Arts Sector Research Articles

Rebranding Macau: views of cultural industry insiders

Purpose – This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing the performing arts as one element in changing the destination image of the Macau special administrative region from that of the Las Vegas of the East to a “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure”. The context is of particular interest as rebranding is typically associated with negative or outdated images, whereas Macau’s existing brand is strong and associated with positive tourism revenues. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured in-depth interviews with frontline participants in Macau’s performing arts sector are utilized to evaluate the relevant re-branding strategies and goals of the city’s administration. In-depth interviews focus on understanding policies through the thoughts and experiences of respondents. They are particularly useful in cases where insiders are likely to be better informed than others with respect to policy issues. Findings – Three main themes related to the use of the performing arts as a vehicle for destination rebranding are explored. Findings suggest that few elements common to successful branding campaigns are evident in the approach of the Macau administration. Shortcomings are evident, for example, in communication, infrastructure development, long-term planning and the allocation and monitoring of funding. Research limitations/implications – Although qualitative research relies on rich data from small numbers, the study focuses only on the views of informed insiders in the performing arts. Input from commercial stakeholders and higher-level policy makers would broaden the perspective. Practical implications – The findings are relevant for any destination wishing to alter or update its image. Originality/value – Cultural aspects are increasingly utilized in destination branding. This study is one of only a few which focuses on the performing arts sector.

Diasporic and Transnational Internationalization: The Case of Brazilian Martial Arts

Brazilian diasporas overseas has received little academic interest. Nevertheless, estimates suggest that around three million Brazilians currently live in other countries. The present study looks at a specific type of diaspora: small entrepreneurs from the Brazilian martial arts sector. The study adopts the case study method of research. The unit of analysis is comprised by the martial arts (capoeira and Brazilian jiu-jitsu). Data analysis used secondary and primary data from interviews. Cross-case analysis searched for similarities and differences in the internationalization processes of the two martial arts, using several analytical devices, such as chronologies, timelines, matrices, and pattern matching analysis. Evidences suggest that the concept of diasporic internationalization fits better capoeira than Brazilian jiu-jitsu. However, Brazilian jiu-jitsu shows an initial combination of diasporic and transnational characteristics, but more recently became fully transnational. Brazilian jiu-jitsu became a truly global business, formally organized and professionally managed. Capoeira, however, is still seen as non-commercial and as the preservation and practice of an ancient art. Such ethos, combined with the origin of its members in lower economic classes and their restricted access to capital turns internationalization into an often less profitable activity.

“Show us your moves”: trade rituals of television marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the professional culture of television marketing in the UK, the sector of arts marketing responsible for the vast majority of programme trailers and channel promos seen on British television screens. Design/methodology/approach – In research approach, it draws on participant observation at Promax UK, the main trade conference and award ceremony of the television marketing community. Developing John Caldwell’s analysis of the cultural practices of worker groups, it uses Promax as a site of study itself, exploring how a key trade gathering forges, legitimates and ritualizes the identity and practice of those involved in television marketing. Findings – Its findings show how Promax transmits industrial lore, not only about “how to do” the job of television marketing but also “how to be” in the professional field. If trade gatherings enable professional communities to express their own values to themselves, Promax members are constructed as “TV people” rather than just “marketing people”; the creative work of television marketing is seen as akin to the creative work of television production and positioned as part of the television industry. Originality/value – The value of the paper is the exploration of television marketing as a professional and creative discipline. This is especially relevant to marketing and media academics who have tended to overlook, or dismiss, the sector and skills of television promotion.

Luzes sobre o Espectador: artistas e docentes em ação

Resumo: O objeto do artigo é o exame de políticas públicas que, na interseção entre as áreas da cultura e da educação, vêm se dedicando àquilo que costuma ser nomeado de formação do espectador na França, Bélgica e Brasil. Analisam-se os fundamentos de iniciativas coordenadas por responsáveis provenientes de setores artísticos e educacionais, levando em consideração a natureza dos projetos implantados e seus objetivos, assim como os meios empregados para sua realização.

Gender and Ethnic Diversity on Boards and Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Arts Sector

This study provides insights on sector-specific characteristics, challenges and issues that affect corporate responsibility (CR) in relation to ethnicity and gender on arts boards. Using stakeholder theory, the study explores how arts board composition (e.g. gender and ethnicity) sets the scene for dynamics that affect CR. Data analysis is based on interviews with 92 board members and stakeholders sitting on 66 arts boards in Australia. Results suggest that the dynamism of gender and ethnic diversity on arts boards makes them responsive to CR; however, their presence does not always lead to CR. For diverse boards to lead to CR, our findings indicate the significance of board member attributes of passion, skill and capability of developing networks, irrespective of gender and ethnicity. The article advances understanding of the implications and relevance of ethnic and gender diversity on non-profit boards and contributes to an important yet under-researched body of literature.

