Research Article
Discovering the meaningfulness of art in organizations
Experiences with add art Hamburg 2015
Abstract
Given the growth in corporate art collecting, surprisingly little research has been conducted on how employees experience art in the workplace. This article draws on survey data collected in the context of add art Hamburg 2015, which included permanent and temporary exhibitions in 22 organizations. The findings confirm that the presence of artworks can interrupt routine ways of perceiving and using space. It triggers questions and conversations, which stimulate sensemaking processes and enrich relationships with colleagues. It also opens managers and employees to seeing everyday life and relationships with customers in a more holistic way. Furthermore, the study shows that the removal of artworks is experienced as loss and emptiness, as well as a harbinger of new potential. Finding that employees welcome more art at work, the article discusses the conditions under which people in organizations can engage with the arts as co-learners.
Keywords
2018 (2)
Wirtschaftsästhetik

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Keywords
- aesthetics
- higher education
- cultural diplomacy
- career, professional role
- audience studies
- Business
- digitalization, digitization
- diversity
- empirical aesthetics
- entrepreneurship
- development, transformation
- ethics
- Evaluation
- festival
- film
- social change
- ideology
- staging
- communication
- Concert
- creativity
- culture
- arts organizations, cultural organizations
- fincancing the arts
- cultural history
- cultural economy
- art education
- cultural policy
- cultural sociology
- audience development, art education
- arts administration, arts management
- cultural industry
- cultural sciences
- art
- arts research
- curating
- artists
- leadership
- management
- marketing
- market
- media
- methods development
- museum
- music
- opera
- orchestra
- organization
- law
- social cohesion
- community arts
- state
- urbanism
- dance
- theater
- theory development
- tourism
- civil society, third sector