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1 – 10 of over 33000Elena Proietti and Michela Addis
Contemporary art organizations play a key role in driving cultural tourism, offering visitors memorable experiences. Among the segments of visitors, young adults represent a key…
Abstract
Contemporary art organizations play a key role in driving cultural tourism, offering visitors memorable experiences. Among the segments of visitors, young adults represent a key target because they are the most interested customers in contemporary arts and they represent 23% of the international travelers. Despite their relevance, little is known about their customer experiences in contemporary arts, and the resulting arts engagement. Although their contemporary arts experiences are expected to generate great benefits in terms of social, ethical, and economical values for the entire society, the relationship between young adults and contemporary arts is typically difficult to understand and, consequently, to facilitate. To address this issue, we run a complex qualitative research project. Distinguishing young adults between those who are familiar with contemporary arts and those who are not, we conduct four research projects by applying two qualitative techniques: the in-depth interview and the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (Z-Met). Further, we extend the in-depth interviews to the contemporary arts experts. In total, 70 consumers and 10 experts participate in the research project providing cognitive and emotional insights by exploring barriers and benefits of consumption in contemporary arts. Our findings show that arts engagement is the key concept, linked to three levels of consumer reactions – cognitive, emotional, and social responses – and that it is caused by three antecedents, namely – involvement, sharing, and comprehension. Implications for the actors in the world of contemporary arts and cultural tourism are discussed to obtain higher levels of arts engagement among young adults, and, consequently, their attractiveness.
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The purpose of this paper is to assess the recent emergence of contemporary art in Asia from a macro, sociocultural perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the recent emergence of contemporary art in Asia from a macro, sociocultural perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This commentary is based on secondary research and recent visits to contemporary art centres in major cities across Asia.
Findings
The author argues that contemporary art in Asia emerges by extension of the Western contemporary art world and suggests that more must be done if Asia is to create a contemporary art world that is both internationally recognised and distinct from its Western precedent.
Originality/value
This commentary debunks the hyperbole surrounding contemporary art in Asia as a regional phenomenon and provides a critical examination of the global (power) dynamics at play.
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Brian Jones and Shirley Beresford
This paper aims to look at the nature of the relationship between the marketing of the contemporary visual arts, cultural tourism and city and urban regeneration. This exploratory…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to look at the nature of the relationship between the marketing of the contemporary visual arts, cultural tourism and city and urban regeneration. This exploratory study of the marketing of the contemporary visual arts in Leeds has, as its background narrative, the emergence of BritArt.
Design/methodology/approach
The growth of contemporary visual arts provides the context for a case study of the Northern Art Prize, which was first awarded in 2007.
Findings
The study found a number of factors for success that can aid urban renewal and city regeneration. Private sector marketing expertise levered into the management of the project was one critical success factor. Another was that private sector funding freed up marketers and artists and allowed risk-taking. Participants highlighted a lack of vision for the contemporary visual arts in the city and region and a strong desire for new collaborative working and new governance structures for the delivery of arts marketing and cultural tourism.
Originality/value
The Northern Art Prize offers much for the marketing of contemporary visual arts, cultural tourism, city branding and urban renewal. Investing in and marketing of the arts is argued to serve as a stimulus that can bring a range of benefits for the business and wider community. Marketing, especially arts marketing, can help deliver social, economic and urban regeneration.
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The process of commercialization of art is often referred to as “monetization,” denoting the use of art as an investment class. I discuss the reverse mechanism, defined as…
Abstract
The process of commercialization of art is often referred to as “monetization,” denoting the use of art as an investment class. I discuss the reverse mechanism, defined as “Monet-ization,” where investment is overlaid with artistic value, and unproven art is imbued with aesthetic qualities. This mechanism is derived from a historical overview of key periods in the history of art, such as the flourishing of new genres in early 17th century Dutch art and the rise of Modern art in the early 20th century. An analysis of original data on the leading art collectors in the world in the period 1990–2015 highlights the tendency for collectors with an “investor” profile and eclectic taste to buy contemporary art. Combining artworks from diverse periods and styles, eclectic personal collections contribute to the conversion of economic into aesthetic value by way of spill-overs across genres and to the attribution by association of “old” value to “new” art. The “Monet-ization” process helps elucidate how paradigm shifts occur in the art world and how innovation survives under conditions of insufficient demand.
