Profession artistic director

Artistic directors are in charge of the programme of an artistic project or a cultural organisation. They are responsible for the strategic vision, the visibility and the quality of all kind of artistic activities and services such as theatre and dance companies. Artistic directors also manage staff, finances and policies.

Personality Type

• Enterprising / Investigative

Knowledge

• Art history

  The history of art and artists, the artistic trends throughout centuries and their contemporary evolutions.

• Corporate social responsibility

  The handling or managing of business processes in a responsible and ethical manner considering the economic responsibility towards shareholders as equally important as the responsibility towards environmental and social stakeholders.

• Cultural projects

  The purpose, organisation and management of cultural projects and related fundraising actions.

• Art-historical values

  The historical and artistic values implied in examples of one's branch of art.

Skills

• Define artistic vision

  Continually develop and define a concrete artistic vision, starting from the proposal and continuing all the way through to the finished product.

• Apply strategic thinking

  Apply generation and effective application of business insights and possible opportunities, in order to achieve competitive business advantage on a long-term basis.

• Manage logistics

  Create logistic framework for transporting goods to customers and for receiving returns, execute and follow up the logistics processes and guidelines.

• Promote cultural venue events

  Work together with museum or any art facility staff to develop and promote its events and programme.

• Cope with challenging demands

  Maintain a positive attitude towards new and challenging demands such as interaction with artists and handling of artistic artefacts. Work under pressure such as dealing with last moment changes in time schedules and financial restraints.

• Plan health and safety procedures

  Set up procedures for maintaining and improving health and safety in the workplace.

• Liaise with local authorities

  Maintain the liaison and exchange of information with regional or local authorities.

• Develop an artistic framework

  Develop a specific framework for research, creation and completion of artistic work.

• Establish daily priorities

  Establish daily priorities for staff personnel. Effectively deal with multi-task workload.

• Represent the organisation

  Act as representative of the institution, company or organisation to the outside world.

• Develop professional network

  Reach out to and meet up with people in a professional context. Find common ground and use your contacts for mutual benefit. Keep track of the people in your personal professional network and stay up to date on their activities.

• Direct an artistic team

  Lead and instruct a complete team with the required cultural expertise and experience.

• Follow company standards

  Lead and manage according to the organisation's code of conduct.

• Perform project management

  Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project's progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.

• Organise cultural events

  Arrange events in cooperation with local stakeholders which promote local culture and heritage.

• Supervise daily information operations

  Direct daily operations of different units. Coordinate program/project activities to assure the respect of costs and time.

• Coordinate artistic production

  Oversee the day-to-day coordination of production tasks so that the organisation fits within the desired artistic and business policies and in order to present productions in a uniform corporate identity to the public.

• Provide project information on exhibitions

  Provide information on the preparation, execution and evaluation of exhibitions and other artistic projects.

• Promote inclusion

  Promote inclusion in health care and social services and respect diversity of beliefs, culture, values and preferences, keeping in mind the importance of equality and diversity issues.

• Define artistic approach

  Define your own artistic approach by analysing your previous work and your expertise, identifying the components of your creative signature, and starting from these explorations to describe your artistic vision.

• Manage budgets

  Plan, monitor and report on the budget.

• Manage operational budgets

  Prepare, monitor and adjust operational budgets together with the economical/administrative manager/professionals in the arts institute/unit/project.

• Manage staff

  Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.

• Delegate activities

  Delegate activities and tasks to others according to the ability, level of preparation, competence and legal scope of practice. Make sure that people understand what they should do and when they should do it.

• Liaise with cultural partners

  Establish and maintain sustainable partnerships with cultural authorities, sponsors and other cultural institutions.

• Manage supplies

  Monitor and control the flow of supplies that includes the purchase, storage and movement of the required quality of raw materials, and also work-in-progress inventory. Manage supply chain activities and synchronise supply with demand of production and customer.

• Strive for company growth

  Develop strategies and plans aiming at achieving a sustained company growth, be the company self-owned or somebody else's. Strive with actions to increase revenues and positive cash flows.

• Communicate in English in a competent way

  Competent use of English; R351refers to level C1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

• Represent artistic production

  Represent the artistic company or production outside your day-to-day activities. Liaise with presenters and their teams. Help direct tours.

• Work with cultural venue specialists

  Call upon the competence of other professionals and specialists, from within and outside the organisation, to contribute to activities and provide documents to improve public access to collections and exhibitions.

• Monitor activities

  Monitor all the activities of an artistic organisation.

• Set organisational policies

  Participate in setting organisational policies that cover issues such as participant eligibility, program requirements, and program benefits for the service users.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB