Introduction to
HGA318
Tourism, Creativity and Culture
Agenda
• Building a framework to bring different issues
together in this unit
Questions on Creativity
in Society
• What happens when there are no creative
individuals in society?
• If everyone is creative and independentminded, how would society survive?
• Is there a dark side to creativity?
• What control mechanisms are there to
manage and direct diverse creative impulses
in society?
What are the two characteristics
of a creative idea?
• Creativity is a vague concept
• Two criteria (Runco and Jaeger 2012)
• Originality (unusual, novel, unique)
• Effectiveness (valuable)
Know Your Meaning of “Creativity”:
Four Interrelated Frames
• The creative person
• The creative process
• The creative product
• The creative environment
Creative Tourism:
UNESCO Definition
• Creative tourism is travel directed
toward an engaged and authentic
experience, with participative
learning in the arts, heritage, or
special character of a place, and it
provides a connection with those
who reside in this place and create
this living culture
• See Richards 2011 (p. 1237)
The Creative-Turn in
Tourism: Products
• From cultural tourism to creative tourism
• Symbolic contents
• Art, heritage, everyday life and other cultural
artefacts
• Seeing value in the mundane
(e.g. a chair)
• Embedded meanings in sights
• Creative solutions
• Urban development
• Creative districts
The Creative-Turn in
Tourism: Process
• Art making and doing culture
• Lateral thinking and finding innovations and smart solutions
to challenges and creating possibilities
• Tourists being creative
• Photography and selfies
• Learning holidays
• Picking a new skill
The Creative-Turn in
Tourism: Persons
• Creative producers
• Artists, performers, craft persons, designers, writers, popstars
• Tourists as consumers of creative products
• Creative workers
• Skilled consumption
• Co-created experiences
Creative-Turn in Tourism:
Environment
• Places that encourages creativity, a space for the creative
industries
• Entrepreneurial
• Innovative
• Finding new uses for old and derelict sites
• Diversity and cultural democracy
• Smart places: Using creativity to solve development problems
• Attract creative workers
Richards’ Model (2011, p. 1239)
Richards’ Model (2011, p. 1239)
Poetics and politics of the creative economy
People
Cities, Regional centres
Creative districts
Circumstances in the environment
Processes
Varieties of creative people
Creative residents and tourists
Creative class
Culture as creative responses
Products
Consumption and production of
creativity: Mediated, co-created
Exhibitions, performances, heritage
sites, museums, souvenirs, events
experiences
Unit Framework
Environment
Structural functionalism; Conflict theory;
Mediated cultures; Attention structure
So what?
• Creativity solves and creates problems
• Need to be clear when we talk about
creativity: products, processes, people,
environment
• Tourism are creative activities
• Creativity has to be managed, disciplined and
framed
• The creative-turn in tourism
• Need to be clear when we talk about creativity:
products, processes, people, environment
• Creativity has to be managed, disciplined and
framed
• Framework for this unit
Main Points
• Next session
• Tourism as a resource for local creative
activities
• Culture as creative responses
Framework: Relations between
tourism, creativity and culture
HGA 318
Agenda
• Part 1
– Creativity, culture and societal changes
– A structural functionalist understanding of
creativity’s role in society
• Part 2
– A critical perspective understanding of how
creativity is celebrated and managed in society
– Tourism, creativity and culture
– So what?
Recall: What are the two
characteristics of a creative idea?
• Creativity is a vague concept
• Two criteria (Runco and Jaeger 2012)
– Originality (unusual, novel, unique)
– Effectiveness (valuable)
• But how are originality and effectiveness
determined?
Some big Australian inventions
•
•
•
•
Black box flight recorder, David Warren
Inflatable escape slide and raft, Jack Grant
Wi-Fi, John O’ Sullivan, CSIRO
Google Map, Lars and Jens Rasmussen,
Sydney
• Electronic pacemaker, Mark Lidwill and
Edgar Booth
• Medical application of penicillin,
Howard Florey
Source, Australian Geographic, https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2010/06/australianinventions-that-changed-the-world/
Society celebrates and manages creativity
Creativity, culture and societal changes
• Taken-for-granted changes
• Not necessarily dramatic
• Not necessarily the best
solution
Creativity in Society:
How are original and effective
creativity celebrated and managed in
society? … Looking at culture as
creative responses
Society and culture change …
• What change?
