New Mexico's arts and cultural institutions have both national and international stature, despite the on-going economic struggles of the State. The success of NM's arts and cultural institutions, in part, goes to the hiring of out-of-state graduates who come with the advantage of arts management education and internships. Young professionals across the country flock to NM to break into arts management careers unavailable in more competitive regions, gaining valuable experience working in NM's prestigious institutions. As we cast the net farther, NM's creative economy also attracts art tech entrepreneurs, social network architects, and app innovators. Together, this youthful demographics is fashioning a "creative class divide" that is wedging out NM graduates/emerging professions. The imperative to level the playing the field by establishing an arts management minor for NM students can no longer be ignored Many traditional delivery systems in the arts have been expanded and/or transformed altogether by technology. In effect, two systems exist for experiencing the arts: the traditional physical spaces of the arts (i.e. theaters, galleries, museums, concert halls, hard books, etc.) and the virtual spaces/delivery systems for the arts (i.e. virtual museums, on-line digital archives, podcast performances, cyber cafés and salons, the Kindle, high performance computing for real-time performance, etc.). These two different systems for art experiences somewhat fall across generational lines with the traditional arts system favored by an older population and the virtual arts system being developed, promoted, and used by a younger one. On one hand, the virtual arts system has created new consumers of the arts as opposed to new audiences for the arts. On the other hand, the arts establishment has developed an arts patron system who have given stalwart support over decades for the traditional/familiar arts experiences. Thus, another challenge for arts managers is how to straddle these two demographic audiences/users. The present and future arts manager needs to broker relationships between creatives and the business community; a mediator between generational preferences for different delivery systems for the arts; and, an ambassador for the new creative economy.

The past two decades have seen many new and emerging careers evolve from the ubiquitous nature of technology. Examples of new career fields are social network architects, crowd sourcing strategists, and mobile apps developers. These products are generating considerable revenue for Albuquerque, but they are mostly invisible except to the users. The BBER report unveiled the astounding statistics that NM's creative economy generates "$1.2 billion in revenues, $413 million in wages, and 19,500 jobs [annually]". It is the very conjoining of art and technology that has given economists new ways of evaluating economic growth predicated on the creative sector—or, the creative economy. At the recent Creative ABQ Symposium on Growing the Creative Economy (11/05/10), Mayor Richard Barry, along with 75 arts leaders, economists, and 'creatives' across many arts/tech fields, grappled with how to grow the creative economy in Albuquerque—how to keep creatives who are here now (stop a "brain drain"); how to attract new creatives from elsewhere; and, how to keep the pipeline fed with new generations of creatives. The common complaints from creatives in attendance was the learning curve they encountered after they conceptualized and developed a product; the burden on them to create, promote, market, and manage the entire enterprise. In response, attending arts managers recognized a new role they could play in assisting creatives: to broker connections between the creatives and business professionals. In addition, UNM has a role in providing education and professional training in areas of arts/tech entrepreneurship, marketing and promotion, and attracting investors.