Project Management for Cultural Events: Towards a Systemic Approach

This article is concerned with cultural events and the way they are arranged. It discusses how the implementation of the stringent rules and organizational principles of project management might prove counterproductive in cultural events. The underlying assumption is that cultural events are complex and ever-evolving systems based on creative and artistic processes, so they escape traditional planning and control practices. The complexity of cultural events can be explored through four dimensions. The first concerns the social, cultural, economic, and technological context and the relevance of the influence held by the various stakeholders. The second dimension is related to the multiplicity of objectives underlying each cultural event. The third dimension refers to the concept, the content, and the artistic and cultural creation processes behind the uniqueness of an event. Finally, the last element concerns event management and its iterative dynamic as a project where the four dimensions of complexity are intertwined. Traditional project management usually proposes tools and techniques that tend to dominate and control the project, following a deterministic approach. This attitude may be inadequate to control the environmental, strategic, creative, and managerial complexity of any cultural event, which, rather, must be explored and absorbed. Accordingly, it is suggested that a more systemic perspective be adopted through which routine project management tools are reviewed to pave the way for a new approach when organizing and managing cultural events.