• What do not change?
Understanding Society:
Structural Functionalism
• The organic analogy
• The body has many parts.
• Each part serve the purpose
of keeping the person alive.
• Each part is also related to
other parts.
• Society has many institutions
• Each institution is needed to keep the
society going
• And each institution is related to other
institutions
Functions and Institutions
• is a positive purpose or
consequence which is necessary
for the continued existence of a
society
• Society is seen to be existing in a
state of equilibrium, and the
different institutions maintain
this equilibrium
• What are the functions of various
social institutions e.g. culture?
Structural Functionalism:
Creativity in Society
• Originality
– New and better
• Effectiveness or usefulness
– Useful in society
– Serves functions in society: why,
what, how, when?
• If new responses do not serve
society, then they will die off
Society steps up and changes as
circumstances change
How does creativity serve society?
Examples from culture
Functional Culture 1:
Culture as Tacit
• Culture as tacit or taken for
granted
– Local knowledge and the
tourism challenge
– Reduce transaction costs
– Cultural products
Functional Culture 2: Culture
Makes Formal Structures
More Effective and Efficient
• Structure versus culture
– Rationalisation and organisational
bureaucracy
• Culture as informal
• Culture facilitates communication and
gloss over the inadequacies of formal
structures - decreases transaction costs
• Culture as corruption – increases
transaction costs
Functional Culture 3:
Culture Glues Society
• Cultural values, practices and
behaviour glue society together
• Art, religion and symbolic values
Summary: Functionalism Sees
Culture as Creative Responses
• Responsive to challenges and needs of
society, such as making weak formal
institutions stronger
• Reduce transaction and coordination costs
• Cultural manifestations (behaviour,
practices, values, artefacts) must stay
relevant
COVID-19 Responses
The creative environment and societal
changes … four questions
• From a structural functionalist perspective,
when does creativity matter in society?
– Why do society and culture change?
– Why do some aspects of society do not
change?
– Which creative expressions are celebrated?
– Which are sanctioned against?
Framework: Relations between
tourism, creativity and culture
HGA 318
Agenda
• Part 1
– Creativity, culture and societal changes
– A structural functionalist understanding of
creativity’s role in society
• Part 2
– A critical perspective understanding of how
creativity is celebrated and managed in society
– Tourism, creativity and culture
– So what?
What have changed in Australia?
Society and culture changes …
• What changes?
• What do not change?
• What and who prevent change from
happening?
• What changes get pushed through in
society?
The Conflict Perspective
• Society is an arena of conflict
• Cooperation exists but it is not a natural affair
• People cooperate because they are forced
– survival threatened
– persuaded and made to think cooperation is in their best
interests
• Some people achieve their will but always at the expense of
others. And these people build social structures that favour
themselves
• Laws, morals, values, truths, and other patterns of society,
although accepted by most in society, do not work in the
general interest but only for those who have power in society
It’s in Controlling the Economics!
• In a captialist economic system, property is
owned or controlled by a few individuals
who use it for personal profit and who pay
workers wages
• The mode of production and type of
economic organisation determines the kind
of social relationships that prevail in
society
• Our values, truths, rules and goals (culture)
are products of the economic order.
• The economy is central to society because
whoever dominates it dominates society
• Those who dominate society do so through
all the social institutions
Conflict theory: Profiteering
from Creativity
• Cult of the Original
(story on the left)
– Whose perspective?
– What makes it original?
– Which original ideas get perpetuated?
Follow the money
• Effectiveness or usefulness
– Useful to who?
– Why particular solutions are used?
– Who makes the money?
