Advisory committee announced for first
International Arts Management Master’s Degree Program

DALLAS (SMU) — HEC Montréal, Bocconi University Graduate School of Management and SMU announce the appointment of an international advisory committee in conjunction with the launch of their new 12-month International Arts Management Master of Management degree (M.M.). 

To begin in fall 2013, the new M.M. degree will be the first to focus on issues unique to international arts management and to approach arts management from a global perspective. The program will include one four-month session at each of the three partner institutions and will prepare students to manage and lead international arts and cultural organizations.

“The international advisory committee members will provide input on program content and help make key strategic decisions,” said Zannie Voss, chair of the Division of Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship at the SMU Meadows School of the Arts. “They will also provide connections to the field for our students and serve as worldwide ambassadors for the program.”

The committee members are James Abruzzo, executive vice president, DHR International, New York; Maxwell L. Anderson, director, Dallas Museum of Art; Victoria Bailey, executive director, Theatre Development Fund, New York; Jean-Paul Cluzel, president of the Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais, Paris; Sergio Escobar, director, Piccolo Teatro, Milan; Piers Handling, CEO, Toronto International Film Festival; Peter Herrndorf, CEO, Canada’s National Arts Center, Ottawa; Sylvain Lafrance, former executive vice president, Radio-Canada, Montréal; Daniel Lamarre, CEO, Cirque du Soleil, Montréal; Glenn D. Lowry, director, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Zarin Mehta, former president, New York Philharmonic;  Charlotte Nors, executive director, Singapore Repertory Theatre; Mikhail Piotrovsky, director, the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; Anamarta de Pizarro, director, Iberoamerican Theatre Festival of Bogota (FITB), Colombia; David Resnicow, president, Resnicow Schroeder Associates, New York;  Xiaohong Sun, former vice chairwoman, China Arts and Entertainment Group, Beijing; and Gorgun Taner, general director, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Istanbul, Turkey.

Coursework in the new M.M. program will be focused on cultural policy, international law and the arts, cultural economics and the international art market, urban planning and cultural tourism, the international digital media market, and the strategy and governance of cultural organizations, as well as other areas of arts management. The three partner universities are each widely recognized for their existing programs in nonprofit arts administration, which combine standard management courses with courses addressing the unique challenges of leading arts organizations. 

For more information about the new M.M. program, visit http://www.master-in-international-arts-management.com.

Bios of the Advisory Committee

James Abruzzo serves as executive vice president and managing director of nonprofit practice in the New York office of DHR International, a worldwide executive search firm.  He has over 25 years of experience as a consultant to nonprofit organizations, and has conducted management consulting projects in the arts/cultural, international relief, social service, foundation and trade association sectors. He has also recruited some of the nation’s top CEOs to these nonprofit organizations. In addition, he is co-director and co-founder of The Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers Business School, where he serves on the faculty. Abruzzo is the author of Jobs in Arts and Media Management (ACA Publications, NY), which is used as a textbook in many of the graduate programs in arts management in the U.S.

Maxwell L. Anderson has been The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art since January 2012. Beginning with his first museum directorship in 1987, he has pursued solutions to challenges facing art museums internationally. Among many other initiatives, he also launched two consecutive projects, AMICO and ArtBabble, to build international libraries of digital media documenting the collections and activities of art museums. At the DMA he is developing an international art-for-expertise exchange program named DMX, founded a Laboratory for Museum Innovation with seed capital to develop collaborative pilot projects in the areas of collections access, visitor engagement, and digital publishing, and is at work to link the Dallas Arts District – the nation’s largest – with other cultural districts worldwide. He was decorated as a Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Knight Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic) in 1990 and given the rank of chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic) in 2010.

