Democratizing Arts and Cultural Organizations

June 27, 2023

This conference will explore cases where and the extent to which arts and cultural organizations are incorporating structures and practices intended to sustain or to create a workplace that is less hierarchical and unequal, and more participatory and consensus-based. For example, relevant papers would include investigations of:

1. Unionization in the sector;
2. Cooperative ownership and profit-sharing models in the sector;
3. Pay inequity/equalization in the sector;
4. Non-hierarchical management practices in the sector;
5. Shared decision-making practices in the sector;
6. Histories of alternative organizational models in the sector, particularly in BIPOC communities;
7. Post-growth visions in the sector;
8. Artist activism for institutional change in the sector;
9. How shifts in our the decline of cultural capital relate to these developments.

Ten to twelve papers will be selected for presentation and discussion at this one-day conference. The research conference will feed into a shared publication opportunity, TBA.

Scientific Committee:

Carole Rosenstein, George Mason University (Chair)

Antonio Cuyler, University of Michigan

Andrew Zitcer, Drexel University

Timeline:

Proposals due: February 1, 2023.

Submit on this link.

Notification: February 15, 2023

Completed paper due: June 1, 2023

Paper proposals should include: name, affiliation, and contact information of presenter and any co-authors; title; an abstract of 500 words or fewer. Please indicate the research orientation the paper will take. Work grounded in any discipline is welcome.

All participation in the conference will be in-person. There is no virtual or remote participation option.

The 2023 CCA Biennial Research Conference is taking place parallel to the opening day of the ACEI International Conference on Cultural Economics, also being held in Bloomington. See www.go.iu.edu/ACEI2023 for more information.

Both conferences are coordinated by the Center for Cultural Affairs, but otherwise they are completely autonomous from one another. Authors who wish to submit proposals to both conferences should not hesitate to do so.

There is no registration fee for the CCA Biennial. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Presenters will have access to ACEI conference hotel rates in Bloomington.

Cultural Policy Beyond the Here and Now: What do we owe to Future Generations?

June 7, 2021

This virtual event gathered researchers from around the globe doing work in cultural affairs. This year’s conference titled Cultural Policy Beyond the Here and Now: What do we owe to Future Generations? addressed cultural policy, specifically on the theme of policies that promote the preservation of culture and the arts for future generations. While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has established protocols for the preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage, how choices are made in terms of what most calls for preservation, the means by which this is achieved, and the decision-making processes, all warrant further study, in addition to how these principles are, explicitly or implicitly, adopted in national cultural policy.

Our conference brought together a group of international scholars from disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, and sustainability, to present research and scholarship in panel sessions. We also hosted policy makers for a series of roundtables discussing the conference theme in partnership with the Cultural Research Network (CRN).

Event Recordings now available.

Program and Policy Evaluation in Cultural Affairs

Decision-makers in the private and public sectors pursue desired outcomes for the creative industries, and the cultural sector in general, through various programs and policies. This puts great importance on empirical analyses of the success, or lack of success, in achieving those desired outcomes. Rigorous evaluation of programs and policies is essential in learning what interventions are more effective than others in achieving goals, the relative cost of programs relative to their outcomes, what are the unintended consequences of programs and policies, and ultimately in improving the efficacy of cultural policy.

This call for papers sought original applications of program and policy evaluation in the creative industries and arts policy.

Authors of selected proposals were invited to share their research at the May 2019 workshop that was held at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. This research was published in a special edition of Cultural Trends.