Art Work or Money: Conflicts in the Construction of a Creative Identity

Taylor, Stephanie; Littleton, Karen

doi:10.1111/j.1467-954x.2008.00788.x

Cited by 80 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…There needs to be space not only for teaching, but for other musical projects and diversity also. This kind multiplicity through 'double-life' commitments was reported also in Taylor and Littleton's (2008) 22 study in which young artists were reconciling their ambition in respect of their artistic work and earning money through teaching or other kinds of work. In addition to realism, Kati orients to teaching through her talk about 'interest'.…”

Section: Extractmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Her account also coheres around the challenges of constructing her identity creatively -balancing the dilemma of making work and earning money (Taylor and Littleton 2008). Kati is appealing to realism as a resource in accounting for her stance to teaching.…”

Section: Extractmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The design of the study has also been influenced by MacNamara et al (2008) qualitative interview approach to the study of how music students negotiated their transitions from studies to working life. Taylor and Littleton's (2008) interview study of artists and designers also proved 7 influential in respect of highlighting the challenges encountered whilst constructing oneself both as a creative and 'responsible' person in the context of the transition to working life.…”

Section: The Research Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracing the Transition from Study to a Contemporary Creative Working Life: The Trajectories of Professional Musicians

Juuti

Littleton

2011

Vocations and Learning

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The classical music academy is a site dominated by traditional meanings of creative practice and an image of professional creative careers as solo performers only fully available to a very few students after graduating. The purpose of the study reported in this paper is to explore career-young professional pianists' talk about the transition from study within a music academy to working life. The focus is on the ways in which they characterize the nature and significance of this transition from very traditional practice, and how they (re)negotiate their professional identities as working musicians and pianists in contemporary working lives. Four classical pianists were interviewed in-depth about their musicianship, including their transition from studies to working life. The qualitative analyses presented here suggest that, as they talked about their transitions and developing musicianship, the speakers constructed, reconstructed and oriented to notions of professional trajectories. Such trajectories are emergent and relational, and are contextually constituted (Sawyer 2003;Miell and MacDonald 2002;Moran and John-Steiner 2004). Crucially, the transition from study to working life is implicated in the process of assuming agency in respect of one's own musicianship and career. Agency in terms of one's identity as a professional musician involves (re)negotiating one's own pathways, narrations and trajectories. We suggest that such trajectories are not 'canonical' -being fixed or dependent on communal expectations, but reflect creative freedom and independence, encompassing multiple influences.Keywords Identity work, musicians, research interviews, transition 3 Musicians and transitionsThe characterization of musicians' development as a process involving progression through a fixed sequence of developmental stages (see for example Sosniak 1985;Manturzewska 1990;MacNamara et al. 2006) has emerged from a long tradition of music research concerned with theorizing musicians' development and identity construction. However, the process of becoming a musician is not simply about sequentially passing through particular developmental stages. Rather, the process of becoming a musician entails the negotiation of significant, complex transitions involving changing contexts. Some of the most notable macro transitions that occur during many musicians' early adulthood are those associated with gaining admission to an institution, such as a music academy or conservatoire, with the intention of studying to become a professional musician and those associated with negotiating the passage from such study to working life (see MacNamara et al. 2008MacNamara et al. , 2006. With respect to the transition into study Burt and Mills (2006), have argued that, in order to help students manage this transition smoothly, we need to understand the multiple tensions and conflicts that music students encounter and struggle with. 5We explore how professional pianists discuss their transition from their study context, within the Sibelius Academ...

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Section: Extractmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Extractmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Research Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tracing the Transition from Study to a Contemporary Creative Working Life: The Trajectories of Professional Musicians

Juuti

Littleton

2011

Vocations and Learning

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“…These descriptions reflected representations about artistic work practices -as described, for instance by Taylor and Littleton (2008), Røyseng et al, (2007), Bain (2005), or Menger (1999. These descriptions also linked artists to discourses about modernised spaces that provided stability, security and, "a supportive environment in a community of like-minded professionals ... digital facilities including broadband and on-going professional development training and support" (Acme, 2006b p. 11).…”

Section: Describing the Affordable Studiomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Promise of the Affordable Artist's Studio: Governing Creative Spaces in London

Moreton

2013

Environ Plan A

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The role of artists' organisations in populating and popularising postindustrial urban areas is well documented. However, what are less apparent are analyses of how spaces of artistic production are organised and governed in these areas. This paper explores, via an analysis of organisational documents and practices, the techniques used by London-based affordable studio providers to imagine, calculate, and make material low-cost workspace for artists. The argument made is that the negotiation of competing agendas around the production of cultural, economic, and social benefit by affordable studio providers has led to the emergence of a specific form of affordable studio. This analysis will thus show how configurations of creative space emerge from mundane techniques of measurement and governance.

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“…Here the artist's identity is shaped in relation to different ideas about the artist that exists in art students' different life contexts (Taylor and Littleton, 2008). In this study, I have therefore chosen to look at how young artists use different online communication tools and what these practices mean for the individual when establishing themselves as artists.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling singularity: The role of online communication for young visual artists’ identity management

Hansson

2015

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Abstract:This article contributes to the literature on art, new media and identity by investigating the role online communication plays for young visual artists' identity management. Drawing from comprehensive sources on the Internet such as blogs, web pages, networking sites and digital magazines, as well as interview data from art students at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, the article describes how artists deal with convergent contexts online, while addressing an exclusive public of cultural producers and simultaneously reaching for a broad cultural significance.The study shows how the artists' discursive practices online foremost preserve a traditional artist's persona. The common denominator for the few students who used the web differently to communicate and collaborate was that they appeared in a variety of creative fields and also that they came from affluent families. However, to reach a high degree of consecration on the Swedish art field one should not communicate with a broad public online but with the right people that one first gets to know face-to-face at intimate social gatherings. Online communication is foremost used as a way of displaying belonging to the field, and to show that one recognizes a certain value -the singular artist.

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Art Work or Money: Conflicts in the Construction of a Creative Identity

Abstract: Abstract:The identity projects of novice creative practitioners must take account of the economy of art work. It has been suggested (McRobbie, 2002a)

Cited by 80 publications

References 18 publications

Tracing the Transition from Study to a Contemporary Creative Working Life: The Trajectories of Professional Musicians

Tracing the Transition from Study to a Contemporary Creative Working Life: The Trajectories of Professional Musicians

The Promise of the Affordable Artist's Studio: Governing Creative Spaces in London

Controlling singularity: The role of online communication for young visual artists’ identity management

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