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Artivate:	
  A	
  Journal	
  of	
  Entrepreneurship	
  in	
  the	
  Arts	
   	
   Volume	
  1,	
  Issue	
  1	
  
http://artivate.org	
   	
   pp.	
  25-­‐34	
  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________	
  

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________	
  
Copyright	
  ©	
  2012,	
  the	
  authors	
   	
   	
   	
   	
  
	
  

THE CASE OF THE PITTSBURGH NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE: AN ILLUSTRATION OF 
ENTREPRENEURIAL THEORY IN AN ARTISTIC SETTING 
Jeffrey NytchUniversity of Colorado - Boulder 
 

Abstract 
 This article presents a case study of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (“PNME”), an arts 
organization transformed by reinventing its artistic product based on new methods of audience 
engagement. The PNME approach illustrates a number of theoretical concepts in action, and provides an 
example of how artists and artistic organizations may apply entrepreneurial principles to the development 
of their artistic products. Broader implications for the theories illustrated by the case are noted. 
 

Introduction 
 The past five years have been difficult ones for arts organizations. A 2008 study by the National 
Endowment for the Arts shows audience participation in “benchmark” arts events (which include plays, 
musicals, classical music or jazz concerts, ballet and opera) dropped to 34.6 percent, a five percent drop 
from 2002 and the lowest level since surveys began in 1982 (NEA Report, 2009, pp. 1-3). Though the 
report identifies a number of factors contributing to this decline, it does not attempt to identify efforts to 
stem the broad declines it describes. While there are no formal studies of methods employed by 
organizations to reverse this downward trend, my observations of struggling arts organizations nationwide 
suggest that efforts tend to be either based on long-accepted (but not empirically proven) conventional 
wisdom (e.g., “Symphony audiences don’t like contemporary music”) or are random efforts that may be 
creative and even, in the short term, effective, but which are not driven by a deeper understanding of the 
issues operating or the best ways to engage with those issues. The result of this situation is that artists and 
arts organizations on the whole continue to struggle, and the successes that do occur are random and 
rarely replicable. 
          This paper suggests that an entrepreneurial approach to these problems offers a vehicle through 
which arts presenters can re-frame the challenge of audience (re-)building as one of connecting a product 
of value to the needs of a market, and in so doing, gain new insights into potential ways to reverse the 
downward trajectory of attendance and financial support that so many organizations face. A case study of 
The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (PNME) provides an opportunity to explore this approach, and 
illustrates three theories in action: hedonic consumption, effectuation, and inchoate demand. Each of these 
areas will be briefly reviewed, with the PNME case serving as an example of these theories in practice. 
          By studying actual arts organizations that have successfully reinvigorated their audience we can 
also gain new insights into the application of entrepreneurship theory in artistic settings. The organization 
examined in this paper is just such an example, with implications for individual artist entrepreneurs and 
artistic organizations alike. 
 

Theories Relevant to Entrepreneurship Illustrated by the PNME Case 
 In addition to its value to artists and presenters, the PNME case may be read as an illustration of 
three theoretical areas concerning consumption, entrepreneurial decision-making, and market demand. 
These are summarized following. 
 
Hedonic Consumption 
          Building on the seminal work of Levy, who noted that “People buy products not only for what they 
can do, but also for what they mean” (Levy, 1959, p. 118), Hirschman and Holbrook developed the 
hedonic consumption model in a series of papers published in the 1980s. Defined as “those facets of 
consumer behavior that relate to the multi-sensory, fantasy and emotive aspects of one’s experience with 
products” (1982, p. 92), the hedonic consumption model articulated a critical divergence in consumer 
behavior between consumption of products that are more about aesthetic experience (a perfume, for 
example) than traditional consumer goods with specific utility (a toaster, table, or electric saw). In the 
traditional models for consumption, the consumer determines the value of a product by its utility alone, 