Theatre for social change: Collective Encounters on rediscovering the radical

Abstract This article will describe Collective Encounters’ participatory practice and situate it within the field of Theatre for Social Change (TFSC). It will argue that in the current political climate TFSC can be a useful tool of opposition. The article will chart the company’s radicalization and call for a repoliticization of the participatory arts sector. It will explore how theatre can contribute to social justice in the context of austerity, how it can challenge the ubiquitous neo-liberal narrative, and what kinds of participatory arts practices might aid the global movement for radical change. Collective Encounters is a professional arts organization specializing in TFSC. The company is based in north Liverpool, an area of extreme disadvantage, ranked among the top ten in England’s Indices of Multiple Deprivation (DCMS 2011). It works with diverse marginalized communities both here and in the wider North West: many participants are casualties of the prevailing system and feel the direct impact of benefit cuts and the shrinking of the state. Collective Encounters is a small charity employing seven staff members and additional freelance artists as required. It is governed by a board of directors and has a formal legal company structure. The company provides all its work free at the point of use, and thus is dependent on public funding as well as on grants from trusts and foundations. Since 2004, Collective Encounters has maintained three strands to its work: a participatory programme, a professional theatre programme and a research lab. The company is driven by a research imperative to explore ways in which theatre can contribute to the world-wide ‘multitude of opposition’1, working towards greater social justice and against global corporate capitalism’ (Thornton 2015: 2). Over the past five years it has shifted from a liberal to a radical change agenda, and has conducted academic, practical and sectoral research in order to understand and define its field. It has thus identified TFSC as a discernable set of practices by drawing out five key characteristics: intentionality, community, hyphenation, conscientization and aesthetics. While individually they are not unique to TFSC, taken together they frame the field; they are the driving forces behind Collective Encounters thinking and provoke the ethical dilemmas with which the company grapples. They provide an interesting lens through which to view participatory arts practice within the current social and political climate.

Educating artists in management – An analysis of art education programmes in DACH region

AbstractLabour force in the art sector is characterised by high qualification, but low income for those people who perform the core contribution in art, i.e. the artists. As artists are typically self-dependent in managing their business, they should have managerial skills besides those skills necessary to perform their artistic core activities. If the lack of managerial skills is a reason why artists fail to make a living from their talent, then this chain of cause and effect could be ruptured by adequate educational opportunities. This paper analyses the curricula of a wide range of institutions offering art education programmes and identifies their managerial learning content. In doing so, we focused on German-speaking countries, the so-called DACH region (i.e. Germany, Austria and Switzerland, whereas D, A and CH are country codes). We identified and analysed 159 course syllabi of 81 art universities, schools and academies. The results of our study indicate a lack of managerial learning contents: a va...

Cultural policy in France’s overseas: permanence of colonial logics and the potential for creole resistance

France's overseas territories have received greater political autonomy these past three decades. In the Arts sector, the centralised government as well as local governments have developed many cultural policies. Yet, a close examination, through postcolonial lenses, reveals that these policies are imbued with a colonial logic and that colonial patterns are being maintained. These policies hide and deny processes of creolisation that represent a potential for resistance and emancipation.

METHODS OF MANIPULATION: PROPAGANDA, ETHNICITY AND REPRESENTATION IN VIETNAMESE WATER PUPPETRY

Water puppetry has become an iconic representation of Vietnam, and Hanoi's Thăng Long Water Puppet Theatre is flourishing as part of the international tourist package. This article documents the radical modification in this theatre's performance themes in 2013 – from traditional to explicitly ethnicised – and subsequent reversion the following year. In exploring the possible role of state propaganda in these changes, and the government's mechanisms of influence over water puppetry, the politics of representation within Vietnam's art and performance sector are exposed.

From local to global: selling Belfast abroad

Once described as too parochial and lacking a clear sense of where it is headed, Belfast is now actively seeking to market its local culture at home as well as abroad. Responding to new world trends such as cultural and experiential tourism that gives emphasis to creating experiences, the City Council’s latest cultural strategy (2012-2015) reflects the Council’s commitment to promoting new ways of visiting and discovering Belfast, notably through site-specific arts projects. Focusing on the year 2012, which saw Belfast host a series of world-class events, this article examines how central culture and the arts have become to the city’s developmental strategy and its re-branding process as a cultural place with a distinct flavor. Drawing upon a host of recent artistic projects – occurring in a variety of contexts – this article examines the move towards the globalization of local culture and the internationalization of the arts sector and the consequences of this shift. It argues that while the inclusive dimension of some major urban development projects like the Titanic Quarter is questionable, the city’s endorsement of a model that places culture at the heart of the city’s rebranding process has led to a redefinition of what local culture stands for, opening up new avenues for arts organizations that wish to embrace the local as well as the global and explore all the possibilities the creative space offers including in the realm of conflict transformation, social inclusion and place-making.