Negotiated Culture 1: Transforming
Creativity into Economic Resources
• Culture is seen as creative
responses to circumstances and
needs
• Creativity as an economic resource
to serve the needs of capital
• Intellectual property rights
(more in artworld lecture)
Negotiated Culture 2: Fun
and Creative Workers
• Promotion of the creative
organisational culture
• Blurring the lines between work
and leisure
• Idea that pleasure should not be
considered work
• Pleasure should be seen as
compensation for work
Negotiated Culture 3: Knowledge and
Stratified Consumption
• Rise of the “experts” and
mediated consumption
• Emergence of knowledge and
skilled consumption
• Endless resource for consumption
(services and knowledge)
• Meaningful consumption:
Accentuating selected skills and
knowledge in consumption
Negotiated Culture 4: Creating a Cult of
the Creative Individual
• Building narratives, biographies
in the endless search of an
identity, and for being different
• Individual’s responsibility to be
creative and succeed
• Casualization of work as
freedom demanded by the
creative individual
Negotiated Culture 5: Distractions
that keep the status quo
• Emphasis on the cultural and symbolic
• Value-debates: Naming and shaming;
single issue, and a distraction
• Not focusing on the political economy of
tourism – on how structures distribute
power and influence in the market and
economy
• Example: Critical-turn in tourism;
extractive industries vs tourism – are they
really economic/environmental substitutes
for each other?
Summary: Conflict Theory Sees Creativity as a
Manageable Economic Resource
• Creative ideas and responses are welcomed if it
serves certain influential groups
– Intellectual property rights
– Blurring boundaries between work and leisure
– Rise of the experts: experience products and
skilled consumption
– Distractions and single issues
Society celebrates and manages creativity
Tourism, Creativity and Culture
• Tourism an economic activity that has social
cultural consequences
• Communities respond creatively to tourism
• Tourism uses cultural resources
• Tourism is a resource for local development
and a source of societal changes
• Learning about the local culture enhances the
tourist experience and is part of skilled
tourism consumption
So what? … but for who?
(Sociological imagination)
• For people who thinks they have great
ideas ….
• For policy makers who wants to create a
creative and innovative environment …
• For creative SMEs that want to have a
break through …
• For successful creative businesses …
• For myself …
My personal reminder when I have a
knee-jerk resistance to change response:
1. I have been indoctrinated
2. I lack creativity
3. I lack resolve to want to bring about the
change
4. I want to keep the status quo because it
benefits me
Learning Points: Will “Come Down
for Air” Sell?
• Remind ourselves that failures are OK
• Creative solutions will only be embraced if
they actually serve society
• But needs can be created and manipulated
• Creative responses can be challenged,
hindered and suppressed
• Tension between creative ideas being
relevant to society and not being
economically beneficial
Creative Worlds and Systems:
Art Worlds - Example of How
Creativity is Organized and
Managed in Society
HGA 318
Agenda
• Art worlds – insights into creative environments and the
creative economy
• Values bestowed on creativity and culture; these values
should not be seen in the abstract
Today’s Focus in Richards’ Model
Poetics and politics of the
creative economy
People
Cities, Regional centres
Creative districts
Circumstances in the environment
Processes
Varieties of creative people
Creative residents and tourists
Creative class
Culture as creative responses
Products
Consumpiton and production of
creativity: Mediated, Co-created
Exhibitions, performances, heritage
sites, museums, sourvenirs, events
experiences
Today’s Focus in the Big Theoretical Map
Environment
Structural functionalism; Conflict theory;
Mediated cultures; Attention structures
Pause this lecture - try this quiz first!
My score is 14/20
• https://www.sporcle.com/games/
bam_thwok/toddler-art-or-modern-art1
What are the differences?
Drawing by a toddle
Art by a famous modern artist
President says,
President says,
“God bless America.” “May the Force be with you.”
Elton John says “I
Your partner says, “I love
love you, Tasmania.” you, darling.”
Opening Question: What if there is only
public indifference?
Why do some creative individuals
succeed, and most don’t?
Art World Approach
“Art worlds consist of all the people whose
activities are necessary to the production of the
characteristic works which that world, and
perhaps others as well, define as art” (Becker
1982, p. 34)
• Not about aesthetics, or what is art and not
art
• Understand the complexity of cooperative
networks through which art happens
• Institutionalization of creative practices,
values and processes (see also Burn et al
2015)
Art worlds: Basic questions
• Production and costs
– Who pays? Why would anyone do it?
• Distribution
– Who distribute?
– Cut out the middle-persons?
• Payment for those doing art (starving
artists, part-timers, hobbyists)
• Support activities: Prop makers to museum
cleaners
• Value and evaluation
– Gatekeepers
– Mediated production and consumption
• Consumers
– Emotional and intellectual reactions – is that
the aesthetic experience?
