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Job outlook for arts managers in the United States
Are arts manager jobs in demand?
Arts Manager job and salary trends over time
Arts Manager jobs over time
Arts Manager job growth rate over time
Year  | # Of Jobs | % Of Population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 605 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 605 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 675 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 679 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 755 | 0.00% |
Average arts manager salary over time
Arts Manager salary by year
| Year | Avg. Salary | Hourly Rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $88,844 | $42.71 | +6.3% |
| 2024 | $83,551 | $40.17 | +7.2% |
| 2023 | $77,973 | $37.49 | +10.4% |
| 2022 | $70,650 | $33.97 | +5.3% |
| 2021 | $67,109 | $32.26 | +5.1% |
Arts Manager jobs by state
Most common states for arts managers
| Rank | State | Population | # of Jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 101 | 2% |
| 2 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 127 | 1% |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 80 | 1% |
| 4 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 73 | 1% |
| 5 | Indiana | 6,666,818 | 37 | 1% |
| 6 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 31 | 1% |
| 7 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 23 | 1% |
| 8 | Alaska | 739,795 | 9 | 1% |
| 9 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 9 | 1% |
| 10 | Delaware | 961,939 | 7 | 1% |
| 11 | Vermont | 623,657 | 4 | 1% |
| 12 | California | 39,536,653 | 123 | 0% |
| 13 | New York | 19,849,399 | 54 | 0% |
| 14 | Ohio | 11,658,609 | 51 | 0% |
| 15 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 43 | 0% |
| 16 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 27 | 0% |
| 17 | Nevada | 2,998,039 | 10 | 0% |
| 18 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 4 | 0% |
| 19 | Idaho | 1,716,943 | 3 | 0% |
| 20 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 1 | 0% |
Most common cities for arts managers
| Rank | City | # of Jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Annapolis | 2 | 5% | $81,600 |
| 2 | Dover | 2 | 5% | $80,142 |
| 3 | Frankfort | 1 | 4% | $78,072 |
| 4 | Burlingame | 1 | 3% | $118,676 |
| 5 | Juneau | 1 | 3% | $80,436 |
| 6 | Little Rock | 2 | 1% | $69,614 |
| 7 | Tallahassee | 2 | 1% | $67,186 |
| 8 | Hartford | 1 | 1% | $88,553 |
| 9 | Atlanta | 2 | 0% | $73,487 |
| 10 | Denver | 2 | 0% | $76,087 |
| 11 | Phoenix | 2 | 0% | $87,036 |
| 12 | Austin | 1 | 0% | $74,436 |
| 13 | Baton Rouge | 1 | 0% | $85,557 |
| 14 | Boston | 1 | 0% | $93,609 |
| 15 | Des Moines | 1 | 0% | $69,198 |
| 16 | Indianapolis | 1 | 0% | $86,876 |
Arts Manager job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of arts manager experts
SUNY Empire State College
SUNY Empire State College
Marywood University
Cindy Bates
Associate Professor, MentorSUNY Empire State College
School for Undergraduate Studies
What skills stand out on Arts Manager resumes?
Cindy Bates: Arts Managers are unique in that they need to merge a wide range of artistic skills and traditional business skills. Having a solid background in the area of the art one is managing is critical. For example, an arts manager of a theatre company would need to have knowledge about many areas of the theater, such as acting, directing, design, and dramaturgy, along with skills in front-of-house operations such as box office, house management, audience engagement, and so on. Arts Managers also need to have business skills in areas such as finances/accounting, marketing, legal/ethical skills, the use of social media and technology, and of course, management and leadership skills. Strong communication skills are essential. In addition to these practical skills, Arts Managers also need to demonstrate passion and vision for their organizations and, importantly, for the people who work in those organizations.
What skills will help Arts Managers earn the most?
Cindy Bates: Arts Managers who have a higher earning potential can demonstrate a proven track record of prior success in moving arts organizations forward in both mission and finances. The ability to set goals for an organization and then achieve those goals is paramount, whether it be a goal of increasing programming to achieve a specific part of the organization's mission or a goal of increasing revenue x% without sacrificing the mission or people of the organization. Arts organizations are situated within communities and need to be part of those communities. Arts Managers who earn the most also know about and understand their communities so they can best serve the people around them.
Tom Mackey Ph.D.
ProfessorSUNY Empire State College
Department of Arts and Media, School of Arts and Humanities, School for Undergraduate Studies
What soft skills should all Arts Managers possess?
Tom Mackey Ph.D.: Today’s ever-changing work environment requires graduates to be flexible and open to new learning situations in collaborative settings. Art Managers must be team players who work well with others in person and remotely. This requires effective communication and the ability to listen carefully to members of a creative team. Considering the dynamic nature of digital media, graduates must be able to convey their ideas visually with digital presentation tools and to share those ideas with a wider audience using reliable social technologies. Everyone likes a good story, and today’s graduates should be able to write, plan, and produce an engaging digital narrative based on accurate and reliable information.
