Rhetoric, Social Value and the Arts

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Nicola Mann

   Pages 1-14

3. Policy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

      PDF

   2. Who Sets the Agenda? Changing Attitudes Towards the Relevance of Small-Scale Visual Arts Organisations in the UK

      • Rachel Mader

      Pages 17-33

   3. From Social Inclusion to Audience Numbers: Art Museums in the New Public Management

      • Charlotte Bonham-Carter

      Pages 35-48

4. Theory

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 49-49

      PDF

   2. Rethinking the Social Turn: The Social Function of Art as Functionless and Anti-Social

      • Ana Bilbao Yarto

      Pages 51-66

   3. The Paradoxical Engagement of Contemporary Art with Activism and Protest

      • Tijen Tunalı

      Pages 67-81

5. Practice and Artistic Responses

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 83-83

      PDF

   2. Arte de Conducta: On Tania Bruguera’s Tatlin’s Whisper Series

      • Andrés David Montenegro Rosero

      Pages 85-106

   3. PERCENT FOR GREEN: Creating Space as Consciousness

      • Alicia Grullón

      Pages 107-122

6. Museums and Institutional Responses

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 123-123

      PDF

   2. Artists on the Gallery Payroll: A Case Study and a Corporate Turn

      • Lawrence Bradby, Judith Stewart

      Pages 125-142

   3. Collecting Social Things

      • Joey Orr

      Pages 143-154

   4. Conclusions

      • Charlotte Bonham-Carter

      Pages 155-163

7. Back Matter

   Pages 165-172

   PDF

The book reveals how the ‘social value of art’ may have one meaning for a policy maker, another for a museum and still yet another for an artist – and it is therefore in the interaction between these agents that we learn the most about the importance of rhetoric and interpretation. As a trajectory in art history, socially engaged art has a long and established history. However, in recent years—or since ‘the social turn’ that occurred in the 1990s—the rhetoric surrounding the social value of art has been assimilated by cultural policy makers and museums.  Interdisciplinary in its approach, and bringing together contributions from artists, curators and academics, the volume explores rhetoric, social value and the arts within different social, political and cultural contexts. 

• social value
• socially engaged art
• instrumental cultural policy
• neoliberalism
• social practice
• political art
• museums
• galleries
• contemporary art

• Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London, United Kingdom

  Charlotte Bonham-Carter

• Richmond, The American International University in London, London, United Kingdom

  Nicola Mann

Charlotte Bonham-Carter is Course Leader of MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, UK. She has held curatorial positions at Barbican Art Gallery, London; Institute for Contemporary Arts, London and Art on the Underground, the contemporary art programme of the Tube. She maintains a professional practice as a researcher and arts management consultant. 


Nicola Mann is Assistant Professor of Communications and Visual Cultures at Richmond, The American International University in London, UK. She holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, UK and received a PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester, New York, USA. 

Policies and ethics