– How to get consumers to pay?
– Learning to appreciate
Why are we discussing art worlds?
• Example of the creative economy works; shows
how creative energies and resources are
organized and managed in society
• Example of mediated production and
consumption of culture
• Reflection on the nature of tourists and locals –
are we born tourists?
• Reflection on value – how do we know quality
and value in creative tourism products?
Example: To be recognized as art
• Accept the idea of “art”
• Framing a work as art
• Art criticism and translation/communication
of art
– Conceptually and theoretically strong
– Documentation
– Implementation
– Recognizable
• Responses from art critiques: Art reviewers,
curators, art consultants, teachers,
connoisseurs, public…
Why do we still have art in society?
• Art has functions in society and it
serves diverse interests
– Artists create art for a purpose (e.g. to
comment on society, to support
community)
– Art is a “sacred” space for making
commentaries – art for art sake – and
bring about change
– There are institutionalized structures
and conventions: recognition,
perpetuation, responsive changes
– The art industry is good business
Understanding art worlds:
Structural Functionalism
• Division of labour
• Ensuring quality through multiple processes of
evaluation
• Beyond art, diverse networks serve different
social and economic needs of society (e.g. place
branding, cultural capital)
• Art best serves the needs of society and industry
through networks of different art world
participants (e.g. effective teams in cultural
production, found mostly in cities, see Ooi 2017)
Understanding art worlds: Conflict Theory
The system works but ….
• Who gets the recognition? What
structures are put in place to
recognize the “artist”?
• How is art used and
commodified?
• Who gets the power to distribute
resources?
• Who has the power to define good
and bad art?
Kione Kochi, Self-publish to Bypass Gatekeepers and Power
Structures, Chicago, Half Letter Press, 2015, Rare Books
Collection, State Library Victoria
Example: The Global Art City 1
• Art production and spatial
concentration
– Trained professionals,
accessibility to expertise,
audiences
• Heterogeneity and inspiration
• Art, city-making and city
branding
• City, money and art trading
Example: The Global Art
City 2
• Why are many financial hubs art cities?
(see Ooi 2017)
• Who benefits from the secondary art
markets?
• Why do many wealthy persons buy art
and attend art performances?
– Give examples of altruistic acts,
social capital, reputational capital,
investment vehicles
Exercise: Glimpses into
an art world
• Pause this lecture and watch the
news clip:
– How do people show their respect and
reverence for the art works?
– How many art world players can you
identify? Can you rank them in order
of importance?
– Identify political/ideological
dimensions in this art competition?
(e.g. who defines good art, types of
artists)
Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-0713/worlds-richest-landscape-art-prizeheld-in-hobart-tasmania/8705104
Tourism as part of the art world
• Tourism art
(e.g. Duane Hanson Tourists II, left)
• Art for tourists
(e.g. Mexican dance, left, below)
• Art tourism (foreign collectors add
credibility to artist’s profile)
• Tourists as protectors and consumers
of local art?
• Creative responses to touristification
Challenge of intangible values:
The consequences
• Policy making: A holistic understanding that culture, creativity
and tourism are not only interlinked but there are established
formal and informal institutions that bring them together – policy
change must address the creative world comprehensively
• Your community: Critical eyes in public discussion on the value
of art, creativity and tourism – whose agenda?
• Self development: Know that we need to work together, we
stand on the shoulders of giants and we should not see value in
the abstract
So … being a good artist is
not good enough to be a
professional artist
• Is creativity enough for artists to become
economically sustainable?
– More than just being creative
– They need accessibility to art world
networks – market, evaluation,
credibility
– Resources needed for them to access
these art world networks
– There are gatekeepers that may obstruct
creative solutions because their interests
are affected
If you have a good creative idea,
what must you do?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For an entrepreneur …
For an aspiring creative person …
For an established creative individual …
For an art collector …
For an art reviewer …
For a casual art lover …
For policy makers …
For a person with money to launder …
Learning Points
• Art worlds are examples of how creativity is organised and
managed in society
• An institutionalized complex of networks enable creative ideas
and projects to be invented, recognized, perpetuated and be
economically viable
• Values of creativity and culture should not be seen in the
abstract. Touristification is just one of the forces that spur
creative responses and bring about cultural changes to the
community. The direction of change however is debatable.
