Professor Ruth Rentschler

Ruth Rentschler OAM has held leadership roles in the Business School at the University of South Australia, such as Head School of Management and Associate Dean: Research Education. She is Professor Arts and Cultural Leadership. She has more than 25 years’ experience working in governance, management and marketing in the non-profit sphere at local, state, national and international levels. Ruth has significant leadership experience in entrepreneurial, start-up, business, government and higher education positions in roles such as Research Centre Director, Chair Academic Board and Discipline Leader, to name a few. She is a DAAD scholar, a St Hilda's College, University of Melbourne scholar and recipient of various awards and prizes. She graduated first class honours, first place, from the University of Melbourne. She completed her PhD at Monash University.

Ruth's long service on non-profit boards includes health, for e.g., VicHealth; arts for e.g., Australian Dance Theatre, No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Multicultural Arts Victoria and the Duldig Museum and Sculpture Garden, in education, for e.g., Deakin University Council, Chair Academic Board. She is chair of the board of Australian Dance Theatre. Her interest in governance is wide and deep, linking research, policy and praxis. She is a member of the Contemporary collector's Commitee at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

She has conducted governance research in Australia for visual arts organisations, arts ministries, performing arts organisations (to name a few) and has spoken internationally on the topic in the UK, Europe and Asia as an invited key note speaker. Ruth's other research interests focus on diversity and inclusion in the cultural and creative and cultural industries. During her time in universities, she has been active in obtaining research grants (including category 1 grants) to investigate social and economic policy issues. In 2015, Ruth completed a research monograph on arts governance as the first in a series on the cultural and creative industries for Routledge, Oxon. (an A category publisher). In 2020, she co-authored an exciting new research book on Indian Movie Entrepreneurship (with Rajeev Kamineni) (Routledge, Oxon.), rated as one of the best books in its field. 

She has designed postgraduate level programs in arts management and in doctoral studies. She initiated and designed arts management programs at various universities, bringing them to the forefront of postgraduate education nationally and internationally. She has conducted key note addresses in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia on a range of contemporary issues in her field, such as arts governance, audience diversity, arts marketing and arts management. She redesigned the arts mangement program at UniSA, boosting student numbers. She also designed the doctoral studies programs at two universities, including UniSA, providing research students with structured coursework to complement their research work. 

She has published widely including research books, for e.g., The Entrepreneurial Arts Leader Brisbane: University of Queensland Press; Creative Marketing Palgrave MacMillan, London (with Ian Fillis); Routledge Companion to Arts Marketing Routledge, London (with Daragh O’Reilly and Theresa Kirchner); Marketing Museums: Competing in the Global Marketplace Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxon. (with Anne-Marie Hede); Innovative Arts Marketing, Allen and Unwin, Sydney. She has published extensively in journals such as the Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, British Journal of Management, Australian Journal of Management, Personnel Review and International Journal of Cultural Policy, to name a few.

Ruth has received recognition with various awards. At UniSA in 2017, she was awarded the Cutting Red Tape award. In 2012, she was awarded a Medal for the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to education, to the arts and to the community. At Deakin University she was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Community Service, the Faculty of Business and Law Award for Outstanding Research, Best Doctoral Supervisor Award in the Faculty of Business and Law. She has also received best paper awards at conferences. She is on the editorial board of various international journals. She is the book editor and governance associate editor for the International Journal of Arts Management. She is a member of the scientific committee for AIMAC.

Australian Institute of Company Directors

Museums Australia

Research ambassador, German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst)

Scientific committee member Association International Management de l’art and de la culture (AIMAC)

Book review editor, International Journal of Arts Management

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Monash University

• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) The University of Melbourne

Work history

Professor Arts & Cultural Leadership, University of South Australia 2020-present

Head School of Management, University of South Australia 2017-2020

Associate Dean Reserch Education, Univeriyi of South Australia 2016-2017

Chair Academic Board Deakin University 2012-2016

Chair Arts Management Deakin University 2007-2016

Director External Research Program Deakin University 2011

Head School of Management & Marketing Deakin University 2008-2009

Executive Director Centre for Leisure Management Reseach Deakin University 2004-2009

Associate Head of School Research 2002-2009

Lecturer Deakin University 1993

Visiting Professor on multiple occassions, for example: University of Stirling, Scotland, HEC Montreal, Canada, Bordeaux Business School, France, La Salle College for the Arts, Singapore