So Much Rides on the Programming: Decision Making Processes and Innovation in Performing Arts Organizations

• In Event: 179 - Regular Session. Cultural Studies 2: Aesthetic Choices (and Constraints): From Creation to Mediation

Abstract

Why do performing arts organizations choose one work over a nearly infinite supply of other works? Why do they so often choose the same works? Researchers in the production of culture tradition have sought to answer to these questions and have identified many variables that help explain which performing arts organizations are more likely to program innovative repertoires. Yet few have interrogated the decision-making process from the perspective of those who make the decisions. In this paper, I use in-depth interviews with thirty-two decision makers in performing arts organizations to understand the process from their perspectives. I find that the ways in which key decision makers plan out their seasons and the ways that they research new plays both help to explain why so many performing arts organizations have such similar repertoires.

Author

• Gregory Trainor Kordsmeier, Indiana University-Southeast