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Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts  Volume 3, Issue 2 
http://artivate.org  pp. 21-37 
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Copyright © 2014, the authors     
 
 

RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS AND CHALLENGES OF ARTS ENTREPRENEURS: 
AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF ARTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NORTH 
CAROLINA HIGHER EDUCATION 
Dianne H.B. Welsh, Tamaki Onishi, Ruth H. DeHoog, and Sumera Syed  
University of North Carolina at Greensboro 
 

Abstract 
To address the call for examination of academic and professional approaches to arts 

entrepreneurship, we summarize the academic arts entrepreneurship programs in the State of 
North Carolina and conduct a pilot study with data gathered from arts entrepreneurs who 
attended the 5th annual Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference in Greensboro, North 
Carolina.  Our review of the descriptive data reveals that arts entrepreneurs face a variety of 
needs and challenges, which are psychological (e.g., peer support) as well as technical (e.g., 
start-up skills).  These findings suggest that, as prior literature stresses, arts entrepreneurship 
education programs should entail both the “entrepreneurship mindset” aspect and the “venture 
creation” aspect, so we advocate a holistic approach that combines both these perspectives with 
other related courses.  We conclude, based on our exploratory study, that collaborative and 
flexible approaches, such as cross-campus programs for arts entrepreneurship education in higher 
education, could have beneficial outcomes for art entrepreneurs. Implications for future research 
are discussed. 
 

Introduction 
While scholarly discussions linking arts to entrepreneurship are nothing new (e.g., Adler, 

2006; Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001), arts entrepreneurship has emerged as a distinctive field 
encompassing diverse disciplinary inputs in higher education.  In part because of its promise to 
address “employability” issues of artists (Pollard & Wilson, 2014), the field of arts 
entrepreneurship has begun attracting attention from scholars and educators in a wide range of 
disciplines, such as performing arts, visual arts, and literacy, as well as business 
entrepreneurship.  As a result, despite a relatively short history of this field, recent years have 
witnessed a “movement” (Druckenbrod, 2009) toward the expansion of arts entrepreneurship 
education through the collective efforts of scholars, educators, and practitioners (Beckman & 
Essig, 2012).   
 As the field is evolving, we believe it is time to reflect on Beckman's (2007) question 
about the effectiveness of arts entrepreneurship education.  Effectiveness in education is 
conceived of as a multidimensional concept, entailing learners’ educational satisfaction and their 
academic, career and personal development (Cameron, 1978).  In other words, the effectiveness 
of arts entrepreneurship education is explicated by the extent to which arts entrepreneurship 
educational programs address and meet students’ needs in terms of their professional, as well as 
academic, development.  The first challenge for all arts entrepreneurship educators and scholars 
who seek to design appropriate content and methods lies in defining the concept of arts 
entrepreneurship (Brown, 2005; Pollard & Wilson, 2014).  A second challenge is to consider the 
wide range of artists and their various needs in developing and promoting their entrepreneurial 
efforts (Beckman & Essig, 2012; Cray, Inglis, & Freeman, 2007).  A third challenge is to define 
the various educational approaches and models that may be appropriately designed to meet 
artists' expressed needs for both academic and professional development (Essig, 2013).  Once the 
first three challenges are in large part met, perhaps the most difficult fourth challenge is to 



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measure the effectiveness over time of the education and training provided in different arts 
entrepreneurship educational models. Welsh and Tullar (2013) have provided some beginning 
evidence for assessing entrepreneurship across campuses in their entrepreneurial propensity 
scale. This paper is an effort to consider the first three challenges, and trusts others will address 
the fourth in future publications and build on the work of Welsh and Tullar (2013) in assessing 
cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship, particularly arts entrepreneurship.   
 As do the fields of nonprofit management (O’Neill, 2007) and social entrepreneurship 
(Choi & Majumdar, 2014), the field of arts entrepreneurship suffers from the contested nature of 
key concepts, processes, and goals (Hong, Essig, & Bridgstock, 2012).  The “commercial” 
approach of business entrepreneurship connotes a negative view toward arts education and as 
such is a controversial topic (Bridgstock, 2012).  Artists and musicians fear that entrepreneurship 
education may result in jeopardizing their mission, creativity, and artistic quality. As DiMaggio 
(1991), among others, argues, the tension between “arts” and “business” can be heightened in 
entrepreneurial processes.  At the same time, artists are constantly struggling to establish their 
professional careers within a shifting context that seeks to respond to changes in funding, 
governance, and competition (Cray, Inglis, & Freeman, 2007).  For instance, in the 1980s during 
the Reagan administration’s budget cuts in non-market programs, including the arts (Hall, 2001), 
artists were forced to obtain sophisticated management and entrepreneurial skills for their 
survival (Salamon, 1987).  More recently, the economic downturn of the Great Recession 
resulted in large reductions to what were considered "non-essential" programs in the arts as 
donors and government funders not only saw reduced revenues, but also sought to alleviate the 
harmful effects of the Recession on social programs.  Given this complex environment, 
developing appropriate educational programs for arts entrepreneurs necessitates a deep 
understanding of the needs and challenges artists face.   
 To explore appropriate educational programs in arts entrepreneurship, the first issue of 
Artivate directs us back to the core principle of this field; it reminds us that the fruit of artists’ 
endeavors is aesthetic.  Thus, “our prefix separates us from the business school and our suffix 
separates us from the arts school” (Beckman & Essig, 2012, p. 1).  With this principle in mind, 
educators have explored multiple approaches to teaching arts entrepreneurship. One approach 
focuses on “New Venture Creation” while the other approach focuses on “Habits of Mind” or 
“Entrepreneurial Mindset” (Beckman & Essig, 2012; Beckman, 2007; Essig, 2013; Pollard & 
Wilson, 2014). Other scholars emphasize that artists can pick up entrepreneurial mindsets 
anywhere and focus on skill-building that includes New Venture Creation, but goes beyond the 
basics to other important topics, such as Entrepreneurial Marketing, Entrepreneurial Finance, and 
Law for Entrepreneurs (Welsh, 2014).  Many artists have already established their businesses 
when they realize they need entrepreneurial business skills beyond starting the business and 
creating a feasibility and business plan.  This is a more comprehensive or holistic approach to 
arts education that provides lifelong skills for the artist (Welsh, 2014). As a first step, our study 
answers the call by Essig (2013) to examine the approaches to learning for arts entrepreneurs 
from an academic perspective in one state, North Carolina, and from a professional development 
perspective by reporting the results of our survey conducted at a major conference in the same 
state. Thus, our study, although limited, begins to examine both the academic and professional 
needs of artists and how they are being met.  
 

