Value Proposition Management in Visual Arts: Comparing the Leading Artists from Tainan and Cebu

Abstract

Visual artists find themselves at the center of managing two paradoxical tasks; artistic production and market affairs These contrasting phenomena alongside the continuous growth of the global arts market underscores the importance of artists to effectively manage their talent value of artworks and personal reputation To remain competitive artists today must strive to evaluate their value proposition management – a process of creating communicating delivering and maintaining artistic value which is perceived by the customer as functional individual and social value and brings profit as economic (exchange) value to business (artist) In the visual arts value proposition management is dissected into talent management personal brand management and business model concerns (Aljena 2016) The purpose of this study is to describe and compare the value proposition management of leading artists from the cities of Tainan Taiwan and Cebu Philippines The description and analysis of a multiple bounded phenomenon called for a multiple case design in qualitative methodology that gathered information using in-depth interviews non-participant observations and expert opinions The findings of the study reveal that a thriving career in the visual fine arts can be systematized and strategized because art is not reliant on any divine factor that makes market conditions work favorably for an individual without preconditions and actions Moreover comparisons across two countries demonstrate peculiarities in artists’ value proposition management where a generalizable pathway that fits all is unfeasible; each artist has to discover what will work for him or her in the respective art milieu A key limitation of the study are biases on the selection of artists The issue was addressed through a criterion stablished prior to the selection of participants Another limitation was addressing the potential bias and subjectivity of the author as an artist himself Prejudice was managed through acknowledging the author’s assumptions up front by journalizing and colleague debriefing Furthermore content analysis was done by two raters before condensed unit meanings were categorized and organized into themes The implications of the study that are applicable to other artists is the establishment of value-adding networks and partnerships to sustain art making Another involves the content of the visual image that makes an artist establish his unique value proposition Additionally having alternative revenue streams or similarly aligned roles such as mentoring or curating is a benefit On a broader context policy implications concerning the development of the art milieu are also evident with calls for increased presence of more actors in the value network Describing on how the leading fine artists from Tainan and Cebu City manage their social artistic and personal as well as exchange value through value proposition management is the study’s unique contribution to the field of art management as a “burrower’s” field (Taylor et al 2015) assisting scholars and practitioners to dig their way into emerging andestablished domains Furthermore the study redraws an approach to the concept of value proposition management from the perspective of artists in the study

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Hui-Wen Lin (Supervisor)