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LT1001NThe Leisure and Tourism Environment

Lecture 7

Arts, Culture and Heritage

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Lecture Content

The nature of art and culture

Elitism and populism

Culture or kitsch?

Commodification and the cultural industries

Arts and the media

Heritage – preservation, interpretation and re-creation

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Arts, Culture and Heritage

A broad subject area

We treat these three elements together because they inter-relate and overlap

The classical arts

The popular arts

Culture in general

Heritage

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The nature of art and culture

What is art ?

“As the Surrealists demonstrated, art is art when somebody says it is”

Lewis, J (1990)Art, Culture and Enterprise

London: Routledge

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Some definitions

Raymond WilliamsCulture and Society (1958)Keywords (1983)

An art (orig.): A human attribute or skill ‘Art’: A particular group of skills, the

imaginative or ‘creative arts’ ‘Artist’: a special kind of person,

possessing these creative ‘artistic’ skills

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‘The Arts’

Literature Music Drama / Theatre Painting Sculpture Ceramics

Variously described as:

‘Classical Art’ ‘Fine Art’ ‘High’ Art

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Some characteristics of classical arts

BACKGROUND Origins in classical

Greek and Roman culture

There, the province of a privileged ruling Patrician class

Drawing, painting, sculpture, music, drama, literature

Inter-related genres

IMPLICATIONS

Minority interest

Understood only by highly educated minority

Social class implications

Not accessible to all

Elitist in nature

Confined to certain artistic forms

Distinct from entertainment

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Elitism vs populism in the arts

Often stated key concern ‘Classical arts’ (exclusive) versus ‘popular

arts’ (inclusive) But many consider this dichotomy to be

artificial (see Tusa, Walden) Three aspects:

access to the arts - popularisation but to what kind of arts? (‘democratisation’

versus ‘cultural democracy’). funding implications – the remit of the Arts

Council initially confined to ‘classical arts’.

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The elitism / populism debateOptional reading for those interested

Tusa, J., (2000) Art Matters: Reflecting on Culture. London: Methuen. Chap.6. ‘Populism Versus Elitism – Real Enemies or Bogus Opponents?’

Walden, G. (2000) The New Elites. Making a career in the masses. London: Penguin Books. Chap.5., ‘A Culture of Pretence’

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Democratising Culture vs. Cultural Democracy (Council of Europe)

DEMOCRATISING CULTURE

Classical art is taken as the starting point

Emphasis on content, standards, quality, values – ‘fine art’

People should learn to “appreciate” it

Requires certain educational level

Claimed by some to be elitist

CULTURAL DEMOCRACY The starting point is

people and the art that they create

Community-based – ‘community arts’

People create it for themselves

Not rooted in classical arts

Populist

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Culture

Can take many forms, have many meanings

Serves as a medium through which people define themselves

Culture and identity

Classical or ‘high’ culture

Popular culture

Mass culture

Low culture

Commodification of culture - good or bad?

Postmodern thinking

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Culture

“Whenever I hear the word culture, I

reach for my gun”

Hermann Goering (1893-1946)

Why does the word ‘culture’ evoke such powerful emotions?

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Culture - etymology

A complex and value-laden word

Originally: meant much the same as ‘cultivation’, as in the growth of crops

Then developed a parallel meaning of improving one’s mind, through education and exposure to the fine arts, humanities and the principles of science

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Culture and self-improvement

Link therefore made between culture and self-improvement

Cultivation of the mind – culture / education link

Reflects Victorian beliefs – cf. ‘Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences 1867-1871’

Arts and science linked – discovery – reflection of modernity

cf. a much later debate, C.P. Snow, “The Two Cultures” (1959)

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Narrow and broad views of culture

Narrow view: familiarity with / involvement in the fine arts - painting, sculpture, literature, dance, drama - as a measure of societal advancement

Broad view: (sociological) – ‘culture’ is the totality of the customs, artistic achievements and general civilisation of a country or people

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Material culture

Term used by anthropologists, archaeologists and museum curators

Designates the physical (‘cultural’) objects associated with a particular people, whether they are useful or not

Artefacts as signifiers

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Hostility to culture

Began in 19th Century

Complex links made between ‘higher’ culture and class distinctions

This caused many people to reject its implied claim of superior knowledge and refinement

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Hostility to culture – international connotations and cultural identity

1st World War – jingoistic reaction to the use of culture in German propaganda

Similarly, in 30’s, in reference to Soviet Russia

Chinese ‘cultural revolution’, 1966-1976

UK ‘Department of Culture, Media and Sport’ (1997) almost has Orwellian or totalitarian overtones (cf. Soviet ‘Ministry of Culture’)

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Extended meanings of culture:Culture and anti-culture