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whereas hedonic consumption recognizes that the emotive and sensory aspects of a product can be 
equally powerful components in determining value to the consumer. 
          Subsequent work synthesized by Charters (2006), further parses the consumption of aesthetic 
products, distinguishing products that are primarily about delivering pleasure (purchasing a bungee 
jumping excursion, for example, or Hirschman and Holbrook’s original example of perfume) from those 
that encompass a broader range of cognitive and emotional activities within a complex aesthetic 
experience (such as attending a Beethoven symphony or a Shakespeare play). 
          The hedonic consumption model has been foundational in the development of a theory of arts 
entrepreneurship: the model explicitly states that the value consumers find in artistic experiences is 
fundamentally different from that of traditional utilitarian products due to the stimulation of the 
consumer’s senses and/or emotions. Further, Hirschman and Holbrook identify another aspect to their 
model that is of particular relevance to the PNME case, namely the fact that consumption of aesthetic 
products “generates and requires substantial mental activity on the part of the consumer” (1982, p. 96). 
Identifying this dynamic was central in the re-designing of PNME’s artistic product, as will be seen in the 
case following. 
 
Effectual Entrepreneurship 
          The work of Saras Sarasvathy (e.g. 2001) identifies a critical gap in the traditional understanding of 
markets and products, which operate on the assumption that the central elements required for deciding, 
for example, price, already exist. An example of such an assumption would be the standard classroom 
exercise in which price is determined by studying the relationship between cost and revenue, or by 
exploring the nature of the demand curve for the product in question. Sarasvathy (2001) poses a critical 
question that is more often than not the plight faced by many entrepreneurs: how does one determine 
demand for a product – and thus make a reasonable projection of revenue – when no market currently 
exists for it? Can one accurately determine marginal cost when no such product has been made before? 
Pondering these and other questions led Sarasvathy to develop the model of effectual entrepreneurship 
that asserts that entrepreneurship is a process borne out of creatively leveraging existing resources to 
connect with (or create) a new market rather than devising a process to deliver a pre-conceived product to 
an existing market. She further posits that the effectual model may be a more accurate reflection of the 
process most would-be entrepreneurs, who have little or no access to outside investors, actually undertake 
(2001, 2008). 
          As defined by Sarasvathy, effectual entrepreneurship is a process for making decisions; in contrast 
to choosing “between means to create a particular effect” (the traditional approach), an effectual 
entrepreneur “chooses between many possible effects using a particular set of [existing] means” (2001, p. 
245). The result is an open-ended process in which the initial impulse for a product (launching a fast food 
Indian restaurant, in Sarasvathy’s example) might lead to an entirely different business (a cooking school 
that teaches Indian cuisine). 
          One particular way in which effectuation arises is from contingent problem solving, for which the 
first step is identifying a specific unmet need. The entrepreneur then evaluates the resources at hand and 
sets out to meet that need with whatever resources are available. This aspect of effectuation is particularly 
relevant to the PNME case, as explored following. 
 
Inchoate Demand 
          Though the concept of ill-formed demand is not new (as summarized in York, Sarasvathy, and 
Larson, 2010), a general definition and theory of how such demand operates in the marketplace was first 
articulated by Geroski (2003). Geroski identifies a fundamental difference between “articulated demand,” 
which is focused on an existing product and the specific (articulated) desire for that product expressed by 
consumers, versus “inchoate” demand, which can only be a “general demand” for things that do not yet 
exist, and therefore lacks specific characteristics (Geroski, p. 28). 



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          The concept is further refined in the work of York, Sarasvathy, and Larson (2010), in which “latent 
demand” (unmet but identifiable needs articulated by consumers) is contrasted with “inchoate demand,” 
which is “unformed…[and] non-existent in an articulated form” (p. 143). While Geroski maintains that 
inchoate demand is critical in the creation of new products and markets, York et al. show how these early 
entrants into new markets are not random occurrences: “They are driven by a set of beliefs about the 
nature of inchoate demand in their industry.” Further, “There is no conscious choice to discover and 
exploit an opportunity […]; rather, the new firms are creating opportunity by shaping inchoate demand 
into tangible articulations” (p. 145). 
          Because of its focus on the creation of art absent a specific articulated demand, Blaug’s assertion 
that the arts are an example of supplier-induced demand (2001, p. 127) is relevant to the discussion of 
inchoate demand as well. Blaug, however, does not consider the creation of art forms driven by the 
consumer experience of the art, and York et al. apply the inchoate demand model solely to social 
entrepreneurship. The PNME case offers an illustration of how inchoate demand may operate in an arts 
setting and adds an additional layer to Blaug’s use of supplier-induced demand by its focus on the 
consumer experience as the driving force in the development of the artistic product. 
 