Arts and Entrepreneurship in North Carolina 
 North Carolina is an interesting place to study the issues surrounding artists’ needs and 



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arts entrepreneurship education for several reasons.  First, North Carolina has a vibrant artistic 
community with a nationally competitive employment market for visual artists (including 
designers and photographers) and musicians (North Carolina Arts Council, 2012).   The number 
of jobs in the artistic and creative fields in North Carolina increased by more than 8 percent 
between 2006 and 2011 to 137,225 total creative jobs, generating over $12 billion in wages, 
salaries and benefits – $2 billion more than the impact in the previous four years (North Carolina 
Arts Council, 2013).  Second, as Table 1 presents, North Carolina is home to long-standing 
university-based, innovative arts entrepreneurship programs.  Not only are many students 
graduating with arts education degrees, they also have further access to arts entrepreneurship 
programs offered throughout the state.   Third, our decision to conduct a pilot study in North 
Carolina is also convenient; the study authors are based in the state.  One co-author of this 
article, Dianne Welsh, has established a close relationship with a local community of artists and 
entrepreneurs throughout North Carolina and the Southeast region of the United States that 
allows us to obtain critical insights into the everyday working life of artists and their businesses.  
See Table 1. 
 At the same time, from a broader perspective, earnings of artists in North Carolina have 
lagged behind the national average.  According to the National Endowment for the Arts’ data 
compiled from U.S. Census, 26.2 percent of artists in North Carolina versus 2.3 percent of artists 
nationwide earned less than $15,000. Conversely, the percentage of artists with higher earnings 
($100,000 to $124,999, $125,000 or more) is lower in North Carolina than the national average 
(National Endowment for the Arts, n.d.).  Arts entrepreneurship has been attracting growing 
attention due to the possibilities it affords to address graduate employability issues (Pollard & 
Wilson, 2014). Therefore, while earnings alone do not represent “success” in an artistic career, it 
is one important indicator.   This data on artists’ economic conditions indicates that, despite 
North Carolina's rich history and resources in the arts and entrepreneurship, there appear to be 
serious unmet needs for arts entrepreneurs.    
 
Cross-campus entrepreneurship programs: A Comprehensive Approach 
	
   We advocate a blended approach that combines the particular business discipline applied 
to art in a course. This way, the learning is both blended and applied (Welsh, 2014). This solves 
the problem that Beckman and Essig (Beckman & Essig, 2012; Essig, 2013) discuss: that arts 
entrepreneurship education is not just about the “how to” of venture creation, the heart of arts 
entrepreneurship is about our deep understanding about artistic creativity and imagination. This 
is encompassed in cross-disciplinary programs.  While these programs are more complex and 
there are the ever-present resource constraint issues in higher education, the blending of the 
business discipline applied with art offers the most promise for artists to not just survive, but be 
successful. Facing these challenges, we believe that cross-campus programs, such as those at 
North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, are 
effective methods to teach the complexity of arts entrepreneurship. 
  



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Table 1. University-Based Programs for Arts Entrepreneurship in North Carolina 

University and Location (main 
URL) 

Type Program/ Department and 
Degree Level 

Class Format Examples of Courses Offered 

North Carolina State 
University 
Raleigh, NC 
 
(http://oucc.ncsu.edu/minors/art
s-entrepreneurship) 

Public • Music Department - 
Arts Entrepreneurship 
Minor 

• Undergraduate 

Offered 
primarily on 
campus 

• Foundations in Arts Entrepreneurship 
(EMA 365) 

• Practical Arts Entrepreneurship 
(EMA 370) 

• Understanding the Arts Economies 
(EMA 375) 

• Capstone Experience in Arts 
Entrepreneurship  (EMA 430) 