‘Culture’ is increasingly used to indicate any group of people linked by some common characteristic, activity, belief or circumstances, often in a pejorative sense:

Yob culture Drink culture Drug culture Laddish culture Gun culture Cyberculture Net culture Rave culture Punk culture Queer culture

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Arts and EntertainmentSome descriptor words (after Hughes, 2000)

ARTS ENTERTAINMENTrefinement fundamental enjoyment excitement

learned (educational)

purposeful / enduring

frivolous escapist

serious emotional passive delight

creative inspirational self-indulgent amusement

enlightenment cultured pleasurable transitory / ephemeral

expressive non-commercial

fun commercial

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Arts – characteristics of the genre

Classical music, ballet, plays, opera, paintings, sculpture

Associated with ‘refinement’ and with something more than the ‘ordinary’ man or woman could either produce or appreciate without training, education and effort

The arts are regarded as the work of a few talented people and represent the highest levels of human creative ability

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Arts – characteristics of the genre

Works of art are created for their own sake as an expression of the creator’s vision, and are not created primarily with a view to making money

Similarly, performers have chosen to enter this field because of some inner impulse, natural talent, and intrinsic satisfactions, and not necessarily for financial reward

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Arts – characteristics of the genre

The ‘culture’ of a nation or society often refers to its commitment to these values

For some, the terms ‘fine arts’ and ‘culture’ are synonymous and interchangeable

People who understand and appreciate the arts as so defined are said to be ‘cultured’

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Entertainment – characteristics of the genre

In contrast to the arts, entertainment has overtones of being light, pleasurable and undemanding

It requires little effort to appreciate

Entertainment is generally considered to be, in some way, inferior to, and less valuable and serious than, the arts

At its most extreme, people who seek only popular entertainment and have no interest in the arts are said to be ‘uncultured’

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Mainstream arts – originsCEMA and the Arts Council

In 1940 the Council for Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) was set up to promote interest in the arts during wartime

It was highly successful and gave rise in 1945 to the Arts Council of Great Britain

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The Arts Council – original remit

"To develop a greater knowledge,

understanding and practice of the fine arts

exclusively, and in particular to increase the

accessibility of the fine arts to the public, to

improve the standard of execution of the fine

arts and to advise and co-operate with

government departments, local authorities and

other bodies on any matters concerned

directly or indirectly with these objects"

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The Arts Council – current remit

To develop and improve the knowledge, understanding and practice of the arts

To increase the accessibility of the arts to the public throughout the UK

To advise and co-operate with government departments, local authorities and other bodies on any matters concerned with these objectives

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Arts providers

National art galleries and museums (Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Gallery)

Local art galleries and museums

Concert halls, theatres and arts centres (South Bank Centre; Barbican; National Theatre)

Private art collections (Courtauld Institute)

Commercial art galleries (Connaught Brown; Saatchi gallery)

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Culture and the media

The media have an important role in the promotion and dissemination of culture

Through popularising classical culture (e.g., television: ‘The South Bank Show’; BBC-2; Channel 4)

Through presenting new and experimental culture

Through creating new media-driven cultural forms

Through integrating cultural forms

Through developing new audiences for arts programmes

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‘Popular’ cultureThe term ‘popular’ can have several meanings (Williams, 1976)

Inferior kinds of work (‘popular’ tabloid press vs. ‘quality’ broadsheet press)

Setting out to win favour (‘popular journalism’, ‘popular entertainment’)

Well liked by many people (‘deservedly popular’)

Originating from (made by), and identified with, the majority of people (‘popular culture’)

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Popular culture

Entertainment and many other activities including football, fashion, shopping, watching television, and visits to bars and clubs have been categorised as ‘popular culture’

Popular culture is a broad culture with which most people can identify

Shapes their behaviour and their consumption patterns

Most of this ‘cultural product’ is commercially produced – by the ‘cultural industries’ (commodification)

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Popular culture

It may be the outcome of a creative process, but whether it involves self-conscious expression or merely reproductions of the world is debatable

Sold to consumers to make money, rather than as a primary expression of human creativity

A commodified product

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Mass culture

One step further down the road to commercialisation

A standardised ‘cultural product’ produced for mass consumption

In the 21st century, the cultural experiences of the majority of the population of the industrialised world are received through television, video, CDs, DVDs and computers - the electronic mass media

Consumers are persuaded to purchase through intensive marketing campaigns

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Culture or kitsch?

Questions of value and artistic merit are inescapable, although difficult to arrive at

What gives something artistic merit?

It is arrived at by external judgment, not inherent in the object (Lewis, 1990)

It is therefore contentious and not universally agreed upon

But most would agree on what is worthless by any reasonable standard – described as ‘kitsch’ – crass, tasteless, vulgar, hideous, mass-produced !