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This paper focuses on the relationships that consumers develop with experiential objects in the context of the Biennale of Contemporary Art Exhibition, viewed from a dialogical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper focuses on the relationships that consumers develop with experiential objects in the context of the Biennale of Contemporary Art Exhibition, viewed from a dialogical and intersubjective approach. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the interpersonal relationships that visitors of the Biennale establish with contemporary artworks and to understand the characteristics of these relationships as well as their role in shaping Biennale visitors’ identity narratives.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs an instrumental case study that draws on multiple data sources and examines consumers’ relationships with contemporary artworks.
Findings
The case study evidence introduces the relationships that emerged from Biennale visitors’ interactions with contemporary artworks and the identity narratives evolving from these relationships. The findings suggest that Biennale visitors’ relationships with the contemporary artworks take the form of I-thou and I-it relationships. These two modes of interpersonal relationships by entailing different characteristics led investigated visitors to live different types of experiences of contemporary art consumption.
Research limitations/implications
The first limitation of this research is that it focuses on the establishment of interpersonal relationships at the microgenetic level. Further research can provide additional insights by conducting a longitudinal case study. The second limitation is that it provides limited insights into the relationships that are revealed by consumers’ experiences with possessive objects. Future research may examine interpersonal relationships in terms of consumers’ relationships with their brands.
Practical implications
The understanding of visitors’ interactions and relationships with contemporary artworks provides insights into curatorial and marketing practices for such art institutions.
Originality/value
The findings of the current research provide new theoretical insights into the interpersonal relationships that consumers develop with experiential objects and into the distinctive identity narratives that evolve from the establishment of different types of interpersonal relationships.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the branding of the Cynical Realist and Political Pop contemporary art movements in China. The trajectory this brand has taken over the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the branding of the Cynical Realist and Political Pop contemporary art movements in China. The trajectory this brand has taken over the past 25 years reveals some of the power discourses that operate within the international visual arts market and how these are constructed, distributed and consumed.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of avant-garde art in China and its dissemination is undertaken through analysis of historical data and ethnographic data collected in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Findings
The analysis exposes the ideological framework within which the art market operates and how this affects the art that is produced within it. In the case of Cynical Realism and Political Pop, the art was framed and packaged by the art world to reflect Western liberal political thinking in terms of personal expression thereby implicitly justifying Western democratic, capitalist values.
Research limitations/implications
As an exploratory study, findings contribute to macro-marketing research by demonstrating how certain sociopolitical ideas develop and become naturalised through branding discourses in a market system.
Practical implications
A socio-cultural branding approach to the art market provides a macro-perspective in terms of the limitations and barriers for artists in taking their work to market.
Originality/value
While there have been various studies of branding in the art market, this study reveals the power discourses at work in the contemporary visual arts market in terms of the work that is promoted as “hot” by the art world. Branding here is shown to reflect politics by circulating and promoting certain sociocultural and political ideas.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the influence that globalization has had on the development of the contemporary Japanese art production. The study also aims…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the influence that globalization has had on the development of the contemporary Japanese art production. The study also aims to expand the global narrative of Japanese art by introducing concepts behind festivals for revitalization that have been occurring in Japan in recent years.
Design/methodology/approach
Guided by Culture Theorist Nira Yuval-Davies’ approach to the politics of belonging, the paper is situated within cultural studies and considers the development of contemporary art in Japan in relation to the power structures present within the global art market. This analysis draws heavily from the research of art historians Reiko Tomii, Adrian Favell, and Gennifer Weisenfeld, and is complemented by investigative research into the life of Art Director Kitagawa Fram, as well as observational analyses formed by on-site study of the Setouchi Triennale in 2015 and 2016.
Findings
The paper provides historical insight to the ways that the politics of belonging to the western world has created a limited benchmark for critical discussion about contemporary Japanese art. It suggests that festivals for revitalization in Japan not only are a good source of diversification, but also evidences criticism therein.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the brevity of this text, readers are encouraged to further investigate the source material for more in-depth understanding of the topics.
Practical implications
The paper implies that art historiography should take a multilateral approach to avoid a western hegemony in the field.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills a need to reflect on the limited global reception to Japanese art, while also identifying one movement that art historians and theorists may take into account in the future when considering a Japanese art discourse.