Interpreting
creativity and
other cultures:
Mediated
experiences
PART 1
HGA318
Agenda
• How can outsiders understand
and experience a host society
when they don’t have the local
knowledge?
• Tourist conditions
• Perspectives on the tourist
• Mediation and the decentring,
recentring of culture in tourism
Why do some creative ideas and
solutions stick in the society, and
many don’t?
• Structural Functionalism and
Conflict theory
Lecture 2 and 3
How do some creative individuals
and works become famous, while
others don’t?
• Structures in art worlds and their
dynamics
Today’s focus in Richard’s model
Understanding tourist behaviour and
experiences
People
Cities, Regional centres
Creative districts
Circumstances in the environment
Processes
Varieties of creative people
Creative residents and tourists
Creative class
Culture as creative responses
Products
Consumption and production of
creativity: Mediated, co-created
Exhibitions, performances, heritage
sites, museums, souvenirs, events
experiences
Today’s focus in our unit framework
Environment
Structural functionalism; Conflict theory;
Mediated cultures; Attention structure
The Tourist
• Demographics: nationality, gender, age, social economic
class
• Segmentation: Niche and lifestyle tourists
• Urry’s tourist gaze – difference from daily life
• The quest for authenticity
• Affirmation of perceived authenticity
• McDisneyization
The Question
How is it possible for tourists to understand
another culture when they do not have the local
knowledge?
Tourist condition and the
decentring of culture
• Tourist conditions
• short stays
• little local knowledge
• leisure activities
• Limits of representation
Interpreting
creativity and
other cultures:
Mediated
experiences
PART 2
HGA318
We help tourists:
Mediated cultures
• Selection
• Accentuation
• Aestheticisation
Recentring of culture
in tourism
• Experiencing cultures
•
•
•
•
Rubbing shoulders with locals
Observing and doing local
“Sincere” mediation
Crafting of emotions and attention structure
Which is more
authenticially
Tasmania? Which is
easier for tourists to
appreciate?
Decentring and recentring of culture
Perception of the host
society
Quest for
difference
Safety &
routines
Decenting and
recentring
Affirming perceived
authenticity
Legend
• Tourist demands/concerns
• Mediating tourist demands/concerns
Tourist anxiety
Selecting,
accentuating and
aestheticizing
differences
Glocal example: Reading
creativity into LEGO
• Global + local = glocal
• Selection
• Accentuation
• Aestheticization
• Audiences with preconceptions
• Need to prime the audience
Our creativity: How
would the world know?
• Drawing attention by mediators - selection and accentuation
• Story-telling
• Use emotional levers
• International conventions/aesthetics on “good” design
• … i.e. creative/art world approach
• Tasmania is creative but we must also help the world recognize it!
So what?
• For travellers…
• For mediators…
• For the community…
• For policy makers…
Where are the local stories?
Main Points
• Many tourists may want the authentic experience
but they can never be totally native because they
lack the local knowledge and background
• Tourists are interested in many things, and have
anxieties.
• Their preconceived ideas affect the tourist
experience
• The creative destination needs to speak the
language of creativity, and allow visitors to
experience the creative
• Glocalization is part of community building, not
just because of tourism but because we learn from
others and we pick up global conventions
Tourism and the Creative
Experience Economy
Part I
Agenda
• Experience economy – a review
• Managing experiences – is it
possible?
• Experiences and the implications
for tourism
Today’s Focus in Richards’ Model
Understanding and managing
tourist experiences
People
Cities, Regional centres
Creative districts
Circumstances in the environment
Processes
Varieties of creative people
Creative residents and tourists
Creative class
Culture as creative responses
Products
Consumpiton and production of
creativity: Mediated, Co-created
Exhibitions, performances, heritage
sites, museums, sourvenirs, events
experiences
Today’s Focus in the Big Theoretical Map
Environment
Structural functionalism; Conflict theory;
Mediated cultures; Attention structure
Why are we
discussing
experiences?