The Problem of ‘Place’ and ‘Placeness’ in Site-Specific Theatre

Works that advocate site-specific theater are highly active in the recent Korean theater scene. Site-specific theater focuses on the historical, political and socio-cultural context of the location in which the performance is held and it shows interest in the ``now-present`` life that is conducted on a daily basis at the corresponding location, as well as issues on the features and identities of the community it is under. Therefore, site-specific theater sometimes shows socio-political criticism and participation, and sometimes act as critical commentary work for theaters in the existing system, while at other times, it is a formative experiment outside of the realm of traditional theatrical practices. But compared to such active practices, there is a relative lack of theoretical and critical work on site-specific theater. The reason why theoretical research is needed in Korea``s site-specific theater is because declarations by theater practitioners and producers or superficial newness alone cannot define it. This is because what may superficially look new may just be a rediscovery of forgotten theater or long traditions from a performing artist or theater history context. In particular, the challenge of performing arts against system and genre practices, socio-cultural criticism, political progressiveness, and dissolution of borders of life and theater that are represented in such work is similar to the 1960s theater experiments and particularly environmental theatre. Therefore, in order to accurately identify the meaning of site-specific theater, it is necessary to compare with environmental theatre and street theatre, which are previous works with similar mottos and formats. As site-specific theaters have been actively underway, there were also records and criticisms on individual theater. Critics first put attention on ``new expansion of space`` and ``active participation of audience`` among such work. But these are not features unique only to site-specific theater. What we must first pay attention to is not ``space`` but ``place`` that is the starting point of site-specific theater, and the meaning of ``placeness`` in performing arts. In site-specific theater, ``site`` is not just simply a space or environment. In site-specific theater, ``placeness``, or the uniqueness and exclusiveness of place and historical and social features of the site, are preemptive over all else and the contents and format of works also result from this. In site-specific theater, site is ``format`` and ``contents``, and the place itself is the ``storyteller``. Therefore, in order to properly understand the meaning of site-specific theater, which has rapidly been spreading in the performing arts world in the 21st century, we must examine the meaning of ``site`` in relation to medium-specificity of theater, which is both a site art and performing art. This study examines the meaning of site-specific theaters that have been performed recently in Korean theater focusing on issues of ``site`` and ``placeness``. For this, the concepts of ``space``, ``place`` and ``site`` must be arranged first. After examining the concepts discussed in a broad range in philosophical, sociological and geographic fields, their implications in the performing arts field will be examined. Also, the meaning of site-specificity in other art sectors will be summed up focusing on the arts sector that first practiced site-specific arts. Second, environmental theatre and street theatre that shows similar formative experiments with site-specific theater will be comparatively studied. Third, based on this, the question on what site is in today``s site-specific theater will be discussed focusing on Korea``s site-specific theater that has been showing progress through urban experience and personal experience projects. Through such studies, the features of site-specific theater that has becoming another trend in Korean theater in the 21st century, its contemporaneous meaning, and theater historical meaning will be put into order.

The transformative potential of the arts in mental health recovery – an Irish research project

Background: This article is based on the Arts+Minds research project which investigated the experience of arts participation for mental health service users in Cork, Ireland, and the potential of integrating the arts into mental health care. Methods: Based on the principle of user-controlled definitions of recovery, the voice of service users was central in this research. The authors used participatory observation methods and conducted qualitative interviews with project participants (service users, artists and mental health staff) to explore the impact of arts participation on service users and service structure and culture. Results: The research demonstrated the transformative potential of the arts to create environments conducive to recovery through empowerment, connection-making, confidence-building, hope, story-telling and story-making. Conclusions: Moving beyond the general agreement on the positive contribution of the arts in mental health care, this article highlights some of the challenges of introducing creative forms of engagement and expression in traditional biomedical settings. It is argued that a meaningful partnership between the arts sector and mental health services is not just a technical measure but requires a radical shift in the way we understand, respond to and engage with human distress.

