Valuing the arts : theorising and realising cultural capital in an Australian city

For those who make and admire artistic works, there is no question of their value. However, for others interested in economic development, the value of the arts is often more tangential, contested and questionable. While the post-modern world of consumption and spectacle suggests to some academics and governments that the arts and cultural industries are the way of the future, others remain sceptical about their social and economic value. This is a theoretical as well as a practical issue this paper explores by offering a reconceptualisation of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital as a way of re-assessing the value of the arts. The paper then applies this framework to quantify and qualify the value of the arts in one regional city in Australia – Geelong in Victoria – focusing on the work of two artists. The aim is to describe the interconnected processes by which the arts generate cultural capital in the form of confidence, image, individual well-being, social cohesion and economic viability. The analysis also highlights the ongoing power relations which prescribe artistic production, circulation and valuation. The implications of such a rethinking and application go well beyond one city and region to other places grappling with the relationship between artistic production and urban well being. By focusing on the broad-ranging process by which artistic value is created for individuals, groups, professionals, communities and governments, a model becomes available for other places to use in realising their cultural capital.

Turning Victoria into cultural capital: Victorian arts policy 1992-1999

Cultural developments in Victoria represent an example of the industry approach to the arts, which guides contemporary public cultural policy. This approach evolved many years back but it is clearly expressed in the Kennett government’s cultural policy document.

Three arguments against ‘soft innovation’: towards a richer understanding of cultural innovation

This paper critiques recent research on innovation in the cultural and creative industries. In particular, this paper examines Paul Stoneman’s idea of ‘soft innovation’ as a jumping off point for discussing theories of cultural innovation more broadly. Three critiques are advanced. Firstly, soft innovation is a theoretical perspective that has developed from neoclassical economics, and is therefore vulnerable to criticisms levelled at neoclassical explanations of economic behaviour. Secondly, the theory of soft innovation can be criticised for being contin- gently inaccurate: the observed reality of cultural industries and marketplaces may not reflect the theory’s premises. Thirdly, because soft innovation defines the significance of an innovation in terms of marketplace success, it implies that only high-selling cultural products are significant, a difficult claim to substantiate. This paper concludes by arguing that our understanding of innovation in the cultural sphere can benefit from a multi-disciplinary approach grounded in the full gamut of human creativity.

Australian cultural and innovation policies: never the twain shall meet?

 In recent years, Australian cultural policy-makers have begun to pay more attention to innovation policy. Several of the Australian states specifically address issues of innovation in their formal cultural policies, and the Australia Council for the Arts has published an Innovation Strategy which purports to constitute 'a coordinated approach to supporting creativity as one of Australia's most valuable assets' (Australia Council 2006).

However, despite this prima facie policy commitment to supporting and fostering innovation in the arts and cultural industries, there remains a disconnect between cultural and innovation policies in Australia. On the one hand, cultural policies in Australia are confused and incoherent in their approach to cultural innovation, and many policy settings as they apply to cultural industries are antithetical to the aims of fostering innovation and R&D. Meanwhile, innovation policies continue to pay only marginal attention to the creative arts and cultural industries. This disconnect will be briefly examined in three fields of cultural policy: arts and cultural funding; copyright and intellectual property policy; and broadcast media policy.

It is argued that rather than promoting innovation, existing policy frameworks in all three areas, when not specifically framed around the protection of vested interests, are often contradictory and inimical to the disruptive influence of innovative artists, technologies and firms. Possible reasons for the disconnect include pragmatic matters of busy ministers and low policy priorities, and conceptual confusion over the status and value of culture.

Growth in Cultural Participation in the City of Sydney: A Review for the City of Sydney

 Research Report commissioned by the City of Sydney

What is the value of the arts?

