An investigation into the media representations and marketing practices of selected London based galleries that promote artists on an international scale

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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ABSTRACT

This dissertation aims to contribute to an understanding of the edia representations and marketing practices of selected London based galleries that promote artists on an international scale. Proceeding, broadly speaking, from a constructivist perspective and using a qualitative case study approach, it examines a visual artist's personal construction of her creative and business work. The analysis highlights the significance of emotional, cognitive, spiritual and physical processes for the artist's positioning, process, and products, as well as her difficulties with promotion and pricing issues. It was seen, following Fillis (2004), that, at the level of an individual artist, her work may be not only product-oriented but self-oriented. It therefore behoves artists and their agents to be able to offer appropriately distinguishing promotional accounts of the artist's artistic identity, process and work based on a deep self-reflexive awareness and understanding by the artist of her own creative practice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW3

Alternative Approaches in Arts Marketing Research3

Marketing Practices4

Using Creativity in the search for new Arts Marketing Knowledge5

Positioning10

Creation Myth11

Tribe of Painters12

Process13

Work/play13

Movement/Restriction14

Receiving/Being Critical14

Holding On/Letting Go14

Product16

Promotion17

Pricing19

A Creative Arts Marketing Paradigm19

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY23

Research Design23

Data Collection25

Search Strategy27

Literature Search27

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS28

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION32

REFERENCES33

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The individual artist can be conceptualised in a variety of ways: as a painter who paints 'pictures'; as a creative or cultural 'worker' whose 'job' is to produce 'creative works' and sell them to customers; as a cultural producer within the circuit of culture (Hall et al., 1997), engaged in the production of cultural artefacts or 'texts'; or as an entrepreneur, an artist-marketer (Fillis, 2004), or an art brand (O'Reilly and Lindley, 2000).

The general literature on creativity is highly diverse, ranging from Koestler's attempt (Koestler, 1964)-or indeed those of Miller (1996) or Ghiselin (1985)-to deal with the question of genius, to discourses on the philosophy of creativity (Bohm, 1998). There is also work which attempts to situate the individual creative artist within a social process of production, at least partly in an attempt to de-emphasise the notion of genius (Becker, 1982; Wolff, 1993; Alexander, 2003; Brunet, 2004). Others analyse the creative process in major innovations, such as the Wright Brothers' first manned flight (Iakab, 1990). Within business and management, scholars and practitioners are concerned with understanding how the benefits of creativity can be opened up both for the organisation and for the individual manager or worker. This gives rise to a number of issues such as what a creative manager is ...