An artist must be able to work with the resources they have to achieve their goals. Michael Devine, an actor who incorporated seemingly disparate career interests into a successful career in acting, knows how to identify and use the resources he has to cultivate an interesting and unique acting...

Shelter Music Boston (SMB) is a social service organization presenting classical music to homeless shelters and substance misuse recovery facilities in the greater Boston area. Founded in 2010, the organization presents 80-90 concerts a year, employs five part-time staff, and has an annual...

This case spotlights the launch, challenges, pivots, and growth of a student-run multimedia firm and a new arts entrepreneurship class at Millikin University. Through this case, the reader will gain insights into how this entrepreneurial sandbox was designed to allow for the students to learn...

This teaching case study examines how Beau Bledsoe, a guitarist in Kansas City, Missouri used the features of a portfolio career to create an enduring artistic practice that changed and adapted along with changes in the industry and his personal circumstances over the period of three decades....

The paucity of suitable and affordable concert venues is a perennial challenge for choreographers and dance companies nationwide. Emerging dance artists looking to establish themselves by showcasing their work in a competitive professional setting have historically had great difficulty advancing...

This case study provides a detailed description of Belltower Coffeehouse & Studio, a community pottery studio, teaching space, and coffeehouse/restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, and the challenges its founders grappled with as they negotiated its hybrid value as both a traditional for-profit...

This introduction chapter presents the rationale for this book: engaging with case studies in arts entrepreneurship as a means to gain a broader sense of the field of arts entrepreneurship. Case studies are common in business but less so in the arts, however their value is transferable. The...

This closing chapter synthesizes and discusses various themes that emerge across the case studies found throughout the book. They include exposure to the arts at a young age, networking and relationship building, entrepreneurial traits, breaking down mythology, financial management, and...

Jason Harrod is the type of artist one might describe as “artist to the bone”—creative, talented, passionate, inspired, authentic, and totally devoted to his craft. However, working with incredibly devoted artists often poses specific challenges in business consulting contexts. As Hans...

In this case study focused on an ambitious startup company, founder Beth Morrison’s experimental opera and music-theatre company, Beth Morrison Projects (BMP), intersects with an opera field with a shrinking audience and doubtful future, in need of a new direction. Armed with deep knowledge of...