• Experiences make intangible values
feel tangible
• Pursuing new experiences is a primary
reason why people travel
• Experience products have become
prominent in modern society, not just
in tourism
• Designing engaging experiences is
part of the creative industries, and
mark the quality of creative products
• Good experiences must be managed
Opening question
Experiences are personal, how
can they be manufactured?
The experience economy then
Source: Pine & Gilmore 1999: 6
Progression of economic values
Source: Pine & Gilmore 1999: 22
Experience realms
Absorption
Entertainment
Educational
e.g. Watching TV
e.g. Learning by doing
Active
participation
Passive
participation
Esthetic
Escapist
e.g. Soaking in a sunset
e.g. Adventure tourism
Immersion
Source: Pine and Gilmore 1999: 30
Approaches to studying
tourism experiences
• Cognitive psychological
approach: perceptions and
expectations
• Depth of engagement: optimal
experiences
• Phenomenological approach
• Local-foreign gap
• Staging (Pine and Gilmore)
• Unpredictable – stop studying
• Bringing all together – attention
structure
Tourism and the Creative
Experience Economy
PART II
Agenda
• Experience economy – a review
• Managing experiences – is it
possible?
• Experiences and the implications
for tourism
Approaches to studying
tourism experiences
• Cognitive psychological
approach:
perceptions and expectations
• Depth of engagement: optimal
experiences
• Phenomenological approach
• Local-foreign gap
• Staging (Pine and Gilmore)
• Unpredictable – stop studying
• Bringing all together – attention
structure
Attention
– One thing at a time
– Affects our experience and
emotion
– Scarce
– Attractions and distractions
Crafting and manufacturing
experiences
•
•
•
•
Story telling
Nostalgia and memories
Affirming expectations
Trigger emotions
– Post-emotionalism
• Exaggerated sense perceptions
• Moderated and diverse experiences
matter
Distractions and attention
• Between products
• Between product and physical
surrounding
• Between product and social contexts
• Between product and tourists’
expectations
Attention Structure Approach
Tourists, their backgrounds
and expectations
The tangible
product
Surroundings of
the product
Contexts embedded
in the product
What do we
pay attention
to?
Distractions/competition
for attention
Mediators
Consequence I: Mono-emotionalist
imagination
I image-Googled “Tasmania”
Consequence II: Emotional competition
and tourism
Consequence III: Experiential authenticity,
feeling right does not mean we are right
Consequence IV: Virtual, augmented
and mixed reality in tourism
Learning points I
• Level of experiential involvement and
engagement marks the quality of creative
products
• Good experiences must be managed;
distractions are plentiful. However
beautiful you may think Tasmania is,
don’t assume that visitors will experience
and appreciate your Tasmania!
• Visitors also want to have diverse
experiences: Should we offer a monoemotional Tasmania?
Learning points II
• The attention structure framework
brings different experience economy
frameworks together
• Managing experiences requires the
management of people’s attention
• Should feeling good be more important
than getting it right? (remember, tasty
dishes need not be healthy)
• There is competition for attention and
an aggressive emotion product market –
that may not be good for the community
So what? …. For who?
• For the experience consumer … (I need a
holiday after the holiday)
• For the experience mediation business …
• For the experience provider worker …
• For the policy maker …
• For us, as individuals, …
• Remember – the social world is marked by
contradictions and paradoxes
• Remember – how we feel about reality and
what is the reality can be very different!
HGA318
CREATIVITY, CULTURE AND TOURISM
Festivals, Tourism & Cultural Development in Tasmania
Natalie De Vito
AGENDA
So What? Why are we looking at festivals?
• Globalisation and government policy priorities
• What are festivals
• The changing role of festivals
• Impacts and measures
• The Tasmanian context
• The symbiotic relationship between festivals and tourism
GUIDING QUESTIONS
• Are festivals proliferating or flourishing?
• How do arts festivals support cultural, social and tourism objectives?
• What are the implications of neo-liberal, culture-led policies on the
future of festivals? (and what does that mean?)
• Who benefits from festivals?
• Can tourism be a resource to support the arts and community?