University of North Carolina 
at Chapel Hill 
Chapel Hill, NC  
 
(http://www.unceminor.org/abo
ut/requirement) 

Public • School of Business - 
Entrepreneurship Minor 
(Artistic Track) 

• Undergraduate 

Offered 
primarily on 
campus 

• Artistic Venture Creation (ECON 
327) 

University of North Carolina 
at Greensboro 
Greensboro, NC  
 
(http://entrepreneurship.uncg.ed
u) 

Public • Business and 
Economics - 
Entrepreneurship Minor 
and Major (Creative 
Industries Profile )  

• Cross listing courses 
with other programs 
(e.g., School of Music, 
Theater and Dance; 
Department of Interior 
Architecture; 
Department of Media 
Studies; Department of 
English) 

• Undergraduate and 
Graduate  

Offered 
primarily on 
campus 

• Creative Space: The Meeting of Art 
and Entrepreneurship (ENT/ART 
276) 

• Creativity, Design, and 
Entrepreneurship (ENT/IAR 321) 

• Advanced Studio Practicum: Art and 
Entrepreneurship (ENT/ART 394) 

• Entrepreneurship in Music 
(ENT/MUP 402) 

• Entrepreneurship Practicum in 
Apparel and Consumer Retailing 
(ENT/CRS 421) 

• Entrepreneurship in Apparel and 
Design (ENT/CRS 431) 

• Career Management for Dance and 
Performing Artists (ENT/DCE 455) 

• Multimedia for Social 
Entrepreneurship and Civic 
Engagement (ENT/MST 320) 

• Media Financing and Distribution 
(MST 524) 

• Media Organization and 
Management (MST 524) 

• Entrepreneurship and Independent 
Press Publishing (ENT/ENG 535) 

• Theatre Management (THR 584) 
• Entrepreneurial Career Development 

in Music (ENT/MUP 661) 
University of North Carolina 
School of the Arts 
Winston Salem, NC  
 
(http://www.uncsa.edu/vcprovo
st/bulletin/2014/UG/2014UGco
mpletebulletin.pdf) 

Public • School of Music 
• Undergraduate 

Offered 
primarily on 
campus 

• Career Development Seminar: Music 
Entrepreneurship 

• (The School also offers a Performing 
Arts Management Program through 
the School of Design & Production) 



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University of North Carolina 
Pembroke 
Pembroke, NC  
 
(http://www.uncp.edu/academic
s/colleges-schools-
departments/departments/art/de
grees/art-entrepreneurship-
certificate) 

Public • Department of Art - 
Arts Entrepreneurship 
Certificate Program 

 

Offered 
primarily on 
campus 

(The detailed course information not 
available) 

Wake Forest University 
Winston Salem, NC 
 
(https://entrepreneurship.wfu.ed
u/academics/ese-minor) 

Private • School of Business - 
Entrepreneurship and 
Social Enterprise Minor 

• Undergraduate and 
Graduate 

 

Offered 
primarily on 
campus 

• Creativity and Innovation (ESE 100) 
• Foundations of Entrepreneurship 

(ESE 101) 
• Managing the Entrepreneurial 

Venture: Start-up to Early Growth 
(ESE 205) 

• Creativity and Innovation (ESE 100) 
• Entrepreneurship (BEM 377) 
• Arts Entrepreneurship (ESE 310) 
• Nonprofit Arts and Education 

Entrepreneurship: Promotion of Latin 
American and Latino Visual Cultures 
(ESE315) 

 
Table 1. University-Based Programs for Arts Entrepreneurship in North Carolina 

 As Essig (2013) stresses, three pedagogic techniques—mentorship, collaborative team 
projects, and experiential learning through incubated venture creation—are vital to effective 
methods to teach arts entrepreneurship.  In particular, collaborative and experiential learning in a 
heterogeneous environment is highly effective in helping students develop innovative ideas 
(Essig, 2013).  There are a number of ways that this can be achieved pedagogically, one of which 
is the cross-disciplinary approach. As such, classes blend the particular discipline (e.g., music, 
architecture, dance, or art) with entrepreneurship and apply the principles of entrepreneurship to 
real situations the artists face to be successful in their practice (Welsh, 2014). Another method is 
having the curriculum all in one place. Many institutions have curriculum and programming that 
encompass the whole of an arts college (e.g., Arizona State University) (Beckman & Essig, 
2012).  Often classes are cross-listed between the particular arts discipline and entrepreneurship 
so they can count towards an entrepreneurship minor or major in the business school as well as 
the arts major (Welsh, 2014).  The cross-disciplinary minor is more common in this regard due to 
the time constraints of arts students and the skill sets needed for their arts career being covered 
adequately in a minor (Welsh, 2014).  Another variation, besides a cross-disciplinary minor open 
to all majors, is a specific Arts Entrepreneurship minor that solely focuses on arts 
entrepreneurship courses.  Still another method that some schools have chosen (e.g., UW-
Madison) is to grow an arts entrepreneurship or arts enterprise focus from within a business 
school (Beckman & Essig, 2012).  This goes along with Kuratko's (2005) study which found that 
entrepreneurship education in United States has exploded to more than 2,200 courses at over 
1,600 business schools.  Considering this, collaboration with business schools seems promising 
for the advancement of arts entrepreneurship education.    
 Cross-campus approaches are a major part of the arts entrepreneurship programs at North 
Carolina State University (NCSU) and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). 



