Note: Week 4 cancelled due to snowstorm. Week 5 : Who Belongs in Art Worlds? Arts Occupations, Institutions, Networks (continued) & Mediation (Gatekeepers, Facilitators) Source: V. Alexander Sociology of the Arts…(2003), p. 63. Note: Week 4 cancelled due to snowstorm.

Plan for Class Today Lecture : Review : Artists as a Social “Category”, Types of Art Worlds ‘production of culture’ theory of art worlds Mediation and recognition processes Presentations of First Short Case Studies IF TIME: Videoclip from “Off the Canvas. A documentary Profilng 9 Maverick New York Women Art Dealers:

Last Lecture: Participants in art worlds -- Creators/artists art Mediators Audiences/publics/consumers

Relation to Communication Theories

Unique artists, unique art works (individual) vs Unique artists, unique art works (individual) vs. social construction of art/artists (Zolberg) Example: Problem of Multiples negotiating artistic values in context of new technologies new ways of thinking about connections between the artwork and the “aura” of the artist Walter Benjamin-- “work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”

Changing views about values of art can lead to changes in the status of the artist, artwork & the social institutions & publics that support them Beaune Altarpiece PBS jazz series by Ken Burns Examples of establishing “cannons” through testimony of “experts” (ex. critics, “stars”, fans) and changing shape of artforms

Recall: Ways of Studying Artists & Arts professionals “Are Artists Born or made?” Theories about artists’ motives for career choice 1.labor of love (art for art’s sake) argument (Elliot Freidson) de-emphasizes income Arendt’s notions of labour (alienating but necessary) vs. work (creative vocation) 2.artists & arts professionals as risk-lovers, gamblers satisfaction proportionate to degree of uncertainty of success 3. Dual reward system monetary & non-monetary (psychic) gratification 4. Other—couldn’t do anything else

Review : Different types of artists (Becker) Integrated professionals (ex. concert violinist) Mavericks Folk artists Naïve artists Classification according to how they fit in art worlds (degree of integration, consensus about the ‘rules of the game’, degree of standardization)

Van Laar and Diepeveen on “The function of Artists in Society” Another typology Five roles: Skilled worker Intellectual Entrepreneur Social critic Social healer Other dimensions Ex. Wittkower “Under the Sign of Saturn” Transformation from craftsperson to brooding geniuss Later to status of intellectual in humanistic profession F. De Goya. Saturn devouring his son, c. 1821

Formal training Issues qualifications—non-routine activities depend on skills not easily transmitted or certified by a training system impact of schooling on earnings smaller than other professional groups mentoring/apprenticeships job matching (leaning-by-doing process) occupational risk diversification

Irregular incomes, seasonal variations, self-emploment Problems using “income” as a way of identifying for artists & arts professionals Irregular incomes, seasonal variations, self-emploment public sources (subsidies, commissions, sponsorship) “privatization” (sales of services or works) transfer income from other employment (multiple job holding) personal (family, friends)

Recall: Multiple roles--paintmakers who were collectors and painters Life Drawing Class, Bocour Paintmaking Studio NYC, c. 1942

Careers in the arts and rationality of risk management (Menger) “rational behaviour model” but artistic careers are risky high level of income inequality high chance of “failure” impermanence of artistic work, self-employment amibiguity of transition from training to work (skills) careers advance through recurrent & nonrecurrent work (non-routine work)

Criteria used in classifying art & artists “aura” of the artist  Characteristics of the art form and genre audience/public (notion of consecration) Publics or audiences “highbrow/lowbrow” tastes arts organizations, networks associated with different art worlds

Mediation & “Support Structures” & Publics as factors in recognition & art-making Recall: Howard Becker’s Art Worlds Arts worlds include all the people involved in art-making Cooperative links through shared conventions Study how participants “draw lines” and what art worlds do Mobilize resources (material resources, training personnel, networks, organizations) Develop Distribution Systems

Production of Culture Perspective (Peterson, Anand) How culture “shaped by systems in which it is created, distributed, evaluated, taught, preserved” Culture not a mirror of society Focus on Expressive aspects of culture Processes of symbol production Analysis of organizations, occupations, networks, communities Comparisons In situated studies of specific cultural forms and changes in them

Six Facet Model of Production Technology Law and regulation Industry structure or field Organizational structure of dominating organizatins Occupational careers Markets

Uses of the “Production Perspective” Organizational Research theories of management institutional decision-making processes/logics Networks of production Resource partitioning patterns Studies of Informal Relations Links between Class and Culture (ex. univore/omnivore) Resistance & appropriation Fabricating authenticity

Critiques of Peterson’s Production of Culture Perspective Ignores or de-emphasizes “uniqueness” of art to research constructed nature of collective representations, values roles of fans and consumers in shaping cultural products meanings of cultural production power relations

Participants in Mediation Processes Gatekeepers vs. facilitators : types vary with art form and genres Ex. Diana Crane on proponents of Avant-Garde Art Examples of types of “mediators” (between creators and publics): book publishers, record companies, film distribution networks, art gallery owners, booking agents, critics, reviewers for media, museum curators, sometimes even fans or fan clubs, etc…