The Case of Pitsburgh New Music Ensemble 
         The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, founded in 1976, is one of the nation’s first professional 
ensembles exclusively devoted to the performance of contemporary chamber music.1 For its first twenty-
five years PNME was like most other new music ensembles: founder-driven, operating on small budgets 
that could fluctuate widely from year to year, and with a modest audience made up of professional 
associates, friends of the artists, and a small core of aficionados. As the organization aged and its 
founder’s energy flagged, the creative energy of the participants dissipated, audiences shrank, and 
performance quality sagged. When the founder retired in 2001, the situation was sufficiently dire that the 
board of directors recognized that nothing short of a radical rebuilding of the group would save it from 
oblivion. After a difficult transition, new artistic and executive directors were hired with a mandate to 
transform the organization both artistically and, if necessary, structurally. 
          With the help of a major grant from a local foundation, the group undertook a year-long planning 
process to contemplate what needed to be done. They began by reflecting on their own significant 
experience as music presenters generally and of contemporary music in particular, listened to feedback 
from frequent attendees, and engaged in informal discussions with peer groups across the country. These 
conversations revealed that the challenges PNME was facing – small audiences and inconsistent quality 
of performances – were not unique. The result of this evaluative stage was the realization that a 
completely new artistic product was necessary if the organization were to break out of the pure “survival 
mode” in which most groups of its kind were stuck. Such a new artistic product would, in turn, likely 
require an organizational restructuring to execute. The directors then engaged in a creative dialogue to 
determine what, precisely, this new artistic product might look like. 
          At the core of the resulting transformation was a change of focus away from the traditional 
orientation of arts presenting organizations (particularly, but not exclusively, “classical” music groups), 
which might be expressed, “this is what we have to offer; won’t you come and see it?” This is the 
entrepreneurial equivalent of inventing a new widget without consideration of the marketplace and then 
hoping one can convince the public to buy it; when such an approach is undertaken in a commercial 
venue, the new widget is not likely to be a success. Yet this is the approach that the traditional fine arts 
have taken with their products for the better share of the last 150 years, justifying their stance by arguing 
that appreciating offerings of so-called “high culture” is part and parcel of membership in a civilized 
society.2 To put it bluntly and in market terms: “you should want to buy this. [Now eat your peas!]” When 
applied to an art form that is likely to have a smaller audience to begin with – such as contemporary 
chamber music – this attitude guarantees what is the accepted norm for such groups: tiny audiences, shoe-
string financial survival, and an existence on the periphery of the larger cultural landscape. 



