Unequal entanglements: how arts practitioners reflect on the impact of intensifying economic inequality

Kolbe, Kristina (2022) Unequal entanglements: how arts practitioners reflect on the impact of intensifying economic inequality. Cultural Trends, 31 (3). 257 - 272. ISSN 0954-8963

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Abstract

This article discusses how arts practitioners reflect on their work amidst deepening economic inequality. Given the renewed interest in the social role of arts institutions under conditions of financialised neo-liberalism, the paper traces the complex ways in which economic imperatives figure in cultural practice. Drawing on interviews with UK-based gallery directors, museum curators, art consultants, and artists, I map out how austerity politics and intensifying privatisation processes have a profound impact on the workings of the sector, how they recalibrate dynamics between private and public artworlds, and how they shape processes of production and curation. My data specifically document how increasing economic precarity brings into relief structural inequalities of gender, race and (post)-colonial legacies already manifesting in the artworld. Rather than understanding austerity as a financial condition only, the paper thus presents an empirical exploration of the wider inequalities that it has exacerbated, from arts funding to institutions’ programming practices.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ccut20/current
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Author
Divisions:	Sociology
Subjects:	A General Works > AM Museums (General). Collectors and collecting (General) H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Date Deposited:	22 Sep 2021 11:09
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2024 05:36
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111969

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