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NCSU’s Arts Entrepreneurship minor is the nation’s first cross-campus arts entrepreneurship 
program heralding out of the music school, according to their brochure (NCSU, n.d.-a).  The 
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, under the direction of Dianne H.B. Welsh, has the 
largest cross-campus entrepreneurship program in the state of North Carolina and the largest for 
a school with its size in stature in the United States.  The Entrepreneurship Cross-Disciplinary 
Program1 encompasses 47 courses in 26 departments or programs since its founding six years 
ago.  It includes one of its seven profiles or areas of specialization, a Creative Industries Profile, 
within the minor and major in Entrepreneurship, offered out of the Bryan School of Business & 
Economics.  Currently, 11 courses are listed under the Creative Industries profile that students 
can choose from in the Entrepreneurship Cross-Disciplinary Program (UNCG, n.d.), including 
Music, Art, Interior Architecture, Media Studies, Dance, Theatre, Consumer and Retail Studies, 
and English.  The classes are taught by professors in the discipline that are taught 
Entrepreneurship through the Coleman Entrepreneurship Fellows Program and the Director, as 
well as working one-on-one with the Hayes Chair in Entrepreneurship. UNCG’s 
Entrepreneurship Cross-Disciplinary Program has been widely recognized and won six major 
national and international awards since its inception in 2009.  
 Another variation of cross-campus or interdisciplinary programs can be found in the 
expanding nonprofit programs. While the focus of much of the discussion here has been on 
artists’ self-employment, many artists choose to affiliate themselves with collaborative work in 
nonprofit agencies, gain funding from local foundations, or obtain government grants.  These 
opportunities are perhaps better understood by having at least some understanding of the 
nonprofit sector, as well as the entrepreneurial mindset and skills required for success in both 
self-employment and in nonprofit work.  In particular, courses in social entrepreneurship have 
become popular and appropriate for artists who wish to promote not only their creativity, but also 
serve the needs of their communities or specific populations. Navigating the world of 
government and foundation funding, gaining access to partnerships with existing nonprofit 
agencies, or collaborating with other artists requires a somewhat different skill set than that 
traditionally offered in standard entrepreneurship courses.  Nonprofit programs, such as the 
existing post-baccalaureate Nonprofit Management Certificate at the University of North 
Carolina Greensboro, have the potential to add material not found in most entrepreneurship 
programs—e.g., nonprofit management, philanthropy, nonprofit financial management, grant 
writing, strategic planning, nonprofit law2. Other programs in North Carolina universities (NCSU 
and UNC Charlotte) also offer similar courses and certificates that reach out to practicing artists 
and others who need this kind of training and education.  UNCG’s option of completing the 
program completely online on a part-time basis offers greater flexibility to artists who have 
limited time and financial resources.  
 Additional coverage of these nonprofit subjects outside of formal certificate or degree 
programs are beginning to be offered by nonprofit institutes, centers, and continuing education 
programs in many universities, though few are marketed explicitly toward the artist entrepreneur.  
Some are in the form of workshops or institutes, which are affordable, require little commitment, 
and give artists a local network of potential collaborators or contacts.  The advantage over a full 
degree or certificate is that artists can typically select only those topics or workshops that they 
need, rather than a full program with coverage of materials they may not see as necessary.  

                                                
1 http://entrepreneurship.uncg.edu 
2 www.uncg.edu/psc/mpa 



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Nonetheless, for artists, the often unintended, but valuable, consequence of taking courses or 
workshops with other participants in the nonprofit sector is that they will gain a broader 
perspective and may become more flexible in furthering their careers in programs with existing 
agencies.   

From the standpoint of the “Habits of Mind” approach (Beckman & Essig, 2012; Essig, 
2013), cross-campus and cross-disciplinary opportunities beyond the business school base are 
critical.  These opportunities may also be developed to build artists’ careers, such as in Fine Arts 
degrees and nonprofit studies. MFA and BFA programs are increasingly developing their own 
courses in arts entrepreneurship that may add significant value for their students.  However, 
many of those in North Carolina universities, such as those cited above, appear to be confined to 
single disciplines, such as in Music Schools or Art majors, with only suggested outside electives 
in management or entrepreneurship.  Given the reality of budget cuts and fewer resources, we 
recommend more concerted efforts toward cross-campus arts entrepreneurship minors, 
certificates, and perhaps majors.  This could contribute toward cross-fertilization among artists 
who otherwise tend to focus solely on their own arts program in theatre, dance, music, literature, 
and film.  In fact, the graduate certificate in Entrepreneurship was open to any major, and 
included nonprofit management and law classes, now serves as a model for other institutions. 
Unfortunately, the certificate is no longer available due to budget cuts. The value of studies 
beyond disciplinary boundaries may have the added benefits of increasing the creative 
expression of students, as well as providing them with a rich network of contacts beyond a single 
major or degree that are likely to extend past graduation.   
 