The Arts Sector: A Marketing Definition

Until the late 1970s, research on the cultural sector was characterized by a descriptive phase during which researchers were focused on defining cultural organizations and drawing a sociodemographic profile of cultural consumers. It was discovered that cultural consumers could be divided into two main groups: on the one hand, more highly educated consumers interested in arts such as theater, classical music, and museums (highbrow art), and, on the other hand, consumers more interested in popular art forms (lowbrow art). By the end of this decade, a number of pioneers decided that the time had come to move beyond these descriptive efforts in order to address issues related to strategy, consumer behavior, andmarket segmentation (Andreason & Belk, 1980; DiMaggio et al., 1978; Ryan & Weinberg, 1978). The ensuing discussion highlighted the hedonic nature of the cultural product, the fact that it cannot be classified as a utilitarian product and the fact that, when it comes to high art, the marketing approach is more product oriented than market oriented (Hirschman, 1983; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). In the early 1990s, as more and more academics became interested in cultural marketing, the notion of highbrow/lowbrow art began to give way to the notion of the omnivore (Peterson, 1992), followed shortly thereafter by a reexamination of the product orientation versus the market orientation (Voss & Voss, 2000). Starting in the 2000s, articles dealing with the behavior of cultural consumers and strategic marketing began to diversify, expanding to cover the whole marketing field. Today, many of the leading journals have published articles on the marketing of culture and the arts.

La acreditación de las carreras artísticas de pregrado en Chile

The present study addresses accreditation processes for Chilean undergraduate programs in arts, in light of Law 20129 and based on the results of a study carried out in 2013 by the Chilean National Council of Education (CNED). To this aim, this study identifies a set of characteristics shared by the four accrediting agencies operating in the arts sector, especially those regarding to peer reviewers and accreditation councils. It also describes the general aspects of the 52 undergraduate programs in arts currently implemented in Chile. After the interpretation of the results, this study proposes improvement measures from the perspective of increasing thoroughness within these processes. Considering this is an area that is focused on the creation and/or reflection of arts projects, it is recommended that the corresponding accreditation agencies incorporate knowledge of other geographical and cultural regions within Chile, such as other universities, so as to widen their theoretical and epistemological perspectives on arts, thus ensuring greater objectivity and accuracy in the accreditation labor. This study also reviews the accreditation experiences of arts programs in other Latin American countries, as well as the analysis the Chilean National Council of Culture and the Arts (CNCA) carried out in 2011 on the subject.

Australian Indigenous ‘artists’ critical agency and the values of the art market

The recent integration of Australian Indigenous arts in the field of contemporary art is the fruit of a complex historical process deeply rooted in social and political relationships. The Aboriginal art market has grown exponentially over the last 40 years and the artwork has become an international icon of Australian identity. However, Aboriginal art has been, and to a certain extent, is still endangered by cheap imitations, fakes and the transgression of Indigenous artists’ rights and community protocols. These issues have been addressed by various inquiries and reports since the 1990s. Recently, a new paradigm has emerged from the scholarship produced by researchers, such as Howard Morphy, John Altman and others. These scholars conducted research on the community-controlled art centres and outlined in particular how they could be taken as business models. In their studies, the art centres are presented as inter-cultural institutions, which are both commercial and cultural enterprises in which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people are active agents. The expression ‘Aboriginal Art. It’s A White Thing’ of the awarded-painting Scientia E Metaphysica (Bell’s Theorem) by Richard Bell highlights another vision of the Aboriginal arts sector. Drawing on the debates generated by this prize-winning work, I will analyse how artworks and discourses surrounding these debates are entangled in a complex process of value creation.In this paper, I will first use Richard Bell’s theorem as an [...]

Managing Transition in an Artistic Company with Entrepreneurial Management: A Case Study of Groupe Bernard Loiseau

The important role of entrepreneurship in the dynamics of the arts sector and the influence of the leader’s personality make succession a key issue in creative industries. What happens to an artistic organization when its founder leaves? How does it evolve? Can it adopt a style of management that is compatible with the founder’s absence? This article focuses on the case of Groupe Bernard Loiseau, an iconic French company in the culinary arts whose owner and chef died suddenly. It sheds light on how the question of succession and that of style were addressed in this organization and how they are addressed in artistic organizations in general.

