Towards participation and creativity : a conceptual model for managing change in arts organizations

Abstract

The shift towards knowledge society has allowed individuals to create, share, and connect with each other, increasing participation and social production models both in- and outside the dominant art worlds. In order to keep pace with this trend, arts managerial research needs to expand its focus from mono-disciplinary art institutions to the creative networks, and acknowledge the external and internal factors pressuring the 'organization' of arts organization towards openness. Participation and creativity can be enhanced when allowing diversified, flexible, and complex ways of working. Change management offers tools for implementing this development.

Any type of change management requires a conceptual model, which structures and guides new thinking and renders it meaningful. Instead of top-down driven policy and economy models, this thesis approaches ongoing change as a collective dialogue of a complex social system, which aims to support freedom of the arts and the welfare of the creatives. Whereas cultural production traditionally differentiates between production of art works and (mass)distribution of art works to audiences, a third approach presented in this thesis dissolves the distinction and focuses on the creation of network models to enhance collective participation.

Networks are seen as a destiny of collective agency where artists, creative actors, and audiences can operate in terms of primary choice or rejection in- or outside of the dominant forms. The research findings suggest that network structure challenges the traditional way to use authority. This happens precisely because upsetting the hierarchy decreases the power of the controller(s), while allowing collective actions to become more complex, and therefore problem-solving to be administered by people closest to the production processes. It is important to understand that decreasing top-down control does not mean that the mass of individual's contributions is not organized. Instead, there is a need for a mechanism that permits the collaboration on a base of self-government, competition, and collaboration. This requires cooperation among government, policy makers, stakeholders, educators, and sector professionals for nurturing talent and creativity in new and unexpected ways.

As part of the process, it is not enough for arts management to carry responsibility of cost-efficiency and organizational stability, or focus on supporting artistic integrity inside hierarchical institutions. Instead arts management should increasingly face adaptive challenges for maintaining aesthetic experiences as shared social capital among communities and for adapting to emerging social production models. Sometimes this mission might require arts organizations to abandon the familiar and routine and develop capacity to improve the networks, encourage two-way communication, increase audience involvement, utilize social network distribution channels, and allow remix, reuse and production of unfinished cultural content.