The Valorization Process of Cultural Value: A Perspective from Contemporary Art Curatorial Practices

Abstract

The question of how to account for cultural value appears to be ever more present since the rise of the creative industries Over the past decade the design of methodologies measurements and new terms has become a pressing agenda that seeks to inform the decisions that are made for the cultural sector Accordingly some have readily refashioned traditional economic tools while cultural advocates have directed their efforts to highlight the insufficiency of such approaches Whilst consensus on the subject might not come at ease the work of cultural and art economists David Thorsby and Arjo Klamer respectively provides a new framework for the understanding of cultural production that steps aside from traditional economics on the pursuit of alternative evaluation techniques that don’t compromise cultural values under economic logics From this strain of work new gaps have come about as is the case of the process of valorization (Carnwath & Brown 2014) i e the understanding of the interplay of values within processes of cultural production and how it might provide a window into the realization of cultural values Attending to this call for empirical research the present study poses the role of the curator as a meaningful case given her hybrid nature between artist and manager and seeks to describe the process of valorization that contemporary art curators undertake for curatorial projects

Date of Award	2015 Jun 30
Original language	English
Supervisor	Ming Turner (Supervisor)