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          The new directors of PNME took a different approach, however. They started with their own 
observations regarding the experience of the audience at contemporary music concerts, pondering what 
characteristics a new music concert needed to have in order to be more compelling both to existing 
patrons and to a broader range of people. By taking a critical look at the traditional concert paradigm and 
informed by numerous conversations with peer organizations and audience members, they concluded that 
a typical classical concert (and particularly a contemporary chamber music concert, with its frequent stage 
changes and a programming structure that tended to string together large numbers of shorter, unrelated 
works) created too many points at which the audience could (and likely would) disengage from the 
experience. Once disengaged, it is always difficult to regain focus. The result was a concert that only the 
most die-hard new music fans would endure; even then patrons would often lament the breaks between 
works and the disconnected nature of the concert itself. This was contrasted with the experience of a film, 
in which most patrons will continue to watch even if they do not think the film is particularly good: the 
continuous, integrated nature of the medium itself makes disengagement much more difficult. 
          This observation regarding how audiences interact with live art inspired a new format for PNME 
concerts, one in which programs were intentionally restructured to create thematic unity and theatrical 
continuity similar to that of a film. Set changes were carefully choreographed to eliminate the disruption 
between pieces, and non-musical elements such as video, projected images and spoken word maintained 
continuity over the arc of the program (which often flowed without intermission or even pauses between 
works). Finally, theatrical elements such as lighting, costuming, and movement framed the program as a 
dramatic experience, one in which the continuous engagement of the audience was of paramount 
importance. The use of additional visual and theatrical elements is always with a specific intent: they 
must either serve the dramatic thread of the program or aid in maintaining a seamless flow (as in a video 
or spoken word piece that draws the audience’s focus away from a set change happening elsewhere on 
stage). PNME Artistic Director Kevin Noe has dubbed this model the “Theatre of Music.” 
          These artistic changes in turn mandated organizational changes. In order to attract the most 
qualified artists capable of assuming a variety of roles beyond that of a traditional classical musician, 
PNME had to draw on artists from across the U.S. and internationally. Since conducting a traditional fall-
spring season in this way would be prohibitively expensive, the season was converted to a summer 
festival format, presenting five weeks of concerts during late June and July. Given the intensity of the 
rehearsal schedule – and the need to schedule additional rehearsals for the many theatrical elements 
involved – artists were signed to contracts in which PNME was their sole commitment for the duration of 
the season. This in turn resulted in a different contract structure, a different rental arrangement with the 
venue (and indeed, a different venue), and a radically different cash flow in which the vast majority of 
expenditures happened during a very narrow span of the calendar, requiring that nearly all of the year’s 
fundraising needed to happen before the beginning of the season. 
          It is important to stress that the Theatre of Music has never amounted to a “dumbing down” of the 
artistic product for the sake of hopefully reaching new audiences, an unfortunate mistake many classical 
music organizations make. My observations of classical music groups across the country reveal that the 
first mistake made when trying to attract new audiences is to assume audience members are incapable of 
interacting with the music on a sophisticated level. This condescension is in fact one major reason why 
“dumbing down” tends to have the opposite of its intended effect. In contrast, a central tenet of the 
Theatre of Music paradigm is that, as stated by Hirschman and Holbrook, audiences seeking an aesthetic 
experience actually welcome the “substantial mental activity” required of such experiences (1982), and 
therefore demanding audience engagement with the art is not something to be shied away from but rather 
embraced. The trick is to create the necessary setting in which an audience can experience a meaningful 
mental and emotional connection to the art even when the repertoire is challenging and unfamiliar. The 
various elements of the Theatre of Music, coupled with extreme care and intentionality in the choosing of 
repertoire to create continuity and a dramatic thread, allows PNME to program challenging contemporary 
repertoire chosen purely on its own merits. 