Future for Cross-Campus Programs for Arts Entrepreneurship 
 While there is no official count of cross-campus programs in the United States or around 
the world, it is evident that cross-disciplinary programs continue to flourish in various forms 
unique to the college or university. Conferences have been developed out of many academic 
programs to encourage working artists to attend if they cannot take university classes  (e.g., 
North Central College, Drury University, St. Olaf’s College).  The Self-Employment in the Arts 
Conference3 has both an annual conference and regional conferences, including the Southern 
Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference4 at which we conducted our survey.  Welsh’s upcoming 
publication (2014) provides insights into the support for and development of cross-campus 
programs.  The Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers sponsors an Award for 
Exceptional Activities in Entrepreneurship across Disciplines, the only one that focuses on cross-
disciplinary efforts.  The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation first funded interdisciplinary 
initiatives around the country at 19 colleges and universities in 2003, called the “Kauffman 
Campuses” program (Kauffman Foundation, 2012).  Most of these Kauffman campuses still have 
cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship courses available to their students and a minor in 
Entrepreneurship.  

In the last five years, the Coleman Foundation has sponsored the Entrepreneurship 
Fellows Program, focused solely on cross-campus entrepreneurship course development outside 
the business school curriculum.  Professors across campus are trained in entrepreneurship and 
how to blend entrepreneurship concepts and practices with their discipline in the courses they 
teach.  The Coleman Foundation has a summit for both new and veteran fellows each year, 

                                                
3 www.selfemploymentinthearts.com 
4 http://seac/uncg.edu 



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where they are provided training by seasoned directors of the program and the program’s 
founder, Joseph Roberts5.  The individual campus directors then continue the training and 
mentoring throughout the year on college campuses. So far, 250 faculty members at 20 colleges 
and universities from across disciplines have been engaged, resulting in new or revised cross-
disciplinary courses that blend entrepreneurship with the specific discipline taught by each 
professor outside the business school.  Each course must emphasize self-employment, but each 
college is allowed to develop their own model for cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship that fits 
their campus.  The focus on self-employment is particularly applicable to the arts, where many 
artists are self-employed in their own businesses.  Cooperatives do exist among artist 
entrepreneurs, but are less common in the United States compared to other parts of the world, 
such as Europe. 

 
Pilot Survey on Arts Entrepreneurship 

 Arts entrepreneurship is an emerging, yet growing, field that lacks empirical studies 
(Katz, 2008).  Our exploratory study, therefore, addresses the call for empirical studies in arts 
entrepreneurship, with a specific objective to identify the needs and challenges of the arts 
entrepreneurs that attended the 5th annual Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference in 
Greensboro, North Carolina in February 2014.  We ask what challenges artists are facing and 
what programs and resources do they conceive of as urgent needs for their professional career 
advancement.  
 We present data from our survey with the conference participants, and identify the major 
challenges and the needs the respondants seek to fulfill through services and programs offered by 
higher education.  Our limited findings and conclusions lead us to recommend collaborative and 
flexible approaches to arts entrepreneurship education, as discussed earlier in the article.  Since 
our survey had a limited sample, this study is highly exploratory and we cannot draw any 
implications for arts entrepreneurship education in a larger context.  Nonetheless, surveys 
conducted of artist entrepreneurs are limited and we believe that our findings provide arts 
entrepreneurship educators and scholars with important insights and a “reality check” on the 
current needs of arts entrepreneurs and help us develop future programs that will meet their 
needs.  
 
Data and Methods 
 Given the needs of artists’ employment and professional career advancement in North 
Carolina, this exploratory article is based on our survey study conducted at the Southern 
Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference in February 2014.  The subsequent sections detail this 
survey study, in particular the survey site, data collection methods, and data analytical methods.  
 
The Survey Site. To obtain data illustrating the current state and needs of artists for 
advancement of their professional careers, we chose to survey participating artists at the 5th 
annual Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference held on February 22, 2014, on the 
campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro located in the Piedmont Triad.  While 
we were aware that our convenient sample was small and likely to be biased, the main rationale 
behind our sample selection lies in the fact that participants were artists actively seeking 
information and resources about arts entrepreneurship to advance their professional careers.  

                                                
5 Editor’s note: Joseph Roberts is a co-editor of Artivate. 



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Thus, we expected the conference participants to provide as many important insights as possible 
for our study, i.e., the challenges artists were facing in their career development and educational 
programs, and resources they needed from higher educational institutions.  Second, we also 
chose the Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference as a main site for our data collection 
due to the scale of this conference. Dr. Dianne H.B. Welsh founded the conference in 2009 after 
starting a similar conference in Tampa/St. Petersburg in 2007, and creating the curriculum in 
business and entrepreneurship for the Ringling School of Art and Design, “The Business of Art 
and Design.”  This conference is the largest event for both entrepreneurs and artists in the 
southeastern United States, and attracted what is likely the largest pool of audience members 
who are entrepreneurs and artists in our target area.  Artists have attended from as far away as 
Pennsylvania and Florida.  Further, prior empirical studies suffered from a very low rate of 
survey responses from the arts and cultural field.  For example, one study by Morris, Coombes, 
Schindehutte, & Allen (2007) had a 21 percent return rate.  The scale of this conference allowed 
us to collect responses from a large number of individual artists, whom would be extremely 
difficult to reach otherwise.  
 
