James Hart
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James D. Hart is Professor of Practice at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, where he serves as Director of Social Innovation, Creative, and Arts Entrepreneurship and Co-Director of the SMU Impact Lab. His work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship education, creative practice, social innovation, experiential learning and student development.
Hart’s teaching and research focuses on the development of entrepreneurial capacity: the ability to identify problems, generate possibilities, test ideas, mobilize resources, adapt under uncertainty, and create meaningful social, cultural and civic value. He is the author of Classroom Exercises for Entrepreneurship: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach, published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2018 and released in a second edition in 2025. He is also the creator of Creative Entrepreneurship Ecology, a pedagogical framework that integrates creativity, experiential learning, reflection, neuroplasticity and entrepreneurial method.
At SMU, Hart helps lead interdisciplinary programs and initiatives that connect entrepreneurship, creativity, social innovation, student venture development and impact-oriented learning. Through the SMU Impact Lab, he supports work in social innovation, impact entrepreneurship, impact investing education, due diligence, community engagement and university entrepreneurship ecosystem development. He has also contributed to the SMU Incubator and to broader entrepreneurship ecosystem-building efforts across the university.
Hart is a co-founder and past president of the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education and has played a significant role in advancing arts entrepreneurship as an academic field. His writing and scholarship have appeared in the Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education, multiple volumes of the Annals of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy and Americans for the Arts. He has spoken through platforms including TEDxSMU and has advised universities, arts organizations and civic institutions on entrepreneurship education, creative leadership, experiential learning and innovation strategy. Examples of podcast episodes Hart was interviewed for can be heard here and here.
His work has received major recognition for pedagogical innovation and social impact leadership, including the George Ellis Award for Excellence in Innovation from Social Venture Partners Dallas, the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Excellence in Pedagogical Innovation Award, the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education Sharon T. Alpi Award for Innovative Arts Entrepreneurship Pedagogy, SMU Provost’s Teaching Recognition and additional USASBE honors for entrepreneurship education innovation.
Before entering higher education entrepreneurship, Hart trained and worked as an actor, director, writer and conservatory founder. He founded TITAN Teaterakademi / The International Theatre Academy Norway and has worked artistically in the United States, Norway, Denmark and internationally. His professional background in theatre and conservatory training continues to shape his approach to entrepreneurship education as a disciplined practice of imagination, agency, collaboration and human-centered value creation.
Hart holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the Yale School of Drama and a B.F.A. in Theatre from Southern Methodist University.
Recent Work
Books
Hart, J. D. (2025). Classroom exercises for entrepreneurship: A cross-disciplinary approach (2nd ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035317547
Hart, J. D. (2018). Classroom exercises for entrepreneurship: A cross-disciplinary approach. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786434845
Book Chapters
Hart, J. D. (2021). Scale up, scale back: An experiential exercise in scaling. In C. H. Matthews & E. W. Liguori (Eds.), Annals of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy – 2021 (pp. 361–365). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789904468.00036
Hart, J. D. (2018). Have a classmate tell your story. In C. H. Matthews & E. W. Liguori (Eds.), Annals of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy – 2018 (Vol. 3, pp. 284–287). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788114950.00028
Hart, J. D. (2016). Games for the entrepreneurship classroom. In M. H. Morris & E. W. Liguori (Eds.), Annals of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy – 2016 (Vol. 2, pp. 381–384). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Beckman, G. D., & Hart, J. D. (2015). Educating arts entrepreneurs: Does, can, or should one size fit all? In S. Nambisan (Ed.), Embracing entrepreneurship across disciplines: Ideas and insights from engineering, science, medicine and arts (pp. 126–148). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781782549963.00017
Hart, J. D., & Beckman, G. D. (2015). Arts entrepreneurship: You are closer than you think. In C. Svich (Ed.), Innovation in five acts: Strategies for theatre and performance (pp. 38–44). Theatre Communications Group.
Articles
Hart, J. D., & Beckman, G. D. (2023). Aesthetics, medium, and method: An introduction to the differences and similarities between arts and non-arts entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 6(1), 187–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/25151274211045696
Hart, J. D. (2022). Utilizing the Stanislavski System and core acting skills to teach actors in arts entrepreneurship courses. Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education, 2(1), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.46776/2693-7271.1008
Hart, J. D. (2014). Arts entrepreneurship and the hero’s adventure. Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Research, 1(1), Article 3.
Hart, J. D. (2015). The marble game. Experiential Entrepreneurship Exercises Journal, 1(3), 5–8.
Hart, J. D. (2015). Taking stock. Experiential Entrepreneurship Exercises Journal, 1(4), 13–15.
Hart, J. D. (2015). Persona ideation & 3 ideas. Experiential Entrepreneurship Exercises Journal, 1(4), 22–26.
Arts Entrepreneurship & Teaching Through Games
Popular Blog Posts and Articles
SMU Wins National Innovation Award for Teaching Artists How Not to Starve by Becoming Entrepreneurs, (Dallas Innovates, February 15, 2022).
Hart, J. (2020, January 03). But What Does Arts Entrepreneurship Even Mean? Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://blog.americansforthearts.org/2019/04/09/but-what-does-arts-entrepreneurship-even-mean.
Hart, J. (2018, September 06). Flipping the Classroom and the Benefits of Experiential Learning. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from https://elgar.blog/2018/09/06/flipping-the-classroom/.
Podcast Episodes
No Starving Artists Here!! A conversation with James Hart: Director of Social Innovation, Creative and Arts Entrepreneurship at SMU, Meadows School of Art (The Art of…with Lea Fisher, (July 2022).
SMU’s Jim Hart Discusses Why Creativity is Central to Entrepreneurship (TheStartup.com Thought Leaders, July 2022).
Entrepreneurship is not Innovation, (USASBE, January 14, 2020).
SMU’s Method to Build a Model for the Individual, (Creative Disturbance, New Leonardos, April 11, 2016).
Awards
Recipient of the George Ellis Award for Excellence in Innovation, an honor recognizing visionary leaders who are driving meaningful, forward-thinking change in their communities.
Recipient of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Excellence in Pedagogical Innovation Award for the original course design of Creative Entrepreneurship and Attracting Capital (AMAE 3387), 2022.
Institution Faculty/Staff of the Month for October 2020, The Housing Unification Board at Southern Methodist University.
SMU Provost's Teaching Recognition Award, 2018.
Sharon T. Alpi Award for Innovative Arts Entrepreneurship Pedagogy; national honor, Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education, by nomination and award committee vote, 2018.
USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) Third Place honor for original experiential exercise; by workshop paper submission, blind peer review and expert judge decisions because of live presentations, 2018.
USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) Special Recognition in Entrepreneurship Education Innovation, awarded at USASBE conference for “Games for Teaching Arts Entrepreneurship,” 2016.
USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) First Place, conference Spark! contest, for Entrepreneurial Classroom Exercises, 2015.
USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) Award for Best Workshop, USASBE Conference, in collaboration with Julienne Shields of Millikin University and Megan Carpenter of Texas A&M, 2015.
Course list
| Creative Entrepreneurship and Attracting Capital | AMAE 3387 |
| Developing Creative Strategies: Planning for Success | AMAE 4390 |
| Entrepreneurship and the Hero Adventure | AMAE 3370 |
| Cultural Entrepreneurship | IAM 6375 |
