Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts

Editors’ Introduction to the Summer 2019 Issue

Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, Neville Vakharia — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ARTIVATE SPECIAL ISSUE

Susan Badger Booth — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Artivate’s Winter 2020 issue will highlight the role of arts entrepreneurship in Detroit. Artists, cultural organizations, and creative entrepreneurs have been critical to Detroit’s recovery from bankruptcy. The highly publicized rescue of the Detroit Institute of Art as part of the “Grand Bargain” is but one example of entrepreneurial work that has built up the city’s creative infrastructure in support of a vital city. Featured essays will be focused on, but not limited to workforce development, repurposed buildings, innovations to the city’s arts education programs, and creative placemaking.

Deadline Extended: December 15, 2019

Measuring Art Markets

Jeffrey Taylor, Mayela Cardenas, Stephanie Edwards — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The art market represents a sector of economic activity that is highly entrepreneurial and comprised of many small businesses and individuals. Since the bulk of production and sales takes place through these micro-enterprises, there are numerous problems present for the researcher seeking to measure it. Unlike the nonprofit sector of the visual arts, the for-profit art market mostly has no public reporting requirements. The art market’s activity remains largely opaque as it is difficult to gather an accurate field representation or total measurements from such a large number of small enterprises. This paper represents the first stage in the development of new tools for the measuring of the art market by making use of US government data derived from tax and labor statistics, and by measuring the Colorado art market for the year 2017. The data in this paper is used to illustrate the connection between arts and entrepreneurship and how this sector serves to support the wider Colorado economy. It also establishes the methodology for measuring the entire US art market for the year 2018. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Research: Art Works grant will fund the report and release it in early 2020.

Art and Blockchain

Amy Whitaker — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Blockchain technology, while commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, stands to bring radical structural change to the arts and creative industries. This paper presents a history, primer, and taxonomy of blockchain use cases in the arts and then explores the implications of blockchain in three regards: the blurring of the for-profit / nonprofit distinction, changes in the ownership structure of art, and potential for new structures of public and private support and related policy changes. These developments raise important questions of governance of a technology which requires expertise in cryptography, coding, and securities law for implementation. Ultimately, blockchain holds the potential to tip the role of the arts toward democratic availability through collective ownership structures or toward further commodification of cultural assets.

A Theory of Arts Entrepreneurship as Organizational Attack

Jason C. White — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Arguably, both success and failure in arts entrepreneurship do not depend upon one’s own ability to employ themselves or create a business. Given that the academic field of arts entrepreneurship is still emerging, it is not surprising that arts entrepreneurship theory is underdeveloped. While a theory of arts entrepreneurship could help answer the recurring question (i.e., What is arts entrepreneurship?), without a theory supported by evidence, what arts entrepreneurship “is” may be based on individual subjectivity, discipline-based bias, and untested assumptions. To address this gap in the arts entrepreneurship literature, I propose a theory of arts entrepreneurship evidenced by repeated observations that are verifiable via case study experiences.

Artmaking as Entrepreneurship

Adrienne Callander — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this article, I assess how the improvisational and collective models of organizing known as effectuation (Sarasvathy 2001) and emancipation (Rindova, Barry and Ketchen 2009) apply to the making of socially engaged artwork. This case study focuses on the entrepreneurial nature of art-making exemplified by FOOD (1971), a collaborative work initiated by Gordon Matta-Clark and Carol Goodden and made possible by a host of co-creators throughout its three-year run. This article explores the motives and means that generated this work and argues that under certain conditions, an artwork functions in distinctly entrepreneurial ways. I also argue that the case of FOOD demonstrates how entrepreneurship can be central to artwork formation. Specifically, the processes involved in structuring a socially engaged artwork rely on the effectual principles of affordable loss, strategic alliance, exploitation of contingencies, and control of an unpredictable future, as well as the emancipatory principles of seeking autonomy, authoring, and making declarations. This article also introduces the term “artwork formation” to tether effectuation and emancipation to the continuous formation of socially engaged artwork. By recognizing the entrepreneurial process as an aspect of socially engaged art-making, I seek to invite discussion on the connection between artistic production and entrepreneurship and to support the validity of entrepreneurship in creative pedagogy and practice.

Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain

Marc Mitchell — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Book Review