For instance, in my Digital Storytelling course at SUNY Empire State College, students learn to produce individual and collaborative narratives about their life and in support of a social cause (https://digital-stories.org/). They gain confidence in evaluating and applying digital resources to tell a good story based on their experience and research into a contemporary social issue. As digital storytellers, they write scripts, develop visual storyboards, and create digital media content on their own and in partnership with their classmates. These abilities are transferrable to today’s workplace because they become well-versed in writing, planning, and producing content that is reliable and meaningful to external audiences.
Based on my research into metaliteracy, which is an approach to reflective and social learning, individuals need to take charge of their lifelong learning strategies (https://metaliteracy.org/). This means that today’s graduates need to be aware of how they learn and strive toward new areas of continued development. They need to be informed producers of digital content by carefully evaluating all forms of information while creating and sharing it responsibly in a connected world. According to the metaliteracy model, we all play a wide range of active roles such as producer, communicator, researcher, and even teacher. Individuals must be mindful of these roles and aspire to new ones based on any given social situation, either online, in the workplace, or local community. By striving toward a metaliteracy mindset, individuals gain new insights about themselves and how they learn while better understanding their colleagues as collaborative producers of meaningful digital content.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Arts Managers?
Tom Mackey Ph.D.: The most important technical abilities today involve working with social and digital technologies while adapting to new platforms and apps. Starting a new job with prior experience applying digital tools is incredibly valuable, but so is the ability to learn new technologies and to be open to new learning situations. Graduates should have a good understanding of how to write effectively based on their research and evaluation of credible information. They also need to analyze, interpret, and combine these materials in meaningful ways as producers of original content.
Art Managers understand how to interpret, curate, and create visual art. They need to apply this visual knowledge to the production of original digital materials as well. Doing so requires the application of digital tools for creating and sharing digital images and dynamic new media content. They need to identify freely available resources for producing digital media while making informed decisions about commercial platforms they may need to learn for specific projects as well. This is an ongoing process of evaluating digital resources and identifying the best tools for achieving clearly defined outcomes. Today’s graduates will need to constantly adapt to new technologies and share their knowledge with creative colleagues and external audiences. They also need to differentiate truthful visual information from misleading or untruthful content that may have been digitally altered. As active participants online, graduates must be aware of their individual responsibilities in these settings and protect data privacy.
Sue Jenkins
Associate ProfessorMarywood University
Art Department
What skills stand out on Arts Manager resumes?
Sue Jenkins: Arts Management covers a wide breadth of creative careers in visual and applied art, music, and the performing arts. In all these areas, the most important skills will demonstrate competence and evidence of leadership, time management, responsibility, and effective communication. Extracurricular experiences in college can readily provide those tangible skills that employers are seeking from future employees and like to see on resumes, such as club membership and service, volunteering, mentorship, and leadership roles like club President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Social Media Manager. In addition, employers are also looking at resumes for evidence of key accomplishments such as publications, solo and group exhibitions, honors, awards, and other types of noteworthy achievements. The more evidence of responsibility, ownership, and creativity a candidate can demonstrate, the better.
What soft skills should all Arts Managers possess?
Sue Jenkins: At Marywood University, we seek to develop transferable soft skills in our Art students through various classroom experiences. We do this by focusing on key aptitudes like strong verbal and written communication skills, teamwork and collegiality, problem-solving and creative thinking, design thinking, flexibility, and adaptability, giving and receiving feedback, and basics like time management, punctuality, and personal responsibility. In light of the global Covid pandemic, now more than ever, employers are seeking candidates with strong empathy skills, folks who strive to build Accessibility accommodations in all that they do, and people who are sensitive to and supportive of issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Arts Managers?
Sue Jenkins: The types of hard skills employers find most important in our Covid world are mostly unchanged by the pandemic. Tangible hard/technical skills take time, patience, and persistence. These are skills that are developed over time through practice. Competent artists will have a variety of skills, including a strong grasp of the Principles & Elements of Art; be able to render drawings from life, images, memory, and imagination; have good composition skills and understand the rules of perspective; will grasp and demonstrate understanding color theory; can use the tools of their discipline with skill, and are knowledgeable about how to use a variety of artistic materials and tools with fine craftsmanship.
What skills will help Arts Managers earn the most?
Sue Jenkins: This question presumes that one goal for artists is to earn the most money, regardless of whether we’re living in the middle of a pandemic. While wanting to earn is certainly true for some artists, it will likely not be as true for others. People go into the Arts for many reasons. For Art Therapy majors, the goal is to earn a master’s degree, so they may begin helping others to reduce stress, resolve conflict, improve cognitive and sensory function, self-esteem, self-awareness, and emotional resilience. For Arts Administration and Art History majors, the goal is to work in the arts and academia. For applied arts like graphic design, illustration, and photography, the goal is often to create meaningful and visually compelling work, to engage, inspire, connect, and delight. Similarly, for the studio arts like painting, ceramics, jewelry, fiber arts, printmaking, and sculpture, the goal is often to connect with others through the visual realm. In short, rather than focusing on money, a more grounded approach to one’s career would be to develop greater integrity, honesty, responsibility, acceptance, curiosity, and kindness. That will create a far richer life throughout the pandemic and beyond.