Data Collection Methods. Our survey instrument intended to identify the major challenges and 
needs of artists in their professional and entrepreneurial careers.  Considering a relatively nascent 
state of research on arts entrepreneurship (Beckman & Essig, 2012; Pollard & Wilson, 2014), 
qualitative and exploratory research is more appropriate and effective (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).  
Therefore, we highlighted the exploratory nature of this pilot study and utilized primarily open-
ended questions in our survey questionnaire, responses which were reviewed via content 
analysis.  Our survey questionnaire consisted of six questions, three of which asked our intended 
survey respondents about challenges and needs that they are facing, as well as methods they used 
previously, in career advancement.  More specifically, we asked: “How have you been advancing 
your professional career?” “What are major challenges that you are facing in your career 
advancement?” and “What training programs or resources do you need to advance your 
professional career?” The question of “How have you been advancing your professional career?” 
offered respondents a set of multiple choice answers: “Took entrepreneurship course,” “Took 
nonprofit management course,” “Attended the previous Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts 
Conference,” “Attended other conferences or workshops,” and/or “Other”.  The questionnaire 
also had a question about the respondents’ interest in participating in our future research on arts 
entrepreneurship.  
 A survey questionnaire was distributed to all conference participants when they checked 
in at the conference.  Descriptive open-ended questionnaires require more time and effort on the 
part of survey respondents.  To maintain an acceptable response rate, we followed suggestions 
from Dillman, Smyth, & Christian (2009) about “providing extra motivation” to the conference 
participants.  For instance, the conference’s founder, Dr. Welsh, announced the importance of 
this survey and our plans to tailor future arts entrepreneurship programs to meet their needs.  We 
received 119 responses from the 288 attendees on the same date, a response rate of 41 percent.  
A typical response rate ranges from 26 to 50 percent in the nonprofit context (Hager, Wilson, 
Pollak, & Rooney, 2003).  Our response rate was higher than the average response rate ranges. 
  
Data Analysis Methods. After the conference, separate content analysis on the gathered 
responses was conducted by two coders for the purpose of validity (Krippendorff, 2012).  
Content analysis is a methodology that reliably develops measures to interpret textual material 



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(Krippendorff, 2004) that in the last decade has been increasingly used in management studies 
(Duriau, Reger, & Pfarrer, 2007).  The objective of our content analysis was to identify recurrent 
themes in respondents’ answers, from which we determined major challenges and needs that 
artists were facing in their professional career advancement.  
  

Survey Findings 
 The results summarized in the subsequent sections are based on the collected responses 
and the content analysis.  While limited in scope to one major conference, we hope that the 
results of the survey give us a glimpse into artists’ pragmatic needs from extant educational 
programs of arts entrepreneurship, regardless of whether those artists are practicing in the 
community or pursuing college degrees in the southeastern United States.     
 
Sample Characteristics 
 As depicted in Table 2, a wide range of fields and interests was represented in the sample. 
The total of 119 survey participants included artists in the following fields: visual arts (48 
percent), performing arts (21 percent), literary arts (12 percent), and the remaining 12 percent 
divided among business, technology, and entrepreneurship.  There were nine respondents who 
did not specify their fields.  It should be noted that our sample included student artists from the 
host, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and other colleges in the state of North 
Carolina.  We included these student artists in our dataset because they were formally or 
informally involved in arts-related programs and/or arts entrepreneurship and facing the same or 
even greater challenges to developing their careers as non-student artists.  Our sample also 
included those who were from outside Greensboro, where the conference was held: of 288 
conference attendees, 168 were from other areas.  We did not differentiate the survey participants 
by location because their attendance of the conference suggested that these participants had 
access to resources provided by universities in North Carolina, including the host University of 
North Carolina at Greensboro.   
 
Table 2. Survey of Arts Entrepreneurs: Specialized Fields 
 

Fields Examples Response (%) 

Visual Graphic, painting, sculpture, photography, textile, 
fashion, film, media arts, illustration 

62 (48%) 

Performing Music, dance, theater  27 (21%) 
Literary Creative writing, novel, poetry  16 (12%) 
Other Business, life coach  15 (12%) 

No answer    9 (7%) 

The number of responses does not equal the number of survey respondents (N=119) since some 
respondents reported more than one field as their specialization.  
 
Methods Previously Utilized for Professional Career Advancement 



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  Our survey participants were also asked how they had been advancing their professional 
career.  Our survey questionnaire lists the following methods: “Took entrepreneurship course,” 
“Took nonprofit management course,” “Attended the previous Southern Entrepreneurship in the 
Arts Conference,” “Attended other conferences or workshops,” and “Other.”  As Table 3 shows, 
34 respondents (29 percent) reported that they took an entrepreneurship class, whereas only six 
respondents (5 percent) took a nonprofit management course.  One respondent took courses for a 
certificate in arts administration.  The much larger number of respondents who took 
entrepreneurship courses may be due to the many UNCG students who participated in the 
conference.  Seventeen percent of respondents had attended the Southern Entrepreneurship in the 
Arts Conference in the past.  The mission of the conference, a regional version of the Self-
Employment in the Arts National Conference, is to present entrepreneurial strategies and 
resources for students and emerging artists to become self-supporting and successful in their 
careers.  A related goal is to foster their ongoing development by creating networking 
opportunities among students and emerging artists, working artists, business professionals and 
community organizations (for a complete background of the conference, please see Welsh, 
2014).  Aside from university-based courses and conferences, artists have actively used the 
internet and social media, as well as on-the-job training (26 percent).   
 
