The York Cycle of Mystery Plays, or how the Black Death created arts managers

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine the managerial practices involved in the staging of the York Cycle of Mystery Plays (1376–1569), developed during a period of profound social and economic transformation. It aims to contribute to the understanding of the historical evolution of cultural management and organization. Design/methodology/approach Research proceeded through three phases: defining core Western arts management functions, selecting the historical case using rigorous criteria and conducting extensive literature review and archival research on the York Cycle. Findings The York Cycle production and staging required sophisticated organizational practices, compounded by the profound socio-economic changes which followed the Black Death. These practices are reflective of persistent challenges in cultural production: securing funding, ensuring artistic quality, planning and managing complicated logistics and mediating between competing interests. They illuminate how medieval guilds of York developed an organizational form that could endure uninterruptedly for two centuries, across widely varying conditions. Research limitations/implications The organizational innovations of the York Cycle indicate that these medieval cultural producers developed and implemented solutions to persistent problems in cultural production. Future research should examine how these problems were negotiated in other historical and cultural contexts, to develop a more robust understanding of how sustainable structures for collective artistic and cultural expression emerge. Practical implications The historical analysis of how arts and culture have been organized can reveal patterns that are relevant to contemporary arts management practice. The York Cycle endured for 200 years thanks to a diversified funding model, adaptive governance and intentional and systematic community engagement. Arts and culture organizations of our time, facing similar turbulence and challenges, can be inspired by how the problems of resource fragility, complex partnerships and fostering community engagement were tackled historically. Social implications Sophisticated cultural organization predates modern arts management by centuries. By examining how one medieval community developed organizational solutions to persistent challenges of creative enterprise: diversified funding, adaptive governance and community engagement. The study suggests that using a similar methodological approach may yield a deeper understanding of cultural organization forms and strategies. Originality/value While the DNA of artistic disciplines are well-documented, the historical analysis of cultural organization remains largely unexplored. This study demonstrates how examining organizational practices around cultural production through historical case studies can illuminate collective solutions to coordination problems in cultural production. This provides a foundation for understanding cultural organization as an (evolving) response to persistent human expressive needs, rather than to recent professional and environmental developments. The York Cycle provides a historical case study of medieval cultural organization that reveals challenges, patterns and solutions that can contribute to the understanding of how arts and cultural management and organization have developed.