News
2024 Sharon T. Alpi Award Winners Announcement
The Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education (SAEE) is proud to announce the recipient of the prestigious Sharon T. Alpi Award for Innovative Arts Entrepreneurship Pedagogy.
Established in 2016, this award recognizes exceptional educators pioneering new methods in arts entrepreneurship education.
This year’s recipient is a team of European educators and researchers for their pedagogical innovation called “The Self-Curating Musician (SECUM).” The project team includes:
Joris Blanckaert, Music Programme, KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT University College of Ghent
Ellen Loots, Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Saskia Westerduin, Design Programme, KASK & Conservatorium, the school of arts of HOGENT University College of Ghent
Pawan V. Bhansing, Inholland University of Applied Sciences; Creative Business Research Centre
“The Sharon T. Alpi Award stands as the highest accolade within the field of Arts Entrepreneurship, honoring transformative pedagogical innovations that are both impactful and transferable,” says SAEE President Jim Hart. “We are delighted to confer the award to this group of educators for their groundbreaking approach ‘The Self-Curating Musician.’ Innovative educational models like this enrich our academic landscape and cultivate an environment where creativity and entrepreneurship flourish. The Alpi Award highlights SAEE’s unwavering commitment to advancing arts entrepreneurship education, empowering the next generation of arts entrepreneurs to make significant societal contributions, and addressing the critical need for arts-centric pedagogical models that dismantle the 'starving artist' stereotype.”
The “Self-Curating Musician” (SECUM) is an innovative teaching method developed to transform classical music education by focusing on “self-curation” as a form of entrepreneurship. This approach connects formal education with the professional world through a “mindset-centered” pedagogy combined with technical training, using Systemic Design Thinking to create an immersive learning experience. SECUM enables young musicians to harness their creativity, develop a personal narrative, and engage with communities, addressing the dual pressures of achieving artistic excellence and navigating the job market. By promoting a holistic, community-oriented approach, SECUM redefines entrepreneurial practices in classical music. Supported by the European Commission's ‘Music Moves Europe’ program, the initiative includes a comprehensive online platform (www.secum.net) and has influenced curriculum changes in institutions like KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent and Erasmus University Rotterdam.
“Musicians today yearn to connect with a community rather than be part of a market or create value for an industry. SECUM suggests a skill set as well as a mindset to achieve this,” remarks Joris Blanckaert, one of the SECUM project team members.
Reviewers of this year’s submissions for the Alpi Award remarked, “[SECUM] is innovative, scalable, and already demonstrates transferability and impact.” And, “This is a well-articulated approach for discovering the one-of-a-kind artist within each of us.”
As recipients of the 2024 Alpi Award, Blanckaert, Loots, Westerduin, and Bhansing join the ranks of past recipients including Jim Hart (2017), Mark Rabideau (2018), and Jeffrey Nytch (2020).
For more information, please contact info@societyaee.org.
2024 Conference: Find Your Tribe
Pedagogy. Research. Community. Practice.
The Board is happy to announce our first in-person SAEE conference since before the pandemic will be hosted by North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina) March 22-23, 2024.
2021 Video Salon Series
For fall 2021, we are thinking differently about how we interact. In this spirit, we are announcing a proposal call for a NEW Video Salon Series. This peer-reviewed series of ten 25-minute videos will debut on our new community platform (watch for more information about this soon!) on November 8th and run through November 19th, 2021.
Past Webinars
Webinar: Crafting an Arts Entrepreneurship Course for Visual Artists, Artisans, and Designers
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Time: 10:00-11:00 am EST
Presenter: Jennifer Reis, Creative entrepreneur, Artist, Educator (University of North Carolina-Greensboro), and Gallery director
Description: This webinar will serve faculty new to (or struggling to provide) arts entrepreneurship curriculum for students seeking to be visual artists, artisans, designers – in general “makers” rather than “performers”. The webinar will also provide a blueprint for a class (which can be taught to performing artists) taking students from venture inventory and analysis to launch/market within a semester. The course design embeds Design Thinking and Lean Startup principles as well as toolkit skills like pricing, packaging, and digital marketing basics.
Webinar: Crisis Management Strategy & Plan for Independent Artists
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Time: 1:30-2:30 pm EST
Presenter: Dr. Gary Beckman, Director of Entrepreneurial Studies in the Arts, North Carolina State University
Description: While we are all enduring this COVID-19 crisis, it is not surprising that artists, arts businesses and entrepreneurs alike are concerned about their venture's stability–if not outright survival. Frequently used in larger organizations, crisis management plans are a typical part of the administrative planning portfolio. However, independent artists and small arts businesses are not trained, nor have even the basic tools to construct such a plan for their ventures. This webinar introduces two tools specifically designed to help existing small arts businesses and emerging arts entrepreneurs create both a crisis management strategy and plan for not only this novel crisis but the more traditional “crises” arts ventures encounter.
Webinar: Music and Technology – An entrepreneurial journey (presented by California Lutheran University)
Date: Monday, April 27, 2020
Time: 8:00 pm EST
Presenters: Marcus Ryle and Susan Wolf, Founders of Line 6
Description: Susan Wolf and Marcus Ryle are the co-founders of Line 6, a company that makes musical instrument technology products for guitarists. Their journey began with a shared love of music and evolved into the creation of a leading international brand with hundreds of employees and millions of customers. Join in to learn...
How they transitioned from consultants to entrepreneurs
How they built a company culture that fostered innovation
The pros and cons of venture funding
How to truly listen to customers
Acquisition of additional brands and technology
How they sold their company to Yamaha Corporation