What Is an Art Manager? What They Do and How to Become One

The words “art manager” sound as if they described someone who “works with art in general”. In fact this is a very specific job: making sure that art reaches the viewer and the buyer — with exhibitions, contracts, deadlines and money.

Only a few years ago art managers remained invisible — the “éminences grises” behind the artist. That is now changing: strong “artist plus manager” partnerships are becoming known together, and the manager is no longer just someone who carries out technical tasks.

Below we look at who an art manager is, what they do over an ordinary month, how they differ from a curator and a gallerist, what qualities you need at the outset, and how people come into the profession without a relevant degree.

Contents

• Who an art manager is
• What an art manager actually does
• Where art managers work and the main areas of work
• How an art manager differs from a curator, a gallerist and a producer
• What qualities you need
• How people enter the profession without a relevant degree
• Who the profession suits

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Who an art manager is

An art manager is the person responsible for the organisational and commercial side of art. The artist makes the works; the art manager makes sure those works are seen, understood and bought.

The phrase “a manager in the arts” explains nothing, so it is easier to start from a question: who decides where a work will hang, at what price and on what terms? That is exactly what an art manager deals with.

You can test the role by imagining it gone. The curator works out what the exhibition is about. The artist makes the works. But without an art manager the exhibition simply will not happen: there will be no venue, no schedule, no budget, no transport, no insurance and no agreements with the participants. This is not a support function; it is the load-bearing structure.

You can work either for an institution — a gallery, a museum, a fair, a foundation — or for an individual artist. In the second case the art manager manages the career of one artist rather than the programme of a venue.

What an art manager actually does

If you break down an ordinary working month, the tasks fall into four groups.

Selecting artists and working with them. Finding artists, looking through portfolios, agreeing on their participation, discussing terms and percentages. This also includes going through the applications to open competitions, if the venue runs them. What an open invitation to apply is and how it works is explained in the piece on open calls.

Organising the show. Planning an exhibition from idea to de-installation: schedule, space, hang, transport and insurance of the works, labels, installers, the opening. There is a great deal of everyday logistics here that nobody on the outside suspects.

Sales and negotiations. Working with buyers and collectors, pricing, contracts, reporting, seeing a sale through. This is the part the venue pays a salary for: without sales a gallery does not survive.

Promotion. Texts about the project, work with the press and with venues, social media, newsletters, partnerships. More on this in the piece on how to promote your art.

The proportions depend on where you work. In a commercial gallery there is more selling, in a museum more project work and reporting, and with an individual artist a little of everything.

Where art managers work and the main areas of work

• Gallery. The exhibition programme, work with the gallery’s roster of artists, sales to collectors.
• Museum and foundation. Projects, grants, reporting, the public programme. More bureaucracy, a longer planning horizon.
• Fair and biennale. Short, intense cycles, with many participants and contractors at the same time. In Russia the key events of this kind are Cosmoscow and Blazar.
• Personal art management. Managing the career of one particular artist: applications, galleries, sales, documents, strategy. When an artist needs such a person at all is covered in the piece on whether an artist needs an art manager.

Today the last of these areas looks the most promising for people who are starting out: it does not tie you to a single venue and does not require you to be in a particular city — the artist and the manager can be in different countries.

Who else is part of this world and how the players are connected to one another is covered separately, in the piece on how the art world works.

How an art manager differs from a curator, a gallerist and a producer

The boundaries are loose, but the difference lies in what each person is ultimately answerable for.

The curator is responsible for the statement. The curator works out what the exhibition is about, which artists to bring together and why, and writes the concept. Their question is “what is this about”. This profession is covered in detail in the piece on who an exhibition curator is and what a curator does.

The art manager is responsible for making it happen. Schedule, budget, contracts, logistics, sales. Their question is “how do we do this, and with what money”.

The gallerist is the owner or director of a gallery. The gallerist defines its identity: who we take into the programme, what policy we follow, what we put at risk. This is an owner’s role, not that of a hired specialist.

The producer in the art world is closer to the art manager, but is usually tied to a single project and puts together the team and the funding for it from scratch.

In practice one person often combines two or three roles: you can be an art manager and act as curator on particular projects. The smaller the venue, the more the roles merge — and the more important it is to understand where one role ends and another begins.

What qualities you need

The requirements fall into three parts, and the second is usually underestimated.

Management as the foundation. Negotiations, contracts, budgets, deadlines, work with contractors, a calm attitude to rejection. A large part of the job is emails, spreadsheets and phone calls, not exhibition openings. If you have already run structured processes in another field, those skills transfer almost without loss.

Empathy and sensitivity. This is work with people who have a complex inner life, and you cannot treat an artist as a function. A large part of the result rests on how well the manager understands the artist and their art.

Analysis and strategic thinking. To be more than someone who simply carries out instructions, you need to keep making sense of what is happening in the market: which venues are gaining strength, what is being bought, where the art world is heading.

