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Artists’ Professionalisation and Careers in the Cultural Policy Landscape

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Artists’ Voices in Cultural Policy

Part of the book series: New Directions in Cultural Policy Research ((NDCPR))

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Abstract

In this chapter, artists’ careers are viewed through the professional lens, directing individual career perspectives toward artists as a professional group. First, the profession of artists as a concept is discussed before moving on to an analysis of artistic practice using Nicolini’s characterisations of practice as the discursive structure. Additionally, the notion of work is contextualised by utilising Luther’s protestant work ethic and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. The chapter concludes by merging the key concept of myth, memory and identity previously discussed with the cultural policy framework under the concept of the professional class, thus creating a renewed proposition to integrate critical structure in contemporary cultural policy discourse and to apply a revised understanding that could inform measures for policy intervention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, School of Arts, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK

    Simone Wesner

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Correspondence to Simone Wesner .

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Wesner, S. (2018). Artists’ Professionalisation and Careers in the Cultural Policy Landscape. In: Artists’ Voices in Cultural Policy . New Directions in Cultural Policy Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76057-5_6

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