the shop floor?. Therein lies perhaps the key problem for those working specifically within sectors such as the arts. As Sean Egan points out (p9) the legislative framework for the management of most arts organisations ? that of charitable status ? does little to encourage efficient or effective management or governance as it relies on trustees to bear the sole legal burden for the actions of their artistic directors and chief executives. Whatever management structure suits particular organisations, the chasm that exists between most management teams and their boards must be sorted out first, before any of the other problems can begin to be addressed.