One skill stands apart: being able to talk about money out loud — naming a price, discussing percentages, talking about payment terms. Many people come into the profession out of love for art and get stuck at exactly this point.

How people enter the profession without a relevant degree

A degree in art history helps, but it is not an entry ticket: in the art world people look at what you have already done. People come into art management from entirely different professions — and the job is built in such a way that it draws on a strength you already have.

A telling example is the path of Maria Hiltunen-Sedoshenko, an art manager and curator and the author of OnStudy’s programmes. Before art she worked in analytics, trained in conflict resolution and social psychology, and was involved in organising large-scale events. Then came a second degree at RMA Business School in “art management and the gallery business”, the auction house Phillips, 11.12 Gallery and Winzavod, the Moscow art centre. To date she has advised more than a thousand artists one to one.

Analytics, systems thinking, working with documents, organising events — none of it was wasted; it became the foundation of the profession. Event managers, in fact, move into art management more often than anyone else: their skills cover a large share of the tasks involved in organising shows.

In practice, the order of steps looks like this.

1. Get to know the field. Who the main players are, how galleries and fairs work, what is happening right now. Without this, no conversation with any venue will get anywhere.
2. Train your eye deliberately. Not “going to exhibitions”, but looking with questions in mind: how the display is put together, how it is explained, what is selling.
3. Get your first hands-on experience. Volunteering at a fair or a biennale, helping with installation, assisting — this is the fastest way to see the work from the inside.
4. Manage one artist. Help an artist you know to put together a portfolio, send applications and organise a first show. That is already a case study you can show.
5. Build your CV on real projects. In this world a portfolio of projects carries more weight than a list of courses you have taken.

⚠️ One important point: there is no ready-made textbook on art management. The rules of the art world change faster than books come out, and knowledge is passed on by the people active in it — those who are working with venues right now. So the value of any training here depends on whether the person teaching is a practitioner.

Who the profession suits

It suits people who are interested in art but do not want to be artists, or cannot be. For a long time it seemed that there were only two doors into art — becoming an artist or working in a museum. Art management is a third, and it is wider than either.

Another sign: you like it when chaos turns into an event. If you enjoy not only the result but also the process of putting it together — the negotiations, the schedules, the agreements — this is the profession for you.

What you will certainly not find in it is peace and predictability. A large part of the work consists of other people’s deadlines, rejections and postponements. The romantic part exists, but it rests on contracts, deadlines and the ability to talk about money.

An art manager is not “someone who is around art” but the person without whom the exhibition does not open and the work does not sell. The good news is that you can enter the profession from any previous one: it is assembled from skills that most people already have — simply applied in a different setting.

Test yourself: if tomorrow you were asked to organise an exhibition for an artist you know, which step would you start with — and at which would you get stuck?

Frequently asked questions

How does an art manager differ from a curator?

The curator is responsible for the statement: what the exhibition is about, which artists are brought together and why. The art manager is responsible for making the exhibition happen: schedule, budget, contracts, logistics, sales. In practice one person quite often combines both roles — especially at small venues — but their areas of responsibility are different.

Do you need a relevant degree to work as an art manager?

A degree in art history helps, but it is not an entry ticket: in the art world people look at the projects you have completed. People come into the profession from analytics, event management, marketing and psychology — and build on the skills they already have. Far more important than a degree are a trained eye and your first real case studies: helping with installation, volunteering at a fair, managing one artist.

How much does an art manager earn?

It depends on the form of employment, and there are two different models. In a gallery, a museum or at a fair it is a salary, sometimes with a percentage of sales. In personal art management, income is tied to the artist’s results: the manager receives a percentage of the income from sales of works and from participation in projects — in other words, the manager grows along with the career of the artist they manage. It is impossible to name a single figure: the range is determined by the venue, the region and the artists you work with.

Can you work as an art manager remotely?

In an institution, hardly: installation, meetings with collectors and work with the venue require you to be there. Personal art management, on the other hand, is not tied to a city: the artist can live in one country, the manager in another, and the exhibitions can take place in a third. That is exactly why this area is often chosen by people who are starting out.

How does an art manager differ from an art agent?

In the Russian-speaking art world there is no strict boundary, and the terms are often used as synonyms. An art agent is usually understood to be someone who manages the career of one particular artist, while “art manager” is a broader word: an art manager can work for an artist, or for a gallery, a museum or a fair. What you should look at is not the job title but the list of tasks that has been agreed.

Where do you start if you have no experience in art at all?

With two things at once: getting to know how the art world works and getting your first hands-on experience. Volunteering at a fair or helping with installation gives you an understanding of the profession faster than any course. Alongside this, look at exhibitions not “for the experience” but with questions in mind: how the display is put together, how it is explained, what is selling. The third step is to see one artist through to a result: put together a portfolio, send applications, organise a show.