Victoria Bailey is executive director of the Theatre Development Fund (TDF), the largest not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts in the country, well known for its TKTS booths and its membership, education, subsidy, access and dance programs. Bailey was instrumental in the execution of TDF’s Playwrights Project, a comprehensive study of the lives of American playwrights and the production of new American plays. The Project culminated in Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play, written by Todd London with Ben Pesner and Zannie Giraud Voss, which was published in December 2009 and has stimulated national conversations about this critical issue.  Prior to her appointment at TDF, she had a nearly 20-year association with the Manhattan Theatre Club, first as business manager, then as general manager.  While at MTC, she managed close to 200 plays, both on and Off Broadway, including the Tony Award-winning Love! Valor! Compassion!   Bailey is a member of the adjunct faculty at Columbia University and a member of the board of the Times Square Alliance. She is currently serving a second term on the Tony Awards Nominating Committee. 

Jean-Paul Cluzel is a senior French  High Services Officer. After graduating from the Ecole nationale d’administration and the University of Chicago, he served with the  Inspection générale des finances office. During that time, he occupied several cabinet positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1992, he was appointed general manager of the Paris Opera. Over the past 20 years he has been the chief executive officer of several public cultural and media institutions, including Radio France International, Radio France, and, since 2009, the newly merged Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand-Palais, of which he is currently president and CEO. His numerous honors include officier de la Légion d’honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honor) and commandeur de l’Ordre national du Mérite et des Arts et des Lettres (Commander of the Order of Merit and Arts and Letters). He speaks both English and Spanish.

Sergio Escobar has served as  director of  the Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d’Europa since 1998. He began a career in 1979 with Teatro alla Scala, where he collaborated with noted conductor Claudio Abbado in the foundation of the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra. Between 1990 and 1998 he was superintendent of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and Rome Opera House. Escobar has taught graduate level courses at numerous prestigious universities, including Bocconi University in Milan, MIT in Boston and the Showa University of Music in Tokyo. He has written papers on the history of science and show business management and co-authored History of Italy with Ruggiero Romano. Escobar serves as president of P.L.A.TEA. (Theatrical Art Foundation) and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Experimental Cinema Center and of other cultural foundations. In 1998 he was named Grande ufficiale dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic) by the president of the Republic for his work in theatre, and in 2001 he received the Tagliacarne AISM Prize.

Piers Handling is the director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival. He has held this position since 1994, responsible for leading both the operational and artistic growth of the organization, which has a $33 million operating budget and employs more than 150 full-time staff. Under his direction, the organization has grown to become an internationally renowned cultural institution. It has just successfully opened TIFF Bell Lightbox, a permanent home for all of TIFF’s year-round film programming: film screenings, an exhibitions gallery and a variety of educational and learning programs. Prior to joining TIFF in 1982, Handling began his career at the Canadian Film Institute, where he rose to the position of deputy director, and later taught cinema at Carleton University and Queen’s University. He has published extensively on Canadian cinema. He is currently chair of FAME (Festivals and Major Events), sits on the board of the Canadian Film Centre, and is a member of the Minister of Culture’s Advisory Council for Arts and Culture.