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          An excellent example of how a Theatre of Music concert is structured is the Quartet for the End of 
Time concert, first premiered in 2009 and being revived for the 2012 season. The show opens with a 
single spotlight on three clay flowerpots, downstage center. The percussionist enters, sits cross-legged in 
front of the flowerpots, and performs Frederic Rzewski’s mystical piece, To the Earth. The staging for 
Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is pre-set upstage of the percussionist in total darkness with the 
exception of the three candle pedestals that have been lit as the percussionist enters. During the last 
section of the Rzewski, the performers for the Messiaen quietly enter and take their places, so that as soon 
as the Rzewski concludes and the spotlight fades, the lights come up on the Messiaen set and the players 
begin the Quartet. To stage the conclusion of the piece – nearly an hour later – director Noe was faced 
with critical questions: “how does one follow such a monumental and arresting work? And how will the 
group transition to the rest of the program? We could just end with the Messiaen, but the reason for 
programming it was to place it in context and provide commentary on its impact. How do we handle that 
critical moment immediately following its conclusion, however?” Recognizing that the success of the 
entire show hinged on this crucial point, Noe spent literally months pondering its solution. Eventually, he 
found the answer: John Cage’s iconic 4’ 33”, in which the time indicated is broken up into three 
movements of silence. What better way to follow the powerful mysticism of the Messiaen than to simply 
give the audience four and a half minutes of silence to contemplate what they have just heard? 
Furthermore, the structure of the Cage piece allowed the players of the Messiaen to exit, in sequence, and 
extinguish the three candles as they did. As the pianist – the designated performer for the Cage – finished 
the piece and extinguishes the final candle, the thunderous drum beats of George Crumb’s Idyll for the 
Misbegotten resound through the hall, accompanied by a blaze of lights illuminating portions of the stage 
that have hitherto been dark; the transition to the final piece of the program is complete. The resulting 
program is 70 minutes long without any breaks or applause, and creates a mystical journey of the utmost 
power and impact. The use of lighting is critical; no other theatrical devices were required in this case. 
The addition of other visual and theatrical elements are simply tools employed to transform the overall 
aesthetic experience of the audience; the ultimate goal is to maintain engagement so that patrons can 
effectively connect with the expressive impact of the music. 
          This approach to concert design is in direct contrast to artists or arts organizations that consciously 
choose their material based on what they believe will appeal to the broadest possible audience by asking 
the least of them (i.e., modifying the core artistic content to cater to the lowest common denominator in 
perceived audience tastes). Therefore, what distinguishes the PNME model is not a compromise of 
traditional artistic standards (quality of repertoire and/or performance), but rather an innovative approach 
to how the art is framed and integrated into a dramatic/theatrical experience. The entire concert becomes a 
work of art in itself – a work designed with the utmost attention to detail and polish at every level and 
structured with the audience’s experience of that work always foremost in mind. 
          In addition to being of interest to artists and presenters, the PNME case is an important 
entrepreneurial study as well. The premiere performance of the “new PNME” enjoyed attendance that 
was a company record at that time. In the eight years since the Theatre of Music was unveiled, season 
attendance has grown more than 600 percent, a trend driven primarily by word-of-mouth and leveraging 
social networks as opposed to traditional marketing methods. In addition, the company has released two 
commercial recordings and received numerous accolades from critics, including special recognition at the 
International Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. PNME’s transformation was an extraordinary 
entrepreneurial success – success driven by artistic innovation designed to connect their audience with 
their art. 
 

Theories at Play in the PNME Case 
 Although the new directors of PNME were not being consciously “entrepreneurial” as they set 
out to rebuild their group, their approach illustrated entrepreneurial thinking in a number of important 
ways. In the general sense, turning the mindset from one of “present it and they will/should come” to a 
customer-oriented approach of “how we can create a better experience for our audience” is 



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entrepreneurial thinking at its core. In addition, the PNME case provides an excellent study in how 
several specific theories relevant to entrepreneurship can operate within an arts setting. 
 
Hedonic Consumption 
          PNME’s consideration of how to create an aesthetically engaging product for its audience relates 
directly to the hedonic consumption model, but with an interesting twist. While the continuum between 
different categories of products (hedonic/aesthetic on one end of the scale and purely utilitarian on the 
other) is a critical observation, the focus of this model is still primarily as an instrument of marketing: the 
aim is to understand consumer behavior as it relates to existing products (Holbrook, 1982; Holbrook and 
Hirschman, 1982; Lacher, 1989; Lacher and Mizerski, 1994). Additionally, studies of aesthetic products 
(and the philosophical study of aesthetics in general) are based on the product first, and either studying 
how consumers react to it (hedonic consumption model) and/or the nature of the object itself that 
commands our attention (the philosophy of aesthetics) (Charters, 2006). In neither case is the consumer 
the beginning point of the process by which an aesthetic product is created. The PNME case is an 
example of inverting the traditional focus of the hedonic consumption model, an inversion with direct 
implications for artists as the vast majority of artists and arts organizations proceed on the assumption that 
their product exists for the purpose of artistic expression, not the satisfaction of customer needs 
(Hirschman, 1983). This inversion also broadens our understanding of how the hedonic consumption 
model can operate in an arts setting. The enormously positive response that PNME has enjoyed also 
underscores a specific aspect of the model, which maintains that “substantial mental activity” can 
represent value to the aesthetic consumer: the very nature of the continuously integrated and dramatic 
style of the PNME concert results in an intense experience for the audience, which is encouraged to 
remain engaged with unfamiliar and challenging material for an extended period of time. The enormous 
increase in numbers of the PNME audience over the past decade – growth that has largely attracted 
patrons who are not aficionados of contemporary music – along with audience feedback gathered by 
directors, performers, and surveys alike, indicates that challenging the audience is not only not a deterrent 
to growth, but is actually one of its driving forces. This stands in sharp contrast to the traditional sort of 
survey-based programming, because those survey responses inevitably result in programming what the 
audience already knows. In the case of PNME, the audience is not likely to be familiar with any of the 
works programmed; consequently, the goal is to create a concert that will stimulate the most potent 
hedonic response possible, rather than what is simply the most familiar, or “easy.” 
 
