3. Why Care About the Arts?
• Aesthetics: The arts create beauty and preserve it as part of culture
• Creativity: The arts encourage creativity, a critical skill in a dynamic
world
• Expression: Artistic work lets us communicate our interests and visions
• Identity: Arts goods, services, and experiences help define our culture
• Innovation: The arts are sources of new ideas, futures, concepts, and
connections
• Preservation: Arts and culture keep our collective memories intact
• Prosperity: The arts create jobs and enhance economic health
• Skills: Arts aptitudes and techniques are needed in all sectors of society
and work
• Social Capital: We enjoy the arts together, across races, generations, and
places
Source: Americans for the Arts
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4. Art World Ecology
• Capacity—artists, organizations, employment
• Arts Participation—consumption of arts activities,
attendance, experiences
• Competitiveness—the position of the arts compared to
other sectors—market share, how the arts compete for
philanthropy, discretionary spending
• Financial Flows—philanthropy, artist income, business
revenue—payments for artistic services
Source: Americans for the Arts
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6. Case Study: LA MoCA
“In case you missed it, MoCA’s in the news again. Board
member and philanthropist Eli Broad has missed the last two
payments of his promised $30 million…now LACMA is
proposing a merger…follows…hiring Jeffrey Deitch as the
museum’s head to the firing (or dismissal) of MoCA head
curator Paul Schimmel…”
3/14/2013, ArtFCity blog.
(http://www.artfcity.com/2013/03/14/the-moca-scandal-
index-a-z/)
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8. The “Art Market”
“How big is the global art market? A new report from The European Fine Art
Foundation (TEFAF), released in conjunction with the current TEFAF Maastricht art fair, Mar.
16-25, 2012, sets the total size of the global art market at €46.1 billion, or about $60.8 billion
(€1 = $1.32) for 2011. According to economist Clare McAndrew, who conducted the
study, the €46.1 billion figure includes both public auction data, which was supplied by our
very own Artnet Database, and an estimate of art gallery and private art dealer sales, which
is based on polls of over 6,500 dealers around the world as well as interviews with a
somewhat smaller number.
By way of comparison, the art market total is just about one-twelfth of the U.S. military
budget for 2011, which was $739.3 billion, according to the Institute for Strategic Studies.
In McAndrew’s estimation, the $60.8 billion is about equally split between auctions and
commercial gallery sales. Take the auction half first -- the global art-auction total for 2011
was €23.1 billion ($30.5 billion). Total auction sales at both Sotheby’s and arch-
rival Christie’s are put at $5.7 billion each for 2011, which adds up to $11.4 billion, or about
35 percent of the global auction art trade.”
Source: Artnet
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9. Issues?
• Independence from funding sources
• Accessibility – artists and patrons
• Cost of arts education/training - student debt
• Commercialization of the arts culture
• Popular culture versus challenging programming
• Globalization of culture
• Quick fix versus the long gaze
• Status quo versus alternative cultures
• What is the art world – beyond the scope of what the press
represents?
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