In an age of globalisation, economic restructuring and rampant consumption, the "cultural industries" have come to be viewed as offering a source of social and economic salvation to declining towns, cities and regions. However, it is far from clear to what extent the arts, media and related tourism create employment, wealth, capital and community cohesion. What then is the value of the cultural industries and what concepts can be deployed to answer this question? This paper will report on one effort to devise a theoretical framework to assess the value of the cultural industries in one small Australian city. Drawing on Marxism, Pierre Boudieu and post-modem theory, it will develop a particular concept of "cultural capital" for use in quantifying and qualifying the socio-economic contribution of the cultural industries in Geelong, Victoria. It will argue that by linking Marx to Bourdieu around reformulated notions of "value" and "cultural capital", a theoretically rigorous framework can be distilled to assess and argue for the value of the arts. Such a concept has particular relevance and implications for arts managers.

Queensland arts cuts: the real story

In the first part of an exclusive 3-part series, Ben Eltham exposes the machinations and implications of money and mates in Queensland's arts sector. Article investigates the behind-the-scenes policy decisions inside the Queensland government that resulted in significant funding cuts to small-to-medium cultural organsations in Queensland in late 2013.

Mates and majors: how the big fish survived

In October this year, the Queensland Government slashed funding to small-to-medium sized arts organisations. In part two of a three-part investigation, Ben Eltham asks why the smaller players were targeted, while the major institutions were protected.

The national fallout from Queensland's crisis

The entire national arts sector is facing worrying reverberations as a result of the massive cuts to small and medium arts organisations in Queensland. Part 3 of Ben Eltham's investigation into the Arts Queensland funding cuts of 2013.

Arts governance: people, passion, performance

Since the crisis in governance which led to a shortage of capable board members, recent years have seen the emergence of the enterprising arts organisation - a development which has led to the need for new types of board members who have a greater understanding of 'mission, money and merit' within a cultural construct. This innovative book explores the world of the arts board member from the unique perspective of the cultural and creative industries. Using a wide range of research techniques including interviews with board members and stakeholders, board observations and case studies this book provides a rich and deep analysis from inside the boardroom. It provides in-depth insight into the changing pressures on arts boards after the financial crisis, and focuses uniquely on the role of passion on arts boards. Part of the Routledge Research in Creative and Cultural Industries Management series, written specifically for people seeking to develop their careers in cultural and creative management, this book is also for people working in and with arts organisations, in government and non-profit arts organisations. It will also be of interest to academics and researchers working in the wider corporate governance field.

Creative arts practice, creative industries : method and process as cultural capital

The value of artistic research is related not only to the products of creative arts practices, but also to methodological, material and social processes through which they operate.

This paper argues that although creative arts research methods – the use of personally situated, interdisciplinary and emergent approaches – contradict what is usually expected of research, such approaches underpin the innovative capacity of studio enquiry and its implication for extending practice-led research pedagogy across all research disciplines.

Looking for cultural value: critiques of Australian cultural policy

This paper brings together critiques of contemporary Australian cultural policy from three sources: academic research, arts leaders and public intellectuals. It discusses the discursive shift in cultural policy towards an instrumentalist framework, and reviews academic research on this shift and its implications. It then looks at critiques of policy shifts by public intellectuals and leaders within the arts sector to identify parallels and persistent themes across academic scholarship and public thinking on cultural policy. In particular, it identifies and examines the theme of absence of a place for cultural value and production in policy-making and looks at arguments that call for a reinstatement of policy driven by cultural value.

The development of cultural entrepreneurs through new venture cases in the business classroom

Artists and workers in the creative industries who embody the essence of creativity are thwart by economic values in delivering their art work or creative concept to consumers. This is particularly evident for students in courses in creative industries who graduate with entrepreneurial aspirations, but not the means to pitch their creative concept or build the business model for the new venture. This paper analyses a university business course developed to take cultural entrepreneurs through venture building as a live case in the creative economy.

The development of cultural entrepreneurs through new venture cases in the business classroom

Artists and workers in the creative industries who embody the essence of creativity are thwart by economic values in delivering their art work or creative concept to consumers. This is particularly evident for students in courses in creative industries who graduate with entrepreneurial aspirations, but not the means to pitch their creative concept or build the business model for the new venture. This paper analyses a university business course developed to take cultural entrepreneurs through venture building as a live case in the creative economy.