Essay
Professional Amateur Artists and Cultural Management
Abstract
When dilettantism rose in the 18th century, it was an expression of investigative curiosity and creative passion beyond the existing scientific canon. The innovative drive of dilettantes was soon afterwards belittled by the establishment and disappeared into the equation dilettante = charlatan, used until today. The pioneering spirit of dilettantism, however, re-materialized in the professional amateur (pro-am), a societal character that turns ideas and hobbies into activities of quasi-professional standard. Especially in the arts, pro-ams are numerous and carry a significant potential for social participation and innovation. This essay reflects on how cultural managers could take a role in recognizing, promoting and fostering the pro-am potential in the arts and in society.
Keywords
2016 (1)
Cultural Management Without Borders
Related Articles
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Research Article
Crucial Quality Features of Visual Artists’ and DIY-Musicians’ YouTube Channels
Journal of Cutural Management and Cultural Policy
Research Article
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Research Article
Activism and bottom-up narratives of change in Greek cultural policy: the case of #SupportArtWorkers
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Case Study
Photography as Engaged Art—Queer Utopias during the HIV/AIDS Crisis
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Research Article
The Emerging Role of Artists in Co-Creation of Climate Adaptation
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Research Article
© 2025, Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy
Keywords
- Aesthetics
- Higher Education
- Cultural Diplomacy and Foreign Cultural Policy
- Occupation
- Career and Professional Role
- Audience Development
- Audience Studies and Visitor Studies
- Visitor Motivations
- Business
- Covid Pandemic
- Democracy
- Digitalization
- Diversity
- Third Sector
- Empirical Aesthetics
- Development
- Ethics
- Evaluation
- Field Theory
- Festival
- Film
- Federalism
- Community Arts
- Societal Change
- Ideology
- Staging
- Career
- Communication
- Concert
- Creative Industries
- Creativity
- Crisis
- Culture
- arts organizations, cultural organizations
- Cultural Participation
- Cultural Change
- Fincancing The Arts
- Cultural Promotion Law
- Cultural History
- Cultural Management
- Cultural Economy
- Cultural Organizations
- Art Education
- Cultural Policy
- Cultural Production
- Cultural Sociology
- Art Education
- Cultural Understanding
- Arts Administration
- Cultural Industry
- Cultural Sciences
- Art
- Art Field
- Arts Research
- Artists
- Artistic Research
- Artistic Reputation
- Arts Management
- Arts Organizations
- Art education
- Arts Marketing
- Arts Administration
- Curating
- Leadership
- Literature
- Advocacy
- Management
- Marketing
- Market
- Media
- Methods Development
- Mexico
- Monumentalizing
- Museum
- Music
- Non-Visitor Studies
- Opera
- Orchestra
- Organization
- Political Expression
- Post-truth Politics
- Professional Role
- Audience
- Audience Development
- Law
- Government
- Role
- Socially Engaged Art
- Social Cohesion
- Social Change
- Social Cohesion
- Non-visitor Socio-demographics
- Socioculture
- State
- Symbolic capital
- Dance
- Participatory Justice
- Theatre
- Theatre Governance
- Theory Development
- Tourism
- Transformation
- Survey
- Entrepreneurship
- Urbanism
- Civil Society