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Ryszard Kłeczek and Monika Hajdas
This study aims to investigate how art events can enrich novice visitors by transforming their practices.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how art events can enrich novice visitors by transforming their practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses an interpretive case study of the art exhibition “1/1/1/1/1” in the Oppenheim gallery in Wroclaw. It draws on multiple sources of evidence, namely, novice visitors’ interviews, observation including photo studies and content analysis of art-makers’ mediation sources. This study is an example of contextual theorizing from case studies and participatory action research with researchers as change agents.
Findings
The evidence highlights that aesthetic values and experiences are contextual to practices and are transformable into other values. The findings illustrate the role of practice theory in studying how art-makers inspire the transformation of practices, including values driving the latter.
Research limitations/implications
The findings provide implications for transformations of co-creating contextual values in contemporary visual art consumption and customer experience management.
Practical implications
Practical implications to arts organizations are also provided regarding cultural mediation conducted by art-makers. Exhibition makers should explain the meanings of the particularly visible artefacts to allow visitors to develop a congruent understanding of the meanings. The explanations should not provide ready answers or solutions to the problem art-makers suggest to rethink.
Social implications
The social implication of our findings is that stakeholders in artistic ventures may undertake adequate, qualified and convergent actions to maintain or transform the defined interactive practices between them in co-creating contextual aesthetic values.
Originality/value
The study provides new insights into co-creating values in practices in the domain of contemporary art exhibitions by bringing the practice theory together with an audience enrichment category, thus illustrating how novice visitors get enriched by transforming their practices led by contextual values of “liking” and “understanding”.
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Sarah Mead and Cheryl R. Ellerbrock
The purpose of this paper is to highlight how one high school psychology teacher helped students explore the concept of identity exploration and express their own personal…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight how one high school psychology teacher helped students explore the concept of identity exploration and express their own personal identity through the use of contemporary art in a high school psychology course.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, techniques one high school teacher used for utilizing the visual arts to teach identity exploration in a high school psychology course are shared, including student discussion surrounding the visual analysis of contemporary artwork, thoughtful student application of developmental theories and the student production of original artwork to express one’s identity.
Findings
Students participating in the lesson engaged enthusiastically in the discussion of the use of selfies in contemporary art and demonstrated thoughtful reflection in the creation of their own selfies.
Research limitations/implications
Future research is needed to systematically investigate the effectiveness of incorporating contemporary art as a means of teaching identity exploration to adolescents as part of a high school psychology curriculum.
Practical implications
Adolescent exploration is a key feature of the adolescent experience and is part of the psychology curriculum at the high school level. Such courses afford students the unique opportunity to apply developmental theories and theories of identity exploration to recent occurrences in their lives. One possibility for teaching identity exploration is through the visual arts.
Originality/value
This lesson advances psychology instruction through the purposeful scaffolding of identity exploration as both content and process using contemporary art.
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Victoria L. Rodner and Elaine Thomson
This paper aims to deconstruct the validation process for contemporary art with a fresh take on the components and terminology of this process, here referred to as the art machine.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to deconstruct the validation process for contemporary art with a fresh take on the components and terminology of this process, here referred to as the art machine.
Design/methodology/approach
Existing literature is analysed and key theoretical aspects combined to support the theory that an art machine exists that may process contemporary art for legitimation, sustainability and market success.
Findings
Roles played by art professionals and institutions within what is pioneered in this paper as the art machine frequently overlap. Opportunities for success are maximised when and if artists, art schools, galleries, critics, auction houses, museums and collectors manage to work in unison towards the common goal of optimal symbolic and financial value for the contemporary art market.
Research limitations/implications
A clear and intelligible deconstruction of the art machine's interacting components should enable interested agents in both established and emerging art markets to better operate mechanisms towards short‐term marketing objectives and long‐term sustainability within the highly competitive and fluid art environment.
Originality/value
Existing literature recognises layered spheres of activity that may combine for success in an art market seeking increasing symbolic and financial value and sustainability. This article innovatively pictures the dynamic, interlocking mechanisms in this on‐going, one‐way process of turning inconspicuous raw materials into a valued end‐product: this is the art machine.
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