MODES OF CREATIVE TOURISM (Richards 2011, p. 1239)
People
Cities, Regional centres
Creative districts
Circumstances in the environment
Processes
Varieties of creative people
Creative residents and tourists
Creative class
Products
Consumption and production of
creativity: Mediated, Cocreated
Culture as creative responses
Exhibitions, performances, heritage
sites, museums, souvenirs, events
experiences
UNIT
FRAMEWORK
Environment
Structural functionalism; Conflict theory;
Mediated cultures; Attention structures
WHAT IS A FESTIVAL?
Rimini Protokol, 2006-ongoing, Cargo Sofia-Berlin - A Bulgarian truck ride through European cities, site-specific
theatre performance, HAU, Berlin. Photo: David Baltzer-Zenit.
WHAT IS AN EVENT?
An event is an occurrence at a given place and time; and a
special set of circumstances; a noteworthy occurrence
(Getz & Page 2019, p. 51)
•
•
•
•
An event has a beginning and an end
Events are temporal - usually publicised and have a lifecycle
Events are confined to spaces or many locations simultaneously or in sequence
Difficult to replicate an event: by definition they only occur once but may be
similar
A TYPOLOGY OF FESTIVALS
• Celebrate culture
• Pride, Caribana, Rio Carnival
• Religious celebrations
• St. Patrick’s Day, Diwali (New Year), Day of
the Dead
• Seasons, agricultural harvests
• Chinese New Year (lunar), Midsummer,
Oktoberfest, food and wine festivals
• History and place
• Freo Italian Blessing of the Fleet Festival,
Mardi Gras, Gloucester Cheese Rolling
Festival, Pamplona Running of the Bulls
• Arts
• theatre, dance, music, performance, visual
arts, media, literature, etc, biennales, Nuit
Blanche, large scale events: Olympics,
World Expos, Commonwealth Games
EVENT CLASSIFICATION
Mega events
• Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, World Expos, Eurovision Song Contest
Hallmark events
• Dark MoFo, Rio Carnival, Oktoberfest
Major events
• Ten Days on the Island, Festivale, White Night Melbourne, Sydney Chinese New
Year Festival
Minor Events
• Santa Clause Parades, Fun Runs
HOW DO FESTIVALS CONTRIBUTE TO CULTURAL AND SOCIAL LIFE AND
TOURISM OBJECTIVES?
Social
Cultural
Built Environment
Environmental
Economic
Political
Neneh Cherry, music performance, MONA FOMA 2019, Launceston, Australia, 19 January 2019.
HOW DO ARTS FESTIVALS CONTRIBUTE TO CULTURAL AND SOCIAL
LIFE AND TOURISM OBJECTIVES? (Quinn 2013, 2019)
Cultural
Social
Tourism
- artistic creation
- cultural celebration
- artform experimentation
- artworld engagement
- arts jobs
- access and participation
- engaging with local
communities and cultures
- educating about cultures
- audience development
- social stability/morale
- communal engagement
- personal transformation
- identity/cultural values
- socialise friends/family
- sense of belonging
- pride of place
- entertainment/leisure
- meet new people
- communication
- product/attraction
- visitors/tourists revenues
- economic impact
- investment
- fill year-round calendar
- destination branding
- int’l media attention
- business/sponsor exposure
- city revitalisation
- urban planning
NEO-LIBERALISM, THE CREATIVE ECONOMY AND THE GLOBALISED
WORLD
“At core, the problem being argued here is a policy one.
Set within a broad array of neo-liberal, culture-led urban
regeneration strategies, arts festivals are now a mainstay of
urban tourism policy-making.” (Quinn 2013, p. 15)
THE SHIFTING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTS FESTIVALS
AND TOURISM
Quinn identifies 3 main concerns:
• 1. funding of festivals suggests vibrant/flourishing arts industry, but masks
challenges
• 2. arts organisations and festivals have become disconnected from their
‘cultural policy’ domain, artistic merit and their purpose
• 3. valued as tourism attractions to support meeting economic goals
This creates an imbalanced and unsustainable sector
HOW DO FESTIVALS WORK?
