How the Arts Work: A Practical Introduction to Cultural Economics

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• write insightful reviews of arts events
• demonstrate critical understanding of a range of professional arts practices
• make connections between academic theory and current professional practice in the areas of arts management and cultural policy
• help to generate audiences for arts events
• make realistic suggestions for future arts programming in and beyond Southampton
• make well informed choices about your future attendance at arts events

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• evaluate different sorts of evidence
• debate issues
• gather and analyse information

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• communicate in writing
• engage in constructive critical debate with others
• influence other people’s thinking [about the arts], and influence the way they choose to spend some of their leisure time
• complete structured writing of assignments
• manage your time effectively

Theory. The module provides a non-technical introduction to some of the key ideas in cultural economics. We will read Howard Becker (1982) and Richard E. Caves (2000) together– two classics – and explore Pierre Bourdieu’s highly influential thinking around the sociology of culture.

Practice. You will be expected to watch a series of specially-produced video conversations with artists and programmers who work in music, theatre and the visual arts. Arts experts share their knowledge: these conversations will be rich in information. You should make notes and do follow-up research in private study time.

Critical engagement. You will read a selection of professionally-written arts reviews and work to develop a critical vocabulary of your own, using it to describe and evaluate a selection of arts events, live and/or online. Where possible you will have the opportunity to attend events at the University’s John Hansard Gallery and/or Turner Sims concert hall. You will also explore the many cultural events now available online.

Political debate. Issues of inequality in the UK’s arts and cultural sector will be discussed in some of the video conversations. There will be preparatory and follow-up readings.

The present emergency. The impact of Covid-19 on arts organisations, on individual artists and on audiences is sure to be a running theme in the video conversations. UK government interventions designed to help artists through the crisis will be discussed as and when they happen.

Throughout the module you’ll get seminar support either face-to-face or online. You will have opportunities to discuss your written work with the module co-ordinator before handing it it.

Near the end of the semester you will submit a portfolio of written work for formal assessment. This should contain three or four reviews of arts events with which you have engaged (2,000-2,500 words, taken together), and one essay on an arts management or policy topic chosen from a list supplied (2,000-2,500 words).

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching will comprise a mix of delivery methods, such as lectures, seminars, workshops, individual tutorials We are aiming to deliver a significant amount of your teaching face to face, blended with online learning, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. In which case the delivery could comprise an increased element of online learning, or move to entirely online if face to face teaching is not possible or advisable.

In addition, teaching methods include specially produced video conversations with arts managers and other protagonists of the world of the arts.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Alexander, Victoria D. (2003). Sociology of the arts: exploring fine and popular forms. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Towse, Ruth (ed.) (2013). A handbook of cultural economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Abbing, Hans (2002). Why are artists poor? The exceptional economy of the arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Becker, Howard S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Caves, Richard E. (2000). Creative industries: contracts between art and commerce. Cambridge, MA: : Harvard University Press.

Frey, Bruno (2000). Arts & economics: analysis and cultural policy. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

English, James F. (2005). The economy of prestige: prizes, awards, and the circulation of cultural value. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Mokwa, Michael P., Dawson, William M. and Prieve, E. Arthur (eds) (1980). Marketing the arts. New York: Praeger Publishers.

Seabrook, John (2000). Nobrow: the culture of marketing, the marketing of culture. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Abbing, Hans (2006). From high art to new art. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Colbert, François et al. (2009). Marketing culture and the arts. Montréal: Presses HEG.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External