The productivity of performing art organisations versus labor costs

Motivation: The study of the problem of “cost disease” contributes to the possibility of creating a model for effective subsidy to cultural institutions operating in the field of performing arts from public funds. The study also forms a part of a broader reflection on the values of culture, the humanism of culture and the economy in general. Aim: This article is to examine the connection between productivity and labor costs in public theatres in Poland. We investigate what the level of productivity depends on. We check whether it is based on costs or the so-called income gap or another factor. We verify whether costs in PAOs in Poland increase according to the theory of Baumol’s cost disease and whether labor costs are particularly significant in total costs. Results: Labor costs should be taken into account when subsidizing performing art organizations, as productivity growth depends on having funds to cover labor costs and increasing employment.

Audience Development of an Art Organization in Terms of Relationship Marketing

The article conceptualizes the audience of art organization, introduces the main art organization audience’s groups and analyzes the concept of relationship marketing in the context of art organizations. Relationship marketing tools are identified as an important instrumentality in order to develop and maintain networks between interested parties (various audience groups). The art industry is perceived as a medium for the implementation of relationship marketing. The theoretical platform model that is developed by art industry organizations is revealed as a universal and widely applicable tool among the biennials of contemporary art. The analysis of academic discourse presents the key groups of relationship marketing as well as dimensions which allows to evaluate the success of maintained networks. Following the features of public sector institutions a noticeable aspect in building relationships is the pursuit of economical benefit. Despite the economical benefits, interested audience groups of art organization are seeking of social benefits. At this point, the main relationship marketing dimensions – trust, commitment, satisfaction – are considered as a valuable measurement of the created platform network that reveals quality. It is concluded that arts organizations use appropriate relationship marketing tools to identify, establish, and maintain long-term relationships with their audience, for which the arts organizations provide additional organizational resources related to communication. The article presents an empirical study of the marketing relations of the biennial from research conducted in 2019 about the development of the biennial of contemporary art as an art platform where relationship marketing, as well as the main art organization audience groups, were presented. Case studies of the biennials of the contemporary art biennales Kaunas Biennial and EVA International were carried out. A qualitative study was chosen in order to empirically test the functioning of the theoretical model of the biennial as an art platform in terms of relationship marketing. Research data were collected using a qualitative (structured-standardized interview) research method. Following the analysis of the scientific literature and the empirical research data, guidelines for the development of an art organizations in terms of audience development were created.

Space Making as Artistic Practice: The Relationship between Grassroots Art Organizations and the Political Economy of Urban Development

Standard narratives on the relationship between art and urban development detail art networks as connected to sources of dominant economic, social, and cultural capital and complicit in gentrification trends. This research challenges the conventional model by investigating the relationship between grassroots art spaces, tied to marginal and local groups, and the political economy of development in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen. Using mixed methods, I investigate Do–It–Yourself and Latinx artists to understand the construction and goals of grassroots art organizations. Through their engagements with cultural representations, space and time, grassroots artists represent and amplify the interests of marginal actors. By allying with residents, community organizations and other art spaces, grassroots artists form a social movement to redefine the goals and usages of urban space. My findings indicate that heterogeneous art networks exist and grassroots art networks can influence urban space in opposition to top–down development.

FINANCE MANAGEMENT IN ARTS ORGANIZATIONS IN BULGARIA

Arts organizations are a major factor in the Bulgarian economic. Good management of Art organizations is also associated with good financial management and control in order to achieve their goals and objectives. The delegated budgets, the small scale of most of the Arts organizations, are a prerequisite for saving money or imposing the appointment of a financial controller. The lack of such a specialist in turn leads to poor control, inefficient spending of funds, violations and failure to verify costs, which can sometimes lead to bankruptcy. The objective of the report is two-sided - on the one hand, preventing the repetition of mistakes perceived as unsuccessful practices and, on the other hand, emphasizing the place and role of controlling the financial execution of a project and its importance for optimizing the effectiveness of the implementation as well as in the overall activity of Art organizations.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Access to finance for the creative industries can be difficult, mainly due to the intangible nature of their assets and collateral, the limited scale of the market, the uncertainty of demand and the lack of expertise on the part of financial intermediaries, taking into account the specificities of the creative industry. Every organization should know the "life cycle of the project". It represents a sequence of phases (stages) in the development of the project from its beginning to its end. Splitting the phase design allows for better and more efficient implementation and management. The aim of this article is to analyze, through in-depth analysis, the difficulties associated with the development, implementation and management of projects by the creative industries. These gaps in the skills of art managers were found after a survey based on an in-depth interview in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. This article reflects the results of the empirical study. The survey was conducted among 105 organizations and their managers working in the field of creative and recreational industries and identified gaps in project management, resource management, people, and risk assessment. Risk management is an element of the financial management of any organization, including art organizations. Good risk management is a guarantee for success and the achievement of the goals of art organizations. The environment in which the art develops is dynamic, provocative, and it requires an up-to-date risk assessment, which in turn is a requirement for knowing the stages, methods and mechanisms of risk reduction to dimensions that will give reasonable assurance to the organization's art management that the goals will be achieved.

Cultural policy and participatory art practices in Flanders

Purpose In Flanders, the subventions in the cultural sector are mainly divided and decided upon within the framework of the Arts Decree. Within this policy framework, art organizations may choose in their funding applications for “participation” as one of the five possible functions to describe their artistic and cultural practices. However, questions need to be raised about the different interpretations of the notion of participation within this policy framework. The growing trend of evidence-based policy-making implies that participation risks to become a “target” that needs to be achieved instrumentally, which paradoxically ignores the fact that participatory practices within culture and the arts are very often diverse, multi-layered and context-specific practices. Starting from this paradox, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the current policy framework is translated into different “participatory” art practices by art organizations and specifically how cultural practitioners themselves conceptualize it. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors discuss the results of a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with cultural practitioners about how they grapple with the notion of participation within their organizations and practices. Findings The results clearly show that practitioners use micro-politics of resistance to deal with different, and often conflicting, conceptualizations of participation in relation to this cultural policy framework. Research limitations/implications The implications of the findings are vital for the discussion about cultural policy. These micro-politics of resistance do not only have an impact on the development of individual participatory art practices but also on the broader participatory arts landscape and on how the function of participation is perceived within the renewed policy framework. Originality/value The original contribution of this paper is to explore the perspective of practitioners in cultural organizations about the function of participation in the Arts Decree in Flanders and specifically how the notion of participation is operationalized in their practices in relation to this cultural policy framework.