Characteristics of the Mediators & Artistic Values Mediation as a way of conferring status The role of critics and other gatekeepers in recognition processes, examples: Shrum– emergence of Fringe Festivals as a performing arts genre when critics begin to review it Change in status of Graffiti and recognition by artists Institutional forms & legitimation practices Status of “Venues”, status of artists Not-for-profit and for-profit models & differences in socio-cultural status (DiMaggio) Super Bowl XXXVIII, Halftime show, 2004

L. Levine: The emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America Starting question: why can’t you compare high culture & popular culture? Why do people distinguish between highbrow and lowbrow audiences & their understanding of the arts? Art forms not ‘cosmic truths’ but result from ‘peculiarities in the way culture operates

Levine’s Case study of the reception of Shakespeare To study problem of equating notion of culture to idea of hierarchy Believes primary categories of culture are determined by IDEOLOGIES not grounded in actual observation of cultural practices & tastes Believes there was less hierarchical divisions in the past But set in mid 20th c. Do same hierarchical distinctions apply today? Or have we again entered an era in which high-brow & low-brow distinctions are less meaningful?

Mediators &Cultural Hierarchy social meaning(s) of performance art control and social “reproduction” Social origins and established formulas or genres Hegemony & cultural industries Cultural things as mirrors of underlying structures (functionalism, Marxism) New theories– more dynamic Symbolic exchange, interaction -”production of culture approach” (Peterson, DiMaggio)

Peterson on Country Music How do mediators (record producers) choose artists to promote? Authenticity, originality, distinctiveness Transformation of field of country music from 1923-1953 Process of institutionalization Identified audience

Authenticity Paradox of creating authenticity artificially? Socially-agreed upon idea (social construction of reality– through shared values & practices) History of country music (a revolt that became a style) Artificial notion of the ‘unchanged’ past– hillbilly music (poor rural white Southerners) Early distain of this type of music because of its association with hillbilly culture Evolution of terminology (to country and western)

Mediation in the Production of Culture Perspective How law, technology, careers, markets, organizational structure shape culture (in this case a form of cultural expression called ‘country music’) notion of social production of culture (shared values, practices etc.) Emergence of differentiated roles in the field of cultural production (manager, talent agent etc.)

Next Day: Publics as Participants in Artmaking: Theories of Reception

Required Readings (Weeks 3-4) Zolberg, Vera. “The Art Object as Social Process”. Constructing a Sociology of the Arts. Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 79-102. Becker, H. "Integrated Professionals, Mavericks, Folk Artists and Naive Artists" Art Worlds. Berkley: U. Calif. Press. 1992, pp. 226-272. Peterson, R. and A. Anand. “The Production of Culture Perspective” Annual Review of Sociology 2004. 30:311–34 (especially pp. 311-318).

Recommended (Weeks 3-4) Van Laar, T. and L. Diepeveen, "The Function of Artists in Society: Starving Celebrities and Other Myths", Active Sights. Art as social interaction., London, Mayfield, 1997, pp.51-69. Menger, Pierre-Michel, “Artists as Workers: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges” Poetics, Vol. 28 (4) pp. 241-254. Kasfir, Sidney. “African Art and Authenticity”, in Oguibe, Olu and Okwui Enwezor (editors), Reading the Contemporary. African Art from Theory to the Marketplace. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1999, pp. 88-113 Levine, Judith. "Art as social service: Theatre for the Forgotten", in Zolberg and Cherbo, Outsider Art, Cambridge U. Press 1997, pp.131-145.

Required Readings (Week 5) Crane, Diana. “Epilogue” and “Unobtrusive Methods for Researching and Art Form” in The Transformation of the Avant-Garde”, U. Chicago Press1987, pp. 137-148. Shrum, W. "Cultural Mediation and the Status Bargain" and "Note on the Study of Mediation and Reception" in Fringe and Fortune. The Role of Critics in High and Popular Art. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1998, pp.221-222 and pp.25-41. Marontate, J. “Museums and the constitution of collective memory”, book chapter in The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Culture (ed. Mark Jacobs and Nancy Hanrahan), 2005, pp 286-302.

Recommended (Week 5) Bennett, Andy. "Music, Media and Urban Mythscapes: A Study of the 'Canterbury Sound',. Media, Culture & Society, vol. 24(1) pp. 87-100, 2002 Lena, Jennifer.“Meaning and membership: samples in rap music, 1979–1995”, Poetics. Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts. V. 32 (304), 2004. pp. 297-310. Alexander, Victoria. “A Mediated View: The Cultural Diamond”, Sociology of the Arts. Exploring Fine and Popular Forms. Blackwell, 2003, pp. 60-63. Ostrower, Francie. Trustees of Culture. Power, Wealth and Status on Elite Arts Boards. U. Chicago Press. 2002. Peterson, Richard A. Creating Country Music. Fabricating Authenticity. U. Chicago Press 1997. Zolberg, Vera and Joni Maya Cherbo (ed.) Outsider Art. Cambridge U. 1999.

Note to Users of these Outlines-- not all material covered in class appears on these outlines-- important examples, demonstrations and discussions aren’t written down here. Classes are efficient ways communicating information and provide you will an opportunity for regular learning. These outlines are provided as a study aid not a replacement for classes.