Effectual Entrepreneurship 
          The mindset shaping the Theatre of Music paradigm is reminiscent of the effectuation model 
articulated by Sarasvathy (2008), which asserts that entrepreneurship is a process borne out of creatively 
leveraging existing resources to connect with (or create) a new market rather than devising a process to 
deliver a pre-conceived product to an existing market (the traditional approach of artists). When 
implementing the new Theatre of Music, the directors began with the company’s core resources. On the 
artistic side, this included their expertise and excellence in the realm of contemporary chamber music. On 
the operational side, they worked within their modest cash resources and their established presence in the 
community (embodied in patrons, audience members, and local institutional supporters).  A local grant 
provided short-term support for a very small amount of equipment purchases and operational support, but 
the vast majority of the re-launch of the new PNME was accomplished through leveraging existing 
resources to their maximum extent. In short, the new PNME was by and large an act of artistic 
entrepreneurship.3 This suggests that effectuation may be a more productive method of generating 
entrepreneurial opportunities in the arts by encouraging artists and presenters to see the artistic product as 
a resource to be effectively leveraged to accomplish the ultimate goal of connecting with unmet need in 
the marketplace. This is fundamentally different than the usual treatment of the artistic product as the end 
in itself, and to see it as an isolated thing that exists in a state fundamentally disconnected from the needs 
of the audience it seeks to attract. 



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Inchoate Demand 
          The PNME case clearly illustrates a fulfillment of inchoate demand. The architects of the Theatre 
of Music knew from their own experience, as well as, anecdotally, the experience of both existing 
audience members and potential audience members, that the typical contemporary chamber music concert 
was not, on the whole, a satisfying experience. They also inferred, from their professional experience as 
artists, that there was an unfulfilled desire on the part of their audience for a different kind of artistic 
experience of concert music generally. They also believed that if a more compelling vehicle for 
presenting contemporary chamber music could be developed, a broader audience could be harnessed as 
well. Just as York et al. (2010) note that identifying inchoate demand tends to result in products/ventures 
that are familiar to the observer, PNME’s directors used their own knowledge and experience in the field 
of contemporary music to guide the redefining of its artistic product in such a way as to satisfy the desire 
of their audiences for a more compelling and engaging experience – a desire that was previously 
“unformed…[and] non-existent in an articulated form” (p. 143). 
          It is important to note that the entrepreneurial impulse was not a new venture; rather, the 
entrepreneurial impulse was the art itself, a new artistic product (and a new organizational identity) 
designed to better connect with its market/audience. 
 

Implications 
 The broader application of the PNME case is where its real power resides; it is more than an 
example of entrepreneurial success in an arts setting or an illustration of important entrepreneurial 
theories in action. The way in which PNME went about reinventing itself, and the theories exercised in 
that process, has broader implications for artists, arts organizations, and scholars of arts entrepreneurship 
theory. 
 
