6AA1C004 L6 Managing Arts & Culture 2023-24 Assessment brief
4000 word case-study based assignment/project
Deadline: 12:00 11 January 2024
Critically analyse the ways in which an arts organisation of your choice is managing culture
successfully. Make sure to discuss what constitutes ‘success’, in your view, in a way that’s relevant
to issues and challenges that arts managers are currently facing.
In answering this question, choose one case study from your portfolio to develop further. Whilst
your case study portfolio won’t be assessed, you are required to attach it as an annex, to
demonstrate that you have completed it.
Your answer should take the form of a 4,000 word essay.
When writing your essay use the CMCI referencing and style guide, available on Keats. Please also
make sure to include a cover sheet when uploading your essay to the Assignment Submission Area.
Notes for writing your essay:
1) Make sure to introduce your case study arts organisation and your rationale for choosing it, for
readers who may be unfamiliar.
2) Be clear on how you are interpreting ‘success’ – what criteria are you applying What references
support your formulation of success Consider, in particular, how your formulation of ‘success’
relates to contemporary issues and challenges that arts managers face. Consider, as well, how
different stakeholder positions might affect ideas about ‘successful’ arts management.
3) In answering your essay, you may want to focus in on one particular area of practice. However, if
you do this do consider how this relates to broader organizational operations. For example, if an
organization are doing innovative work with audiences but are facing a funding crisis how might
you assess overall success
4) You might find it useful to undertake a SWOT and PESTLE analysis of your case study
organisation to help inform your identification of issues and challenges.
5) This essay requires you to critically engage with arts management practice, so make sure you go
beyond just describing what organization’s doing to contextualising practice in relation to
appropriate theory, and, if relevant, other real-life examples.
6) In building an argument be aware of how you are using evidence and how reliable your sources
are, e.g. what it’s possible to glean from integrating theory with other forms of literature,
websites, recorded talks or webinars, reviews, newspaper articles, annual reports, evaluation
reports. Note – you can’t use interviews or primary research, as this would need to go through
an ethics committee.
7) Make sure that your essay has a clear structure and narrative throughout.
A strong essay will make a detailed, critical analysis of a carefully selected organisational case study,
clearly detailing the ways in which it demonstrates ‘successful arts management’. The essay will give
a clear context and rationale for understanding ‘success’ – relevant to issues and challenges that arts
managers are currently facing – and apply this to the case study scenario. The essay will understand
the interconnectedness of different aspects of arts management and the complexity of relationships
and contextual factors that affect the work of arts organisations. The analysis will reach wellinformed conclusions, rooted in a range of relevant academic and professional sources. The essay
will be well-written, clearly structured, coherent, and in line with referencing guidelines. Finally, it
provides the student’s portfolio of ten success stories as an unassessed appendix to the submission.
