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Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts Volume 5, Issue 1 
http://artivate.org pp. 37-38 
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Copyright © 2016, the author  

BOOK REVIEW 
Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries: Mastering Management in the 
Creative and Cultural Industries 
By Bonita M. Kolb  
Reviewed by Sally Packard, Texas Christian University 

Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries is an earnest attempt to assist 
artists who are interested in starting a business, offering a comprehensive layout of the nuts and 
bolts of the business planning process. The book is punctuated by business startup experiences in 
the form of artist entrepreneur testimonials and advice from creative industry professionals. Dr. 
Kolb ends each chapter with a summary, a list of “Tasks to Complete” and suggestions for 
visualization exercises. It is significant to note that Entrepreneurship for the Creative and 
Cultural Industries is unique, in that it targets artists (“creative”) and their particular business 
startup challenges. 

However, from my point of view as a professional visual artist, there are some issues 
with Kolb’s book. She begins the first paragraph of the Introduction by alerting the reader that 
they may be surprised to find what awaits the aspiring artist after university graduation.  

Many creative people have known that they are artists, musicians, writers, designers and 
performers from a young age. They may have spent years at a university, college, art 
school or conservatory being inspired, finding role models and perfecting techniques. 
During this exciting few years of their lives, not much may have been said about what 
awaits them after they graduate. (p. 1)

University faculty teaching in the arts today are well aware of the paucity of opportunities 
available to their artist students outside of the academy. While some arts faculty may choose not 
to advise their students to take business courses or engage in the activity of entrepreneurship, it is 
not due to a lack of awareness on their part of the economic realities facing aspiring artists.  

Kolb’s use of the third person in this passage establishes a distance between writer and 
reader (art students?) that persists throughout the textbook. A characterization is set here wherein 
the artist is the subject (outside) of the conversation, not part of it. By indirectly addressing her 
artist audience, the book assumes a didactic tone. Admittedly, as an artist this reader is 
hypersensitive to being sidelined in a conversation about the arts.  

In the first chapter, in the section “Art and People,” Kolb provides a brief rundown of her 
version of the history of art. The information is cobbled together from a variety of sources to 
support her premise that artists “must” understand business if they are to be successful. Not only 
is her presentation of what art “was and is now” awkward, it does not reflect the expertise 
already possessed by a student in the arts who might be reading this book for a class. This 
approach brings into question the end user of the textbook. Is Kolb speaking to artists or about 
them? Is Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries to be used by arts faculty 
teaching art students or is the information to be taught in the context of a business class to non-
artists interested in the creative industries? The answers are unclear. 

Over the past few years, Arts Entrepreneurship has been established in many university 
arts programs as an academic discipline. This new discipline has sparked critical conversations 
among university arts faculty as they work to develop curricula appropriate to their programs and 
their students’ needs. This has resulted in a rich array of approaches and curricular offerings in 
arts entrepreneurship. Simultaneously, a sub-industry has evolved around Arts Entrepreneurship, 



Packard            Book Review: Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries 

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Artivate 5 (1)   

 38 

generating books and articles by non-artists defining the artist’s place in the “cultural and 
creative industries.” Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries is one example of 
this phenomenon and demonstrates the recurring issue in some of this literature, wherein the 
non-artist instructs the artist on how to go about the business of art. The lack of 
acknowledgement by Kolb of the artist-generated entrepreneurial activity in and outside of 
academia is frustrating. Dr. Kolb must be aware of this activity as evidenced by the rise of Arts 
Entrepreneurship as a discipline, as well as the myriad professional, high profile, contemporary 
artist entrepreneurs currently working in the so-called “cultural industries.”  

This critique is not meant to imply that artists should not develop an understanding of 
business principles; they are useful. Artists have always known they must create their own 
opportunities, which requires a working knowledge of opportunity recognition and 
implementation. Old mythologies need to be replaced by the recognition that artists understand 
what they need to be successful. They do not exist on the cultural fringe but contribute to the 
whole of society. If the (academic) community truly wants to share its knowledge with the arts, 
there needs to be a shift in attitude by non-artists when addressing issues critical to the arts. It 
would be productive if the specialists – arts faculty teaching the next generation of artists -- were 
consulted for their expertise as part of this larger dialogue on the creative economy. Many arts 
faculty in higher education would welcome a conversation from their peers across campus to 
explore the ways in which their disciplines intersect. An understanding of the connections 
between these different areas is key to working together to ensure the success of all of our 
students.  

The fact that Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries is the first 
textbook to address business practices as applied to the arts should be applauded. But it may also 
be the bellwether needed to stimulate a long-delayed inclusion of arts professionals in this 
conversation about art practice and entrepreneurship. 

 
 


