The Changing Business of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art: Markets,Audiences, Artists,and the Large Art Fairs

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the relationship between the growth of large Australian Aboriginal art fairs and shifts in the fine art market and state policies; audience and art insiders' experiences; and the implications of art fair participation for artists and art centers. In contrast to the traditional gallery model, the art fairs draw buyers and artists together in regional centers, along with families, managers, curators, commentators, administrators, and politicians. Using the assemblages concept, we analyze the emergence of a new engagement that prioritizes social, cultural, and interpersonal aspects of art making and where buyers consume “relational goods” linked to their purchasing context.     

The Value of Art and Culture in Everyday Life: Towards an Expressive Cultural Democracy

ABSTRACT

Ever since the earliest forms of mass media, the dichotomy of mass culture/high culture has been a topic of debate. The concept of cultural democracy has developed as a way to acknowledge a variety of cultural activities. Despite attempts to develop a broader understanding of culture, cultural policy still seems to reproduce the dichotomies, and to value one over the other. In this article, we would argue for an expanded understanding of cultural democracy, which may serve as a starting point for a turn of perspective of arts advocacy and cultural policy—the perspective we call an expressive cultural democracy.     

Making the Case: Using a Living and Historic Cultural Universe Big Data System as a Knowledge-Based Foundation for Sustaining and Recapitalizing the Cultural Sector

The cultural sector needs information to support recapitalization efforts. However the majority of existing studies all point to a knowledge gap within the sector: how to evaluate the amount of capital that can be raised. Through big data, we now have the ability to understand the “universe” of support to the cultural sector. In a test employing over two million data cells from 2007 onward for cultural organizations in Charlotte, North Carolina, the author has found evident patterns and predictors for sector support as a foundation for recapitalization, making the case for big data.