Implications for Artists 
          As mentioned above, artists have traditionally taken the attitude that the self-expression of their 
artistic impulse was the defining force of their work and that audiences are, at best, incidental, and at 
worst, irrelevant. The PNME model illustrates that artistic excellence and authenticity need not be 
sacrificed in order to reach a wider audience. In fact, not only are authenticity and audience connection 
not mutually exclusive, it is the authenticity itself – when expressed with an understanding of audience 
sensibilities – that is crucial to establishing and maintaining that connection. This is a completely new 
concept to most classically trained artists, particularly musicians. It must also be distinguished from the 
long-held practice of creating artistic content designed at the outset for broad popular acceptance.4 The 
PNME does not chose content based on what they believe will be most easily accepted by their audience, 
but rather structures programs with an understanding of audience behavior and sensibilities, creating a 
structure that is designed to maintain their interest and engagement with the art. This understanding was 
informed by their own experience as artists, the experiences of colleagues and peer groups, and by keen 
and careful observation of their own audiences. 
          That said, the Theatre of Music need not be a source of direct, literal imitation for artists. Rather, it 
should be viewed as what can result when an understanding of how the sensibilities of one’s audience 
(both existing and potential) can be the central driver of creative reinvention of the concert experience. 
This is a powerful concept for artists and presenters to apply to the challenge of shrinking audiences and 
dwindling financial support. Such a reorientation of the artist’s perspective deserves further case 
examples of how individual artists and arts organizations implement such an approach (both in terms of 
their own creative process and their business success). Study of what I will term “applied creativity” may 
in turn result in new conceptual frameworks and practical tools for working artists across a range of 
disciplines. 
 
  



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Implications for Arts Administrators and Presenting Organizations 
          Through discussions with colleagues and carefully following the travails of arts organizations 
nationwide, I have noted that organizations faced with declining attendance and tightened budgets tend to 
react first with external changes (a new marketing campaign, community outreach) followed by internal 
administrative changes (replacing or reorganization staff, recruiting a new crop of wealthy board 
members). These changes are sometimes successful in the short term, and can be valuable and even 
necessary components to an organization’s survival. The downside to such an approach is that it rarely 
changes the underlying issues driving the problem: audiences and their communities are valuing the 
artistic product less, and, as in any market, the less a product is valued the less viable it will be in the 
marketplace. An approach in which consumer needs becomes the impetus for transforming both the 
product and the method of delivering it is likely to have a greater chance of viability and sustainability. 
Bringing an understanding of the audience’s relationship to the artistic product to the beginning of the 
problem-solving process, instead of leaving it on the sidelines, is a critical concept for artists and 
administrators to embrace. An additional benefit to this approach is that it provides artists and 
administrators, often at odds with each other over the best way to revitalize their organization in 
economically sustainable ways, to find common ground from which to create mutually agreeable 
solutions to the complex problems facing their institutions. 
          There are a handful of symphony orchestras that are beginning to take just such an approach in the 
face of deepening financial crises and declining audiences. The Colorado Symphony, for example, has 
recently negotiated a new contract with its musicians that will allow players not required for a given 
subscription concert to engage in community outreach and educational programs across the broad 
geographical range of the Front Range urban corridor. The result will be a greater community engagement 
in both new and existing markets, at little additional cost to the organization. Another example is the 
Brooklyn Philharmonic, which is restructuring its artistic product to better reflect the history and culture 
of Brooklyn (as distinct from its larger and more influential neighbor, Manhattan) by engaging local 
artists in neighborhood-based initiatives designed to create grass-roots connections with the organization. 
The orchestra is also modifying its business model through new cooperative marketing relationships with 
their corporate sponsors. Given a few more years for these initiatives to take root, these groups will 
provide excellent opportunities for case studies that could help define new paradigms for the symphony 
orchestra’s relationship with its community, and how that relationship can help create a financially 
sustainable institution. Such case studies in turn may provide useful models for other types of arts 
presenting organizations. 
 