Peter Herrndorf has served as president and CEO since 1999 of the National Arts Centre of Canada, considered Canada’s foremost showcase for the performing arts. It is the only multidisciplinary, bilingual performing arts center in North America, and one of the largest in the world. He began his career in 1965 with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and over the next 18 years rose from reporter to vice president and general manager of CBC’s English Language Radio and Television Networks. He then became publisher of Toronto Life Magazine, a post he held from 1983 to 1992. From 1992 to 1999 he was chairman and CEO of TVOntario. Among numerous other honors, he  received the John Drainie Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for his distinguished lifetime contribution to Canadian broadcasting. He is active in a wide range of community and industry activities, serves on numerous boards, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Sylvain Lafrance served as executive vice president of French Services at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 2005 to 2011. He worked for the public broadcaster for more than 33 years. He joined Radio-Canada in 1978 as a reporter and rose through the ranks to become vice president of radio in 1998. His appointment ushered in a golden era for French radio, as well as a remarkable period of creativity and, most important, of growing listenership and audience loyalty. After becoming executive vice president of French Services in 2005, he oversaw the integration of Radio-Canada’s TV, radio and Web platforms, turned Radio-Canada into a dominant brand on the French-language digital media landscape, and consolidated all of the organization’s commercial revenue functions into a single unit, thereby strengthening Radio-Canada’s business model. He also played a decisive role on the international media scene.  Lafrance is now an adjunct professor at HEC Montréal and is a member of the board of the Société des alcools du Québec and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Daniel Lamarre is president and CEO of Cirque du Soleil. Before joining Guy Laliberté’s team in January 2001, he served as president and CEO of TVA Group for nearly four years. From 1984 to 1997, he worked for National, the largest public relations firm in Canada, as senior partner and president. In 1981, as vice president and managing director of the Burson-Marsteller PR firm, he opened its first Montreal offices. In 1977, he served as public relations director for Cogeco. Before that, he was communications director for les Caisses Populaires du Centre du Québec. Prior to taking up his management duties in the world of communications, he worked as a journalist for over 10 years.  Lamarre has also served on the boards of various organizations, such as Centraide, Hexagram and Collège Notre-Dame, and currently serves on the boards of the Partnership for a Drug-Free Canada, the C2-MTL, the President’s Circle of the University of Montreal as well as the Société des célébrations du 375e anniversaire de Montréal.  Lamarre studied at the University of Ottawa, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications. In 2012, he was granted his first honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa and a second from McGill University.

Glenn D. Lowry, director of The Museum of Modern Art since 1995, leads a staff of 750 and directs an active program of exhibitions, acquisitions and publications.  His major initiatives over the past 17 years include guiding MoMA’s $900 million capital campaign for the renovation and expansion of the Museum, and building its endowment, reinvigorating MoMA’s contemporary art program, and challenging conventional thinking about modern art. A strong advocate of contemporary art, Lowry conceived and initiated the Museum’s successful merger with P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in 1999.  He has lectured and written extensively in support of contemporary art and artists and the role of museums in society, among other topics. Prior to joining The Museum of Modern Art, Lowry was director of the Art Gallery of Ontario (1990-95), one of the preeminent art museums in Canada. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a resident member of the American Philosophical Society and a steering committee member for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.  In 2004, the French government honored Lowry with the title of officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters). 

Zarin Mehta is a Chicago-based consultant to symphony orchestras as well as a life trustee of the Ravinia Festival. He concluded his 12-year tenure as president and executive director of the New York Philharmonic in August 2012, having helped make the orchestra a worldwide cultural ambassador through international tours in Asia — including a historic February 2008 concert in Pyongyang, DPRK — and Europe. He also made outreach to young people a priority, expanding the orchestra’s extensive educational activities; fostered an active commissioning program; introduced an innovative series of lectures and discussions; promoted the use of new technologies to enhance the concert experience; and spearheaded a new series of downloadable concerts, recorded live.  Mehta qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1962. While a partner in the firm Coopers & Lybrand, he joined the board of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and served as its managing director from 1981 to 1990. From 1990 to 2000, he was president and CEO of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. He has received numerous honors and awards, the most recent of which was the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in March 2012.

Charlotte Nors, a native Dane, has a B.A. (Honors) in business administration and over 20 years’ experience in marketing, public relations and business development in the cultural sector, with a track record of producing high quality, successful theatre experiences and fundraising programs. In addition to her job as executive director at Singapore Repertory Theatre, she also created the Hans Christian Andersen Festival in Singapore in 2005, which became one of the biggest festivals outside Denmark to celebrate Andersen’s 200th birthday. The Straits Times in Singapore has listed her for several years in a row as one of the 10 people who have made the greatest impact on the arts in Singapore that particular year. She is currently part of the DeVos Institute’s International Arts Management Fellowship program at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Mikhail Piotrovsky has been director of the State Hermitage Museum since 1992. Prior to that he worked at the Leningrad branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies from 1967 to 1991. Dr. Piotrovsky has taken part in archaeological excavations in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Yemen. He has authored more than 250 works including catalogues of Arabic manuscripts, publications of medieval monuments and ancient inscriptions, and works on Islamic political history and Arabic culture. He also is a writer and presenter of the TV series My Hermitage shown on the State Russian TV channel. Dr. Piotrovsky is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Academy of Arts, president of the Union of Museums in Russia, editor-in-chief of the magazine The Christian Orient, and a professor at St. Petersburg State University, where he chairs two departments.  He has received honors and awards from countries throughout Europe and Asia, most recently the title of Honored Citizen of St. Petersburg in 2011.