• Many arts organisations and arts festivals are not-for-profit, public
institutions, mandated to serve the greater good of the public at
large
• For example, an arts organisation’s mandate is generally related to:
• the creation, development, presentation of contemporary art
• providing access, and increase participation and engagement with the arts
• Majority of arts organisations and arts festivals receive and survive
on government grants to deliver their mandate
• Tensions arise when funding for arts festivals is measured against
economic development and tourism objectives
A FEW ARTS FESTIVALS’ MISSIONS
Perth IAF: We exist to enrich life through art
Ten Days: We remain committed to supporting Tasmanian artists and
bringing remarkable arts experiences to Tasmanians across the state
Sydney IAF: Every January, Sydney Festival starts the new year with a
bang, transforming the city with a bold cultural celebration based on
critical ideas and cutting-edge art and performance
London International Festival of Theatre - LIFT: has been at the forefront
of ground-breaking international theatre since 1981, making and
supporting radically open work that disrupts convention, has the power
to unite strangers, celebrates our shared humanity and explores the
political and social urgencies of our times
MEASURING ARTS FESTIVALS IMPACT ON CULTURAL AND SOCIAL
LIFE AND TOURISM OBJECTIVES
Cultural
Social
Tourism
- artistic creation
- cultural celebration
- artform experimentation
- artworld engagement
- arts jobs
- access and participation
- engaging with local
communities and cultures
- educating about cultures
- audience development
- social stability/morale
- communal engagement
- personal transformation
- identity/cultural values
- socialise friends/family
- sense of belonging
- pride of place
- entertainment/leisure
- meet new people
- communication
- product/attraction
- visitors/tourists revenues
- economic impact
- investment
- fill year-round calendar
- destination branding
- int’l media attention
- business/sponsor exposure
- city revitalisation
- urban planning
THE COMPLEXITIES AND IMPLICATIONS (Quinn 2013, 2019)
• The proliferation of festivals create challenges for arts festivals and longterm implications for the arts industry
• Increased competition and pressure
• less funding and sponsors available
• ‘festivalisation’ (Négrier 2014) (everything being called a ‘festival’)
• less audiences (more attractions/distractions)
• Competing agendas
• art/community mission vs. tourism/economy funding (revenue over access, visitors
over locals, and disconnect from artistic merit)
• Spectacle
• Visible/controversial vs. less visible (media profile over personal experience)
THE TASMANIAN CONTEXT
• Challenges
• Small island state, travel by
boat/plane
• Regional, remote, very remote
• Small dispersed population
• Impacts
• Do not have economies of scale
to support and self-finance the
festivals
• Tasmania’s festivals rely on the
tourism industry to finance its
survival
Amanda Parer, 2019, Man, inflatable sculpture, installation in The Cataract Gorge, at MONA FOMA 2019, Launceston.
THE PROLIFERATION OF FESTIVALS: TASMANIAN
GOVERNMENT EVENTS STRATEGY 2015-2020
’This Events Strategy lays out a blueprint for enhancing
our events calendar and generating greater economic
and cultural benefits.
–
The Strategy supports the creation of even more new
and enticing events to put Tasmania front of mind for
tens of thousands of additional travellers.’ (p. 2)
THE IN/STABILITY OF
ARTS FUNDING
SO WHAT?
• Are festivals proliferating or flourishing?
• How do arts festivals support cultural, social and tourism objectives?
• What are the implications of neo-liberal, culture-led policies on the
future of festivals?
• Who benefits from festivals?
• Can tourism be a resource to support the arts and community?
REFERENCES
Getz, D & Page, SJ 2019, Event Studies: Theory, Research and Policy for Planned Events, Taylor &
Francis Group, Milton.
Higgins, V & Larner, W 2017, ’Introduction: Assembling Neoliberalism’ in V. Higgins & W. Larner
(eds.), Assembling Neoliberalism, Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, pp. 1–19.
Pine BJ & Gilmore JH 1999, The experience economy: Work is theatre & every business a stage,
Harvard Business Press.
Quinn, B 2013, ‘Arts festivals, urban tourism and cultural policy’ in D. Stevenson & A. Matthews
(eds.), Culture and the city: Creativity, tourism, leisure, Routledge, Oxon, pp. 69–84.
Quinn, B 2019, ‘A comment on: arts festivals, urban tourism and cultural policy’, Journal of Policy
Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, vol. 11, no. sup1, pp. s8–s12.
Tasmanian Government 2015, Events strategy 2015-2020, Hobart.
THANK YOU!
Image: www.oktoberfest.de