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Abstract:
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The preceding decade has seen growing political focus in Denmark regarding the
development of an Experience Economy. The biggest potential for creating value in the
Experience Economy lies in connecting commercial interests with the arts and related
creative industries in order to forge a collaborative exchange. Three factors contribute
to this increased focus on collaboration between the arts and business: 1) Growth in
Creative Economies; 2) A shift in public cultural politics and funding, supporting
economic justification for artistic endeavours, and 3) New challenges for business, in
order to succeed in post-modern consumer culture.
This master thesis studies collaborations between the arts and business: how they are
facilitated, and how this facilitation contributes in creating value for both the artist and
the business. The potential for creation of value in arts and business collaborations is
difficult to measure quantitatively in the marketplace. These productive collaborations
have only an indirect effect on the companies’ economic development. The analysis of
the collaborations observed in this thesis borrows concepts from the theories of Pierre
Bourdieu. Against this background, collaboration between the arts and business is an
exchange between Economic Capital and Cultural Capital from the business and artistic
fields respectively. When recognised legitimately in both fields, the exchange results in
the production of Symbolic Capital. Over time, this Symbolic Capital may in turn
produce real economic value. Following Etienne Wenger’s concept of the broker, the
facilitator in the collaborations acts as intermediary between the two fields, enabling
the transformation of Economic and Cultural Capital into Symbolic Capital for both
artists and companies. The exchange of Cultural for Economic Capital, and the attending
value created in the form of Symbolic Capital will be analyzed using two examples,
where collaborations are arranged and facilitated by brokers based in the arts and
business fields respectively. Although the collaborations are facilitated and executed
with diverse means and objectives, both types lead to the creation of Symbolic Capital
for the artists and companies involved. The thesis concludes that the requirements for
creation of Symbolic Capital in both fields are twofold: the collaboration must be based
on a respect for art’s autonomy; and, it must be coupled with direct access for business
to a cultural competence. Together, these two aspects allow the transformation of
Cultural Capital into Symbolic Capital in a market economy. Creative usage of the
internal logic and mechanisms by which Symbolic Capital is obtained and created in the
respective fields requires a facilitator as co-creator. The facilitator ensures the
production of perceived value within collaborations between the arts and business. |
