Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas, will host the inaugural Arts Entrepreneurship Educators Conference June 6-7. The conference, organized by James Hart, assistant professor and director of arts entrepreneurship at SMU Meadows, and Gary Beckman, director of entrepreneurial studies in the arts at North Carolina State University, includes two days of workshops and panel discussions dedicated to arts entrepreneurship education. The conference will focus on helping participants engage with new pedagogical techniques and the larger issues surrounding the field.  Another key aspect of the conference will be to formalize an academic society of arts entrepreneurship educators.

“There is a growing national interest in how to teach arts entrepreneurship skills, especially at the college level,” said co-organizer Jim Hart. “Last summer, a small group of arts entrepreneurship educators met at North Carolina State University to establish the organization’s foundation. This conference is one of the outcomes.  We invite entrepreneurship educators, program directors, students, working artists and the curious to join us!”

The event will include more than a dozen workshops and panels led by experts from around the country. Keynote speaker will be Douglas Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin and a pioneer in the field of entrepreneurship education. Rachel Roberts, director of entrepreneurial musicianship at the New England Conservatory, will lead a panel on the challenges confronting new arts entrepreneurship programs. Ken Tabachnick, deputy dean of  New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, will chair a panel titled “Introducing Arts Entrepreneurship into Traditional Conservatory Training” and conference co-organizer Gary Beckman will present on “The Arts Business and Marketing Canvases.”

Cost of the symposium is $50 for educators and $35 for students; special hotel rates are also available. Registration deadline is May 23. For more information, contact James Hart at jdhart@smu.edu or 214-768-7659. For registration information, contact Abigail Smith at abigails@smu.edu or 214-768-3425 or visit the site.