Learning arts organisations: innovation through a poetics of relation.

Gulari, Melehat Nil; Fremantle, Chris

Abstract

Arts organisations have had to reimagine their ways of working, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has severely challenged the venue-based sectors and exposed the fragility of the existing business model of the ‘receiving house'. We use a specific example to address the following question: In what sense can artists lead organisational innovation, learning and change? We analyse Riffing the Archive: Building a Relation project by MARIE ANTOINETTE (MA), an artist duo from Portugal, and their collaboration with the Barn, a multi-art centre in Banchory, Scotland, during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021. Édouard Glissant, Martinique-born poet and philosopher, underpins both MA’s practice and our analysis. We draw on the key concepts of his relational philosophy, including archipelago, opacity, and disaffiliation, to clarify how MA work, what they have offered the Barn and can offer to other art organisations seeking innovation and organisational learning. MA’s nuanced approach, informed by Glissant, reconfigures the relationship between artist and art organisation, challenges existing assumptions through discontinuous and new thinking while building a non-confrontational relationship with the Barn. It contributes to both organisational studies and arts research by highlighting the significance of MA’s approach to organisational innovation.

Citation

GULARI, M.N. and FREMANTLE, C. 2021. Learning arts organisations: innovation through a poetics of relation. Arts [online], 10(4): eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest: what we will need is more time for what we will (?), article 83. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts10040083

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 19, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 2, 2021
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Dec 9, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 9, 2021
• Journal: Arts
• Electronic ISSN: 2076-0752
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 83
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/arts10040083
• Keywords: Artist-led innovation; Édouard Glissant; Relational philosophy; Organisational change; Organisational learning; Practice-led research; COVID-19; Adaptation
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1499465