Conclusions 
 During recent years of stress within the arts economy, artists and arts organizations in need of 
renewed vitality often look at their artistic product last; they will look first to issues of new funding, 
marketing initiatives, or other cosmetic and/or administrative issues. Often the art itself is simply taken 
for granted, or, ironically, is considered only as an afterthought and not as central to the question of 
organizational mission and identity. If artistic content is considered at all, it is usually in the context of 
altering it to accommodate the perceived tastes of a more popular audience, rather than examining the 
way in which the content they wish to perform is presented and framed, and how those frames influence 
the relationship between their audience and the art being offered. The result of this disconnect between 
the artistic product and its audience is that change initiatives are either short-lived or fail entirely, artistic 
integrity is often compromised, and the underlying issues of audience need go unaddressed. 
          The PNME case demonstrates how creating a new artistic product grounded in an understanding of 
how the consumer will receive it can be a powerful transformative force resulting in a rebirth of an 
organization, critical acclaim, and explosive audience growth while maintaining the highest artistic 
standards: in short, an entrepreneurial success. The case also demonstrates the distinction between 
altering the artistic content in hopes of appealing to more individuals (the so-called “dumbing down” 
approach) versus using an understanding of the audience’s inchoate need to create a more effective 



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aesthetic experience of the art one wishes to present. The design of the Theatre of Music was driven by an 
understanding of such inchoate demand, not an attempt to cater to the perceived tastes of a particular 
audience, and is therefore an example of a new type of artistic innovation with intriguing implications for 
a broad spectrum of the performing arts. 
          While the PNME study is a powerful one for artists and arts administrators to contemplate, it also 
raises fascinating questions for scholars of entrepreneurship theory to contemplate. For instance, what 
new sorts of products (artistic or otherwise) might emerge if the aesthetic essence of a product is not an 
incidental characteristic, but is the product itself? Might such products expand beyond purely artistic ones 
into the realm of objects of utility (the ultimate Platonic union of form and function)? Can the hedonic 
consumption model be applied beyond the realm of marketing, serving as a focusing mechanism for 
developing an aesthetic component in a wide range of products and services? How might further 
exploration of the concept of inchoate demand highlight the roles that creativity and aesthetic sensibility 
can play in the innovative development of new products/ventures of all kinds? These questions are 
offered as springboards for continued research into the relationships between artistic creation, aesthetic 
consumption, and entrepreneurial activity. 
          With accumulation of a new category of artistic case studies, entrepreneurs can gain new insights 
into the nature of innovation by understanding the initial creative act through a new lens. These 
illustrations may in turn further illuminate theories of hedonic consumption, effectual entrepreneurship 
and inchoate demand, and help practicing entrepreneurs – artists and non-artists alike – unlock new 
avenues for creativity and innovation in their entrepreneurial endeavors. 
 
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Acknowledgements: Portions of this paper were delivered at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the U.S. 
Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. The author is grateful for the insightful 
conversations and generous guidance provided by Gary Beckman (Director of Entrepreneurial Studies in 
the Arts at North Carolina State University), Jeffrey York (Deming Entrepreneurship Center, Leeds 
School of Business at The University of Colorado-Boulder), the current editors of this journal, and the 
current leadership of Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble for their feedback on the articulation of the Theatre 
of Music model. 
 
__________________________________ 
 
1 I was Executive Director of PNME from 2003 (the second season of the “new PNME”) through 2007. 
2 By “traditional fine arts organizations,” I refer to mainstream groups that specialize in canonic repertoire 
such as the symphony, ballet, opera, chamber music presenters, and mainstream theatre, along with the 
contemporary repertoire equivalents such as contemporary chamber music groups, modern dance 
companies, and contemporary/experimental theatre. 
3 While there is no consensus definition of the term “artistic entrepreneurship,” in this context I am 
referring to the use of entrepreneurial strategies within the creative process itself. 
4 This is also in contrast with the time-honored tradition of an individual commissioning a specific work 
from an artist: while the artist is responding to the need of a particular customer (and may or not end up 
creating a work that pleases the customer and fulfills her/his expectations), this is distinct from 
developing a new way to connect artistic work with an audience en masse. 
 
 


