Ethical behaviour: the means for creating and maintaining better reputations in arts organisations

Arts organisations, unsure of the level of continued government funding available and confronted with the need ever to improve, are seeking new ideas upon which they can focus. At a time when leadership and governance in arts organisations have changed in line with cultural expectations, how is their ethical stance assessed? How does their ethical stance impact on reputation? The challenge to build a good reputation starts at the top of the organisation; however, traditionally, one type of arts organisation, art museums, has focused on the activities level. In an age of globalisation, economic restructuring and technological change, museums therefore may be seen as a contradiction. Traditionally seen as temples for the muses, today’s museums are being challenged to be ethical for society and to build their reputation. As a solution, proposes a cooperative model of cultural organisational ethics that attempts to provide a framework by which arts organisations can put in place ethical artefacts that enhance organisational reputation, rather than detract from it.

What does it meme? The exegesis as valorisation and validation of creative arts research

This paper will draw on Richard Dawkin's idea of the 'meme' to discuss how the creative arts exegesis can operate as valorisation and validation of creative arts research. According to Dawkins, the rate and fecundity of replication permits an artefact to achieve recognition and stability as a meme within a culture. The value and application of traditional forms of research is underpinned by a secondary order of production, publication, that establishes visibility of the work and articulates its empirical processes and findings as sources of social benefit and cultural enhancement.

In the arts, conventional modes of valorisation such as the gallery system, reviews and criticism focus on the artistic product and hence, lack sustained engagement with the creative processes as models of research. Such engagement is necessary to articulate and validate studio practices as modes of enquiry.

A crucial question to initiate this engagement is: 'What did the studio process reveal that could not have been revealed by any other mode of enquiry?'

Re-versioning of the studio process and its significant moments through the exegesis locates the work within the broader field of practice and theory. It is also part of the replication process that establishes the creative arts as a stable research discipline, able to withstand peer and wider assessment. The exegesis is a primary means of realising creative arts research as 'meme'.

The politics of exclusion: political censorship and the arts-as-industry paradigm

In Australia from 1992 to 1999 Jeff Kennett led the Liberal state government in Victoria. Under his leadership an important vision statement for the arts was produced, and ambitious redevelopments of Victoria’s major cultural institutions were undertaken. Kennett’s ‘vision’ included reforms to Arts Victoria (the state-based arts funding agency) and a radical revision of how the arts were to be subsidised. This represented a wholesale adoption of a new policy approach which saw the arts and culture as an industry which could benefit, in particular, the development of cultural tourism for the state of Victoria. This paper argues that while the arts could be seen to have benefited from the Kennett government’s largesse, some parts of the arts sector were excluded and subjected to censorship. Based on both primary and secondary sources, we argue that in this period, the work of artists which expressed a politically dissenting view was actively discouraged.

Entrepreneurship, marketing and leadership in non-profit performing arts organisations

This paper argues that the entrepreneurial leader in non-profit PAOs has received too little attention in literature pertaining to these organisations. This criticism also applies to museums. The paper explores how leaders in non-profit performing arts organisations balance the interests of the various funding sources and market opportunities to service their revenue requirements. It reviews a tension in non-profit performing arts organisations: the relationship between limited funding and the subsequent need to act entrepreneurially and innovatively among the various funding sources. Using longitudinal analysis of annual reports, the paper uncovers interplay essential to entrepreneurship. Hence, strategies and tensions are highlighted that non-profit leaders have used. Comparisons are made with non-profit art museums which previous research has shown have the same funding tensions.

The role of arts education in advancing leadership life skills for young people

This paper contends that the arts provide a foundation for the intensifying effort that leadership, creative aptitude and expertise are making to existing and emerging professions. Participation in arts-based (school and/or community) programs 'have proven to be educational, developmentally rich, and cost-effective ways to provide students the skills they need to be productive participants in today's economy' (Psilos, 2002, p. 2). In particular, this paper explores the relationship between leadership development in young people through their engagement with arts education experiences, specifically the capacity of the arts to develop the generic skills of communication, team work, problem-solving and creative interpretation-skills considered essential for productive participation in today's economy and skills that augment leadership potential.

Cultural sustainability of the arts through cross cultural market segmentation

The cultural characteristics attributed to individuals in their country of birth are likely to change through immigration and acculturation processes taking place in the host country. Immigrants are likely to develop their own unique cultural styles through a blending of their old culture and the host culture. With slightly less than half of the population born overseas or with at least one parent born overseas, and with some 200 languages Australia has one of the most cosmopolitan populations in the world, with a relatively small population of 20 million. This paper considers the cross cultural nature of the Australian population and the sustainability of culture through the Arts. This paper also considers the marketing of the arts from a cross cultural segmentation perspective. In so doing the paper identifies segmentation issues associated with cross cultural segmentation.

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.