Table 3. Methods Previously Utilized for Professional Career Advancement 
 

Methods Examples Response (%) 

Took entrepreneurship course  34 (29%) 
Took nonprofit management course  6 (5%) 

Attended the precious SEA  20 (17%) 
Attended other conferences   18 (15%) 

Other  30 (26%) 
No answer    9 (8%) 

The number of responses does not equal the number of survey respondents (N=119) since some 
respondents reported more than one method.  
SEA = Sothern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference.  
 
Major Challenges in Professional Career Advancement 
 Table 4 presents the four main recurrent themes within major challenges, which our 
content analysis identified in the survey responses along with illustrative quotes from our survey 
respondents.  With respect to major challenges, the biggest group of respondents—36 percent of 
arts entrepreneurs (42 responses)—reported that a lack of start-up and other managerial skills 
and knowledge has hindered their professional career advancement in the artistic and creative 
fields.  This result should not be surprising since our survey respondents sought out business and 
entrepreneurship skills by attending the Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference.  
Nevertheless, we believe this result warrants our attention because those who reported “a lack of 
money and financial resources” as the main challenge constituted a smaller group (25 percent) 
than the group reporting “a lack of start-up and other management skills” (36 percent) and the 



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second largest group reporting “a lack of confidence and non-financial support (26 percent).  
These results may be interpreted as an impact from pioneering arts entrepreneurship programs, in 
particular comprehensive programs that stress entrepreneurship and business skills. Our survey 
underscores that artists are familiar with, at least by name, a variety of business and management 
techniques such as marketing.  Instead of concluding that money was the main challenge, these 
artists know that money should be obtained by utilizing various management skills effectively 
and efficiently.    
 The most interesting result was that “a lack of confidence and non-financial support” was 
identified as the second largest challenge according to our survey data (31 responses representing 
26 percent).  We see two different patterns in this group: internally and externally challenged 
people.  First, the group that are internally challenged, i.e., artists’ own personality may not be 
best suited for entrepreneurial activities, such as an introvert personality. Second are those that 
are externally challenged with networks, i.e., due to the nature of their work, many artists 
struggle on their own without an adequate support system (e.g., finding my team or reliable 
people). Additionally, artists indicated that what they meant by networks was how to get inside 
them, for example how to approach a gallery to display their work.  The results further suggest 
that even with increased knowledge about various business skills, artists still need to develop 
entrepreneurial skills.    
  Twenty-five percent of the survey respondents indicated a lack of financial resources, and 
13 percent a lack of time as major obstacles in their career advancement.  As Welsh has 
witnessed with artists with whom she has collaborated, many artists are working on their own 
instead of being affiliated with or forming an organization such as an Internal Revenue Code 
501(c)(3) nonprofit.  Our survey results show that overall many artists are overwhelmed and 
struggling, alone without financial support and other forms of support.  Many artists also take a 
second job to make ends meet (“managing artwork requests with independent projects and day-
job,” a response to the question, “What are major challenges that you are facing in your career 
advancement?” from a visual artist).  A response from an arts-major student reveals her struggle, 
“without money and time, it is very difficult for me to focus on my art” [emphasis in the 
original].  This response suggests that lack of money can undermine the quality of artistic work.  
As such, the lack of money and time has a negative effect on artists’ career advancement. 
 
Table 4. Major Challenges in Professional Career Advancement 
 
Recurrent Theme  Response 

(%)  
Illustrative Quotations 

A lack of start-up 
and other 
management skills 

42 (36%) “Getting started” 
“Taking an idea and acting on it” 
“Not knowing how to create a business model” 
“Lack of knowledge about contacting companies” 
“Marketing”  
“New technology”  
“Training in nonprofit management” 
 

A lack of confidence 
and non-financial 
support 

31 (26%) “Finding direction” 
“Motivation” 
“Fear”  



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“Introvert personality” 
“Overcoming personal obstacles” 
“Meet people in the creative entrepreneurship field” 
“Finding my team or reliable people” 
 

A lack of financial 
resource  

30 (25%) “Money”  
“No income” 
“Tax information”  
 

Time constraints 15 (13%) “Time”  
“Time management”   
“Struggle from full-time employment to freelance” 
 

N = 118  
The number of responses does not equal the number of survey respondents (N=119) since some 
respondents reported more than one challenges or others did not provide their answers.  
 
Training Programs Needed for Professional Career Advancement  
 Our survey questionnaire also asked artist respondents at the conference “What training 
programs or resources do you need to advance your professional career?” As displayed in Table 
5, almost half the respondents (47 percent) identified the need for networking and peer support as 
the number one need among artist entrepreneurs.  
 Need for networking skills and peer support was followed by need for management 
programs and resources.  This category was further classified into the following groups: ten 
respondents (20 percent) stressed that marketing help was their primary need.  General business 
programs, including those for finance and running small business, came in second within 
programs and resources with nine respondents (13 percent).  Eight respondents (11 percent) 
reported that they needed nonprofit management programs, such as grant writing training, board 
management, and start up of a nonprofit structured under the Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). 

