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Communities are back!

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COMMUNITIES ARE BACK  Ever thought about the relation between individualism and community in contemporary society? Are people’s needs individual or social in nature? Both arguments have been heard and often it seems to be context bound how people see the difference between them. At least, technological development, urbanization and raising individualism sound like a route map to modern society! Various aesthetic ideals have also used individualism as a starting point for an aesthetic experience in which canonized beauty and the intellectual qualities of each participant play an important role (e.g. Bordieu 1984, Danto 1964). This setting has also formed the basis for experience design in many art organizations already for decades. While emphasizing individualism, strong communities have been seen as relics of the past–as part of rural societies and pre-industrial way of life. Is this a reality nowadays, when covid-19 has mugged modern societies globally? At least, we have witnessed how
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Expectation and Perception - Understanding the Audience Experience

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The present emphasis in cultural research and art field on experience economy and experience design has led to thinking and logic where art organizations and their role come before audiences. In this sense, I dare claim that there are shortcomings in the research logic and organizational strategies, as an institution-centric perspective is too often over-emphasized and experience design is seen as a responsibility of the art provider. Therefore, audience experiences are often seen to be based on the encounters and interaction within the performance setting, while the temporal context is unseen. In art philosophy, phenomenological experience theories emphasize experiences related to expectation and perception linked to the past, present and future. Similarly, the pragmatist view highlights past experiences, cultural context, social relationships and shared experiences. In order to better serve existing audiences and to engage new ones, art organizations should follow these humanistic id
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WHAT COMES NEXT? ARTS MARKETING WHEN NOTHING IS ENOUGH.

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  WHAT COMES AFTER SPECTACULARISATION AND EXPERIENCE ECONOMY? For years, cultural research has followed the research on economics and service and their focus on consumers. Digging deeper, service thinking and institution-centric view have been dominant in both classic service and cultural research, as academic researchers have emphasized provider-audience interactions and customer needs defined by the service provider. Due to digital jump, new forms of cultural consumption and consumer movements have increased during the recent decades, and shifted to digital and social media platforms. A cultural movement toward new forms of collective creativity and audience engagement has steered art organizations to explore audience experiences and audience participation even deeper. This has led many art organizations towards experience design models, with a focus on experimentation, spectacularisation and eventualisation, and has influenced the idea of experience economy which has become the lead
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Tackling Inside-Out Thinking in the Arts Management

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Tackling Inside-Out Thinking in the Arts Management In recent decades, many art institutions have paid more attention and resources to increasing audience participation in their activities and core offerings. For many institutes, participatory activities and audience engagement has become one of the leading marketing and service issues. Despite the growing interest in audience participation and participation research, the customer-centric phenomenon as a whole has remained unexplored. For majority of cultural institutions various canon-based (product-led), community-based (target-led) and creativity-based (artist-led) purposes and strategies are dominant, while audience-based thinking and customer context is missing or underrepresented in the strategic core. The Inside-Out management has been over-emphasized in many cultural institutions as the canon of art, artworks and artists have been raised on the podium, while many have considered the audience as observers–consumers who come and
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Location: Helsinki, Finland
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The Connectivity with the Audience - Post-Normal World Shaping Cultural Organizations and Arts Management

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The changes in society in recent months due to the covid-19 pandemic, have had a drastic impact on the cultural field. Many artists and art organizations have been forced to think of new ways of presenting artworks by bringing art to where the people are, while the situation in the past has been the other way around.  Current circumstances have shown how the most vibrant cultural organizations have been channeling their resources in many novel ways by engaging people on digital platforms and by connecting and strengthening the relationship with the existing audience. photo by Kari Rosenberg As digital environments, rethinking of revenue models and pricing have come up in the cultural debate during the covid-19 pandemic, interaction,  participation building, audience journey and audience experience behind the connectivity have received less attention. Promoting interaction, designing ways to participate and getting people feeling themselves connected is essential for cultural o
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Taidejohtamisen tulevaisuusstrategia - yhteisöllisyys ja yhteiskunnallisuus

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Ajatuksia taidelaitosten tulevaisuusnäkymistä sekä tulevaisuusstrategiasta: Kuva: Pekka Saarikorpi Taiteentekijöiden ja taidelaitosten julkinen rahoituspohja sekä yhteiskunnallinen merkitys herättävät aika ajoin kiivasta keskustelua. Itse korostan erityisesti taideorganisaatioiden yhteiskunnallista merkitystä ja roolia, ei pelkästään taidelaitoksina, vaan myös kulttuurisina toimijoina ja yhteiskunnallisina peileinä. Taide itsessään on peili, joka heijastaa yhteiskunnan arvoja, yksilöitä ja yhteiskuntaa, arvoja ja estetiikkaa. Taide politisoi, kyseenalaistaa, edustaa yhteiskunnan ääripäitä ja keskiarvoa. Se on kuva meistä. Myös taidelaitos on tällöin peili samassa suhteessa. Yhteiskunta asettaa tiettyjä tavoitteita ja organisaationa peilaamme sitä arvomaailmaa taiteen ja/tai koulutuksen keinoin. Osaltamme voimme olla aktiivisia ja pyrkiä vaikuttamaan siihen keskusteluun, joka toimintaamme vaikuttaa. Uskon kuitenkin, että taidekentän ja sen organisaatioiden on jatkossa ansaittava a
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Being a Leader in the Arts

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Being a Leader - Seeing, listening, thinking, believing and saying (things out loud). Pekka Saarikorpi Seeing   Seeing you and me. Seeing us. Seeing differences and oneness among people involved. Seeing unity. Seeing the environment we are part of and all the paths we are possibly going through. Seeing possibilities in individuals and groups, setting goals and building trust on individuals and between people. Being aware of the gloomy clouds and the narrow road – and seeing the future bright. Open-mindedness is an essential feature that a leader must have. An ability to see and meet people around you and see them as precious individuals make them flourish – not to mention the importance of the humanity and empathy in everyday tasks and meetings. Seeing and finding suitable challenges and opportunities, as well as exposing and offering them to project participants is another good skill to have. By accepting and even welcoming risk-taking and failures, it is p
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