Unequal entanglements: how arts practitioners reflect on the impact of intensifying economic inequality

Kristina Kolbe

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article discusses how arts practitioners reflect on their work amidst deepening economic inequality. Given the renewed interest in the social role of arts institutions under conditions of financialised neo-liberalism, the paper traces the complex ways in which economic imperatives figure in cultural practice. Drawing on interviews with UK-based gallery directors, museum curators, art consultants, and artists, I map out how austerity politics and intensifying privatisation processes have a profound impact on the workings of the sector, how they recalibrate dynamics between private and public artworlds, and how they shape processes of production and curation. My data specifically document how increasing economic precarity brings into relief structural inequalities of gender, race and (post)-colonial legacies already manifesting in the artworld. Rather than understanding austerity as a financial condition only, the paper thus presents an empirical exploration of the wider inequalities that it has exacerbated, from arts funding to institutions’ programming practices.

Keywords: art institutions; austerity; creative labour; cultural policy; inequality; museums; Marshall Institute (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2022-05-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-his and nep-hme
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Cultural Trends, 27, May, 2022, 31(3), pp. 257 - 272. ISSN: 0954-8963

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/111969/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:111969

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().