John Pick obituary
My father, John Pick, who has died aged 83, was largely responsible for the creation and acceptance of arts management as an academic discipline in UK universities.
He was born in Retford, Nottinghamshire, the son of Ben, a gardener, and Edith (nee Morley), a primary school teacher. He attended King Edward VI grammar school in Retford and then went to Leeds University, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1959. There he met Ann Johnson, a fellow student, and they married in 1960.
John went from Leeds to do on-the-job teacher training at King James’s grammar school in Almondbury, Yorkshire, and then went on to run the drama department at Nottingham College of Education, eventually becoming head of drama at St Peter’s College in Birmingham.
In 1973 he moved from Birmingham to run the residential adult education centre at Dillington House, near Ilminster, Somerset.
In 1976 he became the director of arts administration studies at City University in London, founding Europe’s first university department of arts policy and management. The project started with a single practice-based diploma, but he soon expanded this into a thriving programme of specialist master’s degrees in areas such as museum management. While at City he also held a post as a visiting professor in arts management at London South Bank University.
John’s book Arts Administration (1980), co-written with Malcolm Anderton, became a standard textbook on the subject. He wrote many other books, including The West End: Mismanagement and Snobbery (1983) and Managing the Arts: the British Experience (1986).
In 1986 he helped revive the Hackney Empire theatre in London, which had been threatened with demolition, was an actor with the Players’ theatre music hall in London during the 1980s and chair of the Bee & Bustle touring music hall, introducing the acts.
In retirement, in the early 90s, he was awarded the title of emeritus professor at City University and was in demand as a public speaker.
Ann died in 2011. He is survived by his children, Cath and me, and his grandchildren, Bonnie and Mackenzie.