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VOL. 9, NO. 2 
FALL 2020 

 

 SPECIAL ISSUE: ARTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION  

GUEST EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION 

Leveraging Creativity 

Monika Herzig 
Indiana University 

Welcome to this special edition of Artivate with four articles exploring the concept of arts en-
trepreneurship education. This research was presented at the Leveraging Creativity virtual con-
ference in conjunction with the New. Not Normal Symposium on June  and , , hosted by 
the Center for Cultural Affairs at Indiana University. The field of arts entrepreneurship educa-
tion has experienced exponential growth over the past fifteen years from  institutions offering 
courses in this area in  to nearly  institutional offerings in , with continued increase 
in numbers. In their article in this issue on reframing the arts within the liberal arts community, 
Furman University faculty and administrators Archino, Lanier, and McClain chronicle the de-
sign and expansion of an arts entrepreneurship curriculum specifically in liberal arts education. 
Instead of adding additional requirements to an existing curriculum, the arts and arts history 
majors at Furman University located in Greenville, SC were reconfigured to integrate entrepre-
neurial competencies. In addition, the arts-based experiential learning approach positioned the 
arts as an integral component of the entrepreneurial mindset across all fields. 

Experiential learning has been recognized as an essential element of entrepreneurship ed-
ucation. Ben Toscher, in his article for this issue, explores this concept, reporting on an empir-
ical investigation he conducted into how students exercise and explore personal agency in en-
trepreneurship education. His findings indicate that teacher-created environments directly 
influence the development of personal agency and Toscher encourages educators to engage in 
student-centered learning. 

Aparna Katre explores strategies towards acquiring entrepreneurial skills in the profes-
sional field. Looking at specifically the entrepreneurial cycle of successful craft entrepreneurs in 



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a legacy city, the author offers options towards building a conceptual model. Hence the article 
suggests options to extract teaching models from observations in the field. 

Finally, my case study of the ABCs of jazz education—Jamey Aebersold, David Baker, and 
Jerry Coker—exemplifies the role of improvisational training in entrepreneurship pedagogy. 
Arguably due to their extensive training in improvisational skills, these individuals built the 
foundation of worldwide jazz education curricula and materials in exemplary fashion. The role 
of the jazz model has been discussed extensively in entrepreneurship literature mainly in regard 
to developing improvisatory capacity and fostering a growth mindset, essential elements of ef-
fectual entrepreneurship. The example of the ABCs offers a glimpse into the process and results 
of their improvisatory explorations and successful implementations. 

Of course, the ability to improvise and quickly respond to crisis has become essential in 
, when the world’s economy and social structure has been shattered with the effects of the 
COVID- pandemic. At this time, the art world and nonprofit economy are greatly impacted, 
their futures uncertain. Initially, the Leveraging Creativity conference this issue draws on was 
scheduled as a small two-day gathering on the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University with 
about thirty presenters and an expected attendance of about one hundred. Most likely record-
ings of the events would have been limited to not more than a handful of roundtables. As the 
pandemic unfolded, the leadership team responded quickly by moving the conference online. 
The first day was transformed into a series of discussions based on seven prerecorded keynote 
presentations with the goal of exploring possible pathways into this uncertain future. Experts 
joined internationally and slightly over eight hundred people registered for the presentations. 
The keynote videos now have close to two thousand views on YouTube and the discussions 
garnered over one thousand views. All videos can be accessed on the Center for Cultural Affairs 
website at culturalaffairs.indiana.edu. In addition, the second day of paper presentations was 
conducted in two parallel tracks with twenty-eight presentations and sixty-one participants. 
Most of the research briefs were publicly available prior to the presentations and all sessions are 
also archived on the Center for Cultural Affairs website for further viewing. Responses to the 
gathering were overwhelmingly positive with a sense of inspiration and opportunity for every-
one and multiple requests for encores. 

Even though the casual networking opportunities in the hallways and hotel lobbies were 
missing, as were the communal evening dinners and cocktail hours, the sense of community 
prevailed and opportunities for participation and sharing research and discussions actually in-
creased exponentially. As we continue dealing with the effects of an unprecedented crisis, we 
start to see glimpses of the new future and its opportunities. It seems more important now than 
ever to support our students with curricula that foster entrepreneurial capacities and equip them 
with tools for envisioning and reinventing their and our future. This set of articles provides an 
informational and conceptional groundwork towards implementing sound pedagogical strate-
gies. 

About the Center of Cultural Affairs at Indiana University 
The mission of the Center for Cultural Affairs at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental 



ARTIVATE 9.2

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Affairs is to advance the understanding of the place of arts and culture in public life. The CCA 
will facilitate a network of scholars and practitioners interested in advancing cultural affairs 
research, produce high-quality and relevant research on arts and cultural policy and manage-
ment issues, and serve as a resource to the arts and cultural sector. 

Issue cover image: Steve Johnson from Pexels 




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