Rethinking Cultural Centers: A Nordic Perspective on Multipurpose Cultural Organizations

What are cultural centers for? This book offers a unique and dynamic guide to managing these organizations, and the challenge of reconciling cultural aims with business success.

Drawing on research and practice, it provides case-based insights into common managerial problems and their solutions. Although international research demonstrates that culture has positive economic impact and many cultural institutions are multimillion dollar institutions, there has been little research on how cultural centers are managed to combine cultural and economic impact. Due to the diversity of their missions and purpose, cultural centers in Europe often struggle to find business success. By drawing on recent cases from Finland and Sweden, and focusing on the challenges that face both managers and organizations, this book explores the incentives that underpin the foundation of cultural centers, and what is needed to make them a success. By defining the complex challenges that face cultural centers, this book enables managers to move beyond administrating an organization to becoming cultural entrepreneurs, turning good ideas into good business.

In this underresearched area, this book will be essential reading for researchers, policy makers and managers working in cultural centers and museum management.