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Culture and the mediaThe birth of ‘the cultural industries’

The media have been a driving force in the development of the ‘cultural industries’

These promote and sell ‘popular culture’ and ‘mass culture’

They may also popularise traditional culture

But may change its essence through commodification

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Popularising ‘classical’ cultureSome examples

The Henry Wood Proms

‘Proms in the Park’

‘Pavarotti in the Park’

Nigel Kennedy; Evelyn Glennie; Julian Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber

‘The Three Tenors’ (Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti)

‘Hooked on Classics’

Raymond Gubbay organisation

Classic FM

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Popularising ‘classical’ cultureA paradox

The Millennium Dome – an embodiment of ‘popular culture’, and an icon of New Labour’s cultural policy, has been a catastrophic failure, while:

Tate Modern and Tate Britain – both based on classical and contemporary art, have been highly successful with a mass public

Suggests that the supposed ‘elitist’ connotations of classical art are not borne out in practice

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Audiences and access – some further myths

Prevalent stereotype of classical arts audiences as being predominantly white, middle-class, wealthy, public-school educated

Not borne out at all by demographic analysis of attendance figures at classical arts events

See Tusa article (Readings 7), pp.15-16.

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Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

One of the largest Government departments

Formerly the Department of National Heritage

Renamed by New Labour (1997)

Has policy responsibility for museums, galleries and libraries, the built heritage, the arts, sport, education, broadcasting and the media and tourism, as well as the creative industries, the Millennium Projects and the National Lottery.

Website: www.culture.gov.uk

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Culture and the media – a paradox

The media selects particular individuals and confers on them iconic status

They become media icons – elite figures

The public do not object to, or denigrate, elite celebrities (e.g., footballers)

So why is elitism acceptable in sport but frowned upon in the arts?

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Culture in postmodernity(see Featherstone, 1991)

Clear distinctions such as those previously made between art and entertainment are now increasingly seen as being unjustifiable

The arts-entertainment distinction is ultimately a matter of judgement

The definition of what is / is not art has been made by a small (until recently) body of well-educated people

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Culture in postmodernity(see Featherstone, 1991)

Postmodernity involves the breakdown of established structures, and the blurring of traditional boundaries

Known as ‘dedifferentiation’

There are no certainties and everything has its own validity

There are no clear rules for interpreting the world

Each individual can give and derive meaning from objects and activities precisely as they wish

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Heritage: a definition

“The representation of the past for popular contemporary consumption” Fiona Terry-Chandler (2000)

Heritage is about preservation, interpretation and re-creation

But it is clearly also about commercialisation, commodification, and consumption

The ‘heritage industry’ is a significant part of the broader ‘cultural industries’

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Heritage types

Can distinguish between:

Cultural heritage - languages and customs

Built heritage - historic buildings and sites

Natural heritage - fauna and flora

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The heritage industry

Hewison (The Heritage Industry, 1987) is critical of much of this, in a UK context:

“While the real economy crumbles, a new force is taking over: the Heritage Industry, a movement dedicated to turning the British Isles into one vast open-air museum”

How much is authentic, and how much pastiche?

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MuseumsChanging roles – the growth of ‘edutainment’

Traditionally, the role of museums is one of:

Collection Conservation Display Education

But this role is changing to embrace elements of:

Entertainment Interaction Interpretation

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The postmodern museum

Characterised by:

Widening of range of exhibits, reflecting pluralisation and contemporarisation of history

Direct participation by visitors / greater interactivity – elimination of ‘the glass case’ (Hooper-Greenhill, 1988)

Great attempts to communicate with, and interpret for, visitors (through audio-guides, videos, websites, etc).

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Set Readings (Readings Seven)

Paper 1: Tusa, J. The former broadcaster discusses the nature of

art and why it is important in society Papers 2: Urry, Foley & McPherson

Introduction to heritage concepts and the postmodern museum

Papers 3: Deuchar, Terry-Chandler Presenting and representing heritage – ‘Titanic’

(exhibition and film)

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Recommended further reading

Du Gay, P. (ed.) (1997)

Production of culture / cultures of production. London: Sage / Open University.

An interesting introduction to the ‘cultural industries’

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LT1001N - Keeping ahead !WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE BY NOW (Week 7)

Downloaded Lectures 1- 7 from the website Revised these lectures and made your own

supplementary notes Prepared Readings Six (Elvin; Holt & Mason;

Whannel papers) for this week’s seminar Completed and written up your Portfolio Section

Three (‘The Sport and Recreation Domain’)

Beginning Portfolio Section Four (‘The Arts, Culture and Heritage Domain’)