Barriers to inter-organisational collaboration amongst performing arts organisations in South Africa

There is significant financial pressure on the performing arts sector in South Africa. Demand for the performing arts sector needs to grow if this is to change. This requires inter-organisational collaboration. This study explores, through a grounded qualitative approach, the barriers to inter-organisational collaboration amongst performing arts organisations (PAOs) in South Africa, as seen through the experience of strategic leaders in the sector. These included views from commercial producers, theatres, festival and independent companies, and performing arts promoters. These organisations were professionally run with paid staff. The findings are then compared with the emerging literature in the field, conclusions drawn and recommendations made. Barriers identified include personal pride, artistic ideology, the survivalist reality, fragmented audiences and lack of support from government. The contextual complexity of South African post-apartheid society also acts as a barrier to collaboration. Ideas from the literature for overcoming these barriers are included. For practitioners, the problem of inter-organisational collaboration in the performing arts was identified. It appears as if inter-organisational collaboration (as a means of stimulating primary demand) is constrained when the financial pressures on a sector are so great as to push organisations into a corner. For academics, this study makes a contribution to the literature that is part of a broader relational and ‘shared-power’ turn in leadership studies, where collective action is increasingly required. The strong importance of contextual barriers confirms the call for an increased ‘field-level’ analysis.

Modeling the future of US arts policy: Beyond supply-side pump-priming

This commentary begins with an examination of how culture, including the arts, sports and religion typically operates from an anthropological perspective. The acquisition of cultural knowledge from socially transmitted sources leads to individual cultural expression (amateur practice), which in turn generates demand for the consumption of professionally produced cultural goods and services. Using this generic model of culture, the article then traces the evolution of the arts and arts policy in the USA beginning with baseline policies protecting free speech and intellectual property, and providing tax-exempt status to non-profit forms of artistic production. Tax exemption is shown to be a significant element in the early twentieth century when emerging elites and immigrant artists split away from the mainstream of the commercial arts sector to found a separate high arts sector. In the postwar period, the high arts sector is judged to be lagging in quality and in financial decline, factors that are cited to justify major new policies characterized as “supply-side pump-priming”. Beginning in the mid-1960s, these policies become widespread among federal, state and municipal governmental agencies and many non-governmental funders, and though the high arts grow in quality, output, and geographic distribution, they never achieve a breakthrough in attracting substantial non-elite audiences, which continue to patronize the vastly larger commercial arts. In light of recent trends of declining audiences and reduced contributed and earned income, the future of supply-side policies becomes questionable. A case is made that demand-side policies may offer a more democratic way forward for both arts and sports policies. In addition, reference is made to a new online arts policy simulation, entitled “Medici's Lever”, which provides a laboratory for testing alternative demand-side and supply-side policies.

Time-Space Flexibility and Work: Analyzing the “Anywhere and Anytime Office” in the Entertainment, New Media, and Arts Sector

The applied cultural analysis work presented in this article was conducted with independent professionals who work in a flexible time-space format – known as telework – for the entertainment, new media, and arts sector in the Los Angeles area. Most participants are associates of the production and post-production boutique “Studio Can” as well as the curatorial new media and arts nonprofit organization “PalMarte.” When working in a flexible time-space format, boundaries between leisure/family life and work at home, or personal and public realms, tend to become blurred. This blurred context involves a web of cultural complexity that exists behind the materialization of boundaries. Through empirical material, this article examines rhythms and mechanisms between flexibility and stability, unveiling a viscous consistency of everyday life. This work helps to better understand the relation between leisure/family life and work at home, as well as stability and change, to rethink these realms and how they relate to each other but also how they transform one another. Although culturally different, these realms are bridged through the material culture that surrounds them. As conveyors, objects (such as a heating pad) and activities culturally transport participants between realms. Research methods combined time-diaries, interviews, observation, visual ethnography, and autoethnography. While applying academic knowledge into a non-academic setting to rethink realms and how they relate and transform each other in a bridged relationship, this work is also an invitation to rethink the relationship between the realms of academia and non-academia.

Cultural Entrepreneurship: The Impact of Social Networking on Success

Because of the complex structures characteristic of the arts sector and creative industries, it is often thought that external network ties of leading managers are critical to the success of their cultural enterprises. Based on research into entrepreneurship and promoters' activity, this study examines the influence of social network relationships on the success of cultural establishments in Germany. The regression analysis of data from 121 private arts and culture ventures presented here clearly shows that founders as well as managers can overcome numerous barriers through their engagement and activity in social networks, and thereby exercise to a significant degree a positive influence on establishing their enterprise. As expected, this effect is even stronger in cases of low sponsorship of cultural activities on the part of cities and communities. Contrary to expectations, the positive effect of intensive networking activities is not increased by a high intensity of competition; it is worth noting that the effect is strongest in situations of low competitive pressure. The results of this study demonstrate that successful networking expertise, as postulated by research into promoters' activity, is of great importance for overcoming significant barriers in the cultural sector, but that its effectiveness also has limits.