Workshops
The artistic mission
AFFECT Module #4: The artistic mission – What is the role of an artist in a for-profit economy?
From a humanistic perspective, the main difference between an artist and a creative entrepreneur is that the purpose of the artist is not money making; or as Andrew Horwitz put it: “Artists want money so they can make more art; entrepreneurs want money so they can make more money.” This clear distinction has become blurry in the last decades within the neoliberal for-profit economy. One consequence is the emergence of the artist as entrepreneur, a person that has adopted various practices of entrepreneurs, making art as business. Based on this model profit becomes the purpose, not just a result or a side effect. But what is the not for profit mission of art? How to avoid becoming a servant of the ideologies and tactics of professional success, self-branding and self-management?
This workshop is an investigation on the role of art in the current economy, looking from the perspective of which value systems guide the aspirations and motivations of artists. This workshop is addressed to anybody who wants to work together on a diagnosis of today’s blurry lines between the different value systems of the creative industries.
