Artists’ Voices in Cultural Policy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Mapping Perceptions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Introduction: Understanding Artists

      • Simone Wesner

      Pages 3-15

   3. The Artist and the Artistic Myth

      • Simone Wesner

      Pages 17-40

   4. Memory

      • Simone Wesner

      Pages 41-70

   5. Identity

      • Simone Wesner

      Pages 71-95

3. Visual Artists in Cultural Policy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 97-97

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   2. Inherited Certainties: Transitional Cultural Policies and Visual Artists

      • Simone Wesner

      Pages 99-143

   3. Artists’ Professionalisation and Careers in the Cultural Policy Landscape

      • Simone Wesner

      Pages 145-176

   4. Conclusion: Artists, Policy and the Future of the Professional Class

      • Simone Wesner

      Pages 177-184

4. Back Matter

   Pages 185-197

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This volume examines visual artists’ careers in the East German region of Saxony, as seen through the lens of cultural policy studies. The book discusses how myth binaries, memory layers and identity markers shaped artists professional lives in an interwoven and fluid approach following German unification, taking a fresh look at the intricacies of visual artists’ careers within the specifics of the cultural, social and political changes. It surveys artists’ professional practice and work under the new framework of the professional class, and discusses the implications for the profession of artists with special reference to visual artists. Simone Wesner looks beyond geographical and political contexts and provides the reader with a longitudinal narrative that produces a revised understanding of artists’ careers within the cultural policy context.  

• artists
• career
• German unification
• politics
• cultural policy
• policy research
• creative industries
• artistic work
• identity
• german politics

“Encompassing seventy years and conducted over a span of twenty-one, her data presents an exceptional resource that pertains beyond her immediate field of cultural policy research and should be of interest to historians, political scientists, art historians, German and Eastern European Studies scholars, as well as transition researchers.” (Evelyn Preuss, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature STTCL, Vol. 44 (1), 2020)

 

• Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, School of Arts, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, United Kingdom

  Simone Wesner

Simone Wesner is Lecturer in Cultural Policy and Arts Management at Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

Policies and ethics