 Technology related resources and training were also among important programs for arts 
entrepreneurs. Eight respondents (11 percent) mentioned a wide range of technology training 
needs, including website development, software training, and social media. The remaining 4 
percent asked for more conferences and events as important programs for their career 
advancement in the arts entrepreneurship.   
 
Table 5. Training Programs Needed for Professional Career Advancement 
 
Recurrent 
Theme  

  Response (%) 
  

Illustrative Quotations 

Networking   33 (47%)  

 Breakdown  
 Networking  27 (42%) “Networking”  

 Peer 
support 

6 (10%) “Psychological resources for artists”  
“Support group of peers”  



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“Mentoring”  

Management   27 (38%)  
 Breakdown  

 Marketing   10 (14%) “Marketing”  
“Arts marketing”  

 Business in 
general 

9 (13%) “General business knowledge”  
“Small business”  
“Finance”  
“Business knowledge”  

 Nonprofit 
management 

8 (11%) “Grant writing workshop”  
“Board and member”  
“Nonprofit management training”  
“Creating a 501(c)(3)”  

Technology   8 (11%) “Classes on technology”  
“Social media”  
“Website training”  

Conferences 
and events 

 3 (4%) “More conferences and events”  

N = 71 
The number of responses does not equal the number of survey respondents (N=119) since some 
respondents reported more than one program needs or others did not provide their answers.  
 

Discussion 
 To contribute to growing efforts to advance the field of arts entrepreneurship, we 
summarized the academic programs available to artist entrepreneurs as well as conducting a  
pilot study.  Here we report descriptive data gathered from artists who attended the 5th annual 
Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina.  We then 
investigated major challenges to artists’ professional career advancement and particular 
programs that may meet their serious needs.  Our analysis of survey findings confirmed that lack 
of managerial skills and knowledge is the biggest challenge.  Our analysis also identified that a 
lack of confidence and non-financial support is another major challenge hampering artists’ 
professional careers.  The urgency with this confidence issue was underscored by artists’ reports 
identifiying non-financial support obtained from networking and peer encouragement as their 
largest need.  Still, needs for management programs, including marketing and nonprofit 
management, came second as programs that artists are seeking for their professional careers.  
Our findings concerning the challenges faced, and which training programs are needed by artists 
confirm Beckman and Essig's (2012) point that effective educational programs of arts 
entrepreneurship should entail a comprehensive approach to arts entrepreneurship education.  
 In the remaining section, we reflect on how we can proceed with advancing arts 
entrepreneurship education based on these findings.  The prior literature on arts entrepreneurship 
education has offered important implications concerning future directions.  For instance, Essig 
(2013) suggests that main pedagogic methods for teaching artists the entrepreneurial habits of 



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mind are (1) mentorship, (2) collaborative team projects in heterogeneous settings, and (3) 
experiential learning through incubated venture creation.  Pollard and Wilson (2014) elaborate 
five different, yet interconnecting, goals of teaching arts entrepreneurship; (1) the capacity to 
think creatively, strategically, analytically and reflectively, (2) confidence in one’s abilities, (3) 
the ability to collaborate, (4) well-developed communication skills, and (5) an understanding of 
the current artistic context.   
 It should be noted that these methods and goals are highly relevant to what our survey 
respondents reported as their challenges and needs.  They talked about how to approach 
opportunities as their major challenge-how to approach opportunities, such as a lack of 
confidence in approaching galleries and getting their foot in the door.  They also indicated 
mentorship, networking, and collaboration as possible methods that will help them overcome 
these barriers.  An overarching theme was their desire to learn and implement management skills 
and knowledge to be more entrepreneurial.   
 Based on these preliminary results, we advocate cross-campus programs as unique 
approaches to attain diverse goals in arts entrepreneurship education.  We will also discuss other 
important considerations about collaborative and flexible educational programs for arts 
entrepreneurship.    
 

Conclusion 
 While this is still an exploratory study investigating arts entrepreneurship programs at the 
university level, we believe that insights from this pilot study inform us about the expressed 
needs of artists and educational opportunities for arts entrepreneurship.  While we hope our 
limited pilot study is the first step toward more studies that gauge the effectiveness of arts 
education, we advocate a blended, holistic approach to arts education on the basis of our 
findings.  We hope this may help to advance further conversations and research not only about 
artists’ entrepreneurship training, but about the effectiveness of arts entrepreneurship programs 
that aim to help artists “not just survive, but to be successful.” This phrase is what the founder of 
the Southern Entrepreneurship in the Arts Conference, Dianne Welsh, uses to describe why she 
started the conference.  While additional national research on artists’ training needs is necessary 
to extend this study, future efforts must also be undertaken to examine the results of their 
training.  Program evaluations of existing and developing entrepreneurship programs can shed 
light on how satisfied artists are with various educational options, as well as examine how artists 
actually improve their skills and financial opportunities.  Future studies could also focus on 
assessment of arts entrepreneurship curriculum both inside and outside the classroom. 
 

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