Anamarta de Pizarro, director of the Iberoamerican Theatre Festival of Bogota (FITB), Colombia, began her career working for the Education Secretary of Bogota in the Pedagogical Institute, developing and implementing new educational techniques for the city’s teachers. After a research project in ceramics, basketry and textiles she co-authored and published two books on the subjects. Between 1984 and 1986 she was responsible for cultural work in displacement areas under the National Rehabilitation Plan sponsored by the Presidency of Colombia. For a year she was the director of the Jorge Eliecer Gaitan Theater, and for three years she managed the cultural department of the NGO Viva La Ciudadania, which was created following the opening of the Asamblea Nacional Constituyente. In 1993 Pizarro began working with Fanny Mikey in the Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota (FITB) and in the Teatro Nacional, as director of public and international relations. In 2010 she became the director of the Festival after being responsible for the XII and XIII versions of the FITB and for the Bicentennial Commemoration in 2010. She also managed the closing ceremony of the Sub 20 Fifa World Cup in Bogota in 2011.

David Resnicow is president and co-founder of Resnicow Schroeder Associates, the nation’s leading company providing integrated communications, marketing, strategic planning, and management consulting service to cultural institutions. RSA also provides counsel to museum leadership on programming strategy, revenue-generating activities and institutional growth. He has advised and worked closely with more than 125 cultural and educational institutions, including the Louvre, Smithsonian Institution, Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, AT&T Performing Arts Center (Dallas) and the American Museum of Natural History.  In addition, the company works with government agencies on cultural infrastructure planning and cultural tourism, and with philanthropists, foundations and corporations on programs that support the arts and culture. Resnicow has designed and implemented broad-based reputation-building programs in the U.S. for the governments of Hungary, Canada and Greece, and on cultural tourism programs for Dallas, TX; Cooperstown, NY; and the Berkshires, MA, among others.  He was the co-founder of MuseNews, a cultural news wire service that was acquired by Bloomberg LP in 2004 and renamed BloombergMuse.

Xiaohong Sun, a native of Harbin, China, attended primary and secondary schools in Beijing. In September 1978 she joined the Bureau for External Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Culture of China and began her career as a cultural officer. Following five years of training in English and diplomacy at the Central Academy of Cultural Administration and at China Foreign Affairs University, she was sent to the Chinese Embassy in Canada in February 1992, where she served as second secretary in the Cultural Section and later as first secretary. In May 1995 she returned to the Ministry of Culture of China and held a succession of appointments, from deputy section head and section head up to assistant bureau director in the Bureau for External Cultural Relations. She received a master’s degree in education management at Beijing Normal University in 2005. In December 2006 she was sent to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to serve as Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy. In June 2009 she became vice chairwoman of China Arts and Entertainment Group in Beijing, the biggest state cultural enterprise of China. She retired in November 2012.

Gorgun Taner is the general director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, which organizes four international festivals (film, theatre, classical music and jazz) as well as the International Istanbul Biennial and Istanbul Design Biennial.  He has been working at the IFCA since 1983, serving as assistant director and program coordinator for foreign relations (1987-1994) and director of the International Istanbul Jazz Festival (1994-2002) before being appointed general director in 2002. Taner is also a faculty member of the Cultural Management Department of Bilgi University.  He is a board member of the Istanbul Modern Museum and European Cultural Foundation, and formerly served as president of the European Jazz Festivals Association (1998-2002) and as Commissaire général of the Saison de la Turquie en France from July 2009 to March 2010. In September 2010 he was appointed Arts Advisor by the Amsterdam Municipality. He has held the title of chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’honneur (Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor) since January 27, 2011.

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