Call for Proposals: Eventful Art Markets, University of Glasgow

Researching Art Markets past & present: Tools for the future (RAM-T)

International Workshop #9

Eventful Art Markets

School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, UK

23-24 October 2024

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Thinking Culture at the University of Glasgow will host the international workshop “Eventful Art Markets” on 23-24 October 2024, the ninth in the International Workshops Series Researching Art Markets past & present: Tools for the future (RAM-T). The Series is part of RAM-T, the international interdisciplinary initiative and community which was jointly founded by Elisabetta Lazzaro (Business School for the Creative Industries – University of the Creative Arts, UK), Nathalie Moureau (University Paul Valéry, Montpellier 3) and Adriana Turpin (IESA Art & Culture, Paris and the Society for the History of Collecting, London) in 2017. Through individual presentations followed by group discussions, the RAM-T workshop series aims to bring together international scholars and professionals from different disciplines, periods of study and professional approaches to confront key issues and develop methodologies to analyse and interpret the structures, practices and principles of the art market. Inaugurated in June 2018, workshops have taken place in Montpellier, Utrecht, London, Rome, Ljubljana, Paris, Rotterdam and Baton Rouge, and have covered topics spanning art collectors, the artist as an entrepreneur, the formation and development of new markets, communication strategies, legislation and finance, gatekeepers, and markets for applied arts, artistic crafts and design.

Eventful art markets

This workshop will explore the role of events in contemporary and historical art markets. The consistent activity of art markets is punctuated by events in which collectors, dealers, artists, galleries, curators and other market players come together for focused moments and places of exchange, including virtual ones. Art fairs are the most obvious examples of these events, but in historical and contemporary art markets, events such as biennials, lotteries, art weeks, major auctions, world expos, major openings and previews, and other events are also pertinent.

We invite papers that explore the forms, functions and impacts of these events, and the ways in which these concentrated moments and places of activity, or cyclical calendars of events, affect the broader art market. We aim for papers that significantly contribute and apply theoretical and empirical methodologies from different disciplines.

Possible areas of discussion include, but are not limited to:

Structures and organisational models of events
Global circulation of artworks via events
How art-market events can shape artistic production
Impacts of fair, auction, or biennial ‘calendars’ on year-round market activity
Locational, as well as duration and recurrence strategies of temporary events
Virtual events and their specificities
Local, national, and international cultural policy contexts for art events and markets
Roles of reporting and media on events in the art market
Relationships between market-focused events (e.g., fairs and auctions) and those that are not explicitly commercial (e.g., biennials, artists’ retrospectives)
Other major events not specific to the art market but which may affect it

Proposals submission and deadlines

We welcome submissions of rigorous theoretical or empirical (quantitative and/or qualitative) studies contributing to the topic illustrated above. We particularly welcome contributions that reflect on, or employ, innovative methodological approaches to these areas, and inter- and trans-disciplinary contributions from across arts, humanities and social sciences.

Please submit an abstract of 400 words of your proposed paper and a short biography to Nikki Kane (nikki.kane@glasgow.ac.uk) ccd. to Adriana Turpin (a.turpin@iesa.fr) by 31 May 2024. Notice of acceptance will be given by 21 June 2024.

Please note that this will be a fully in-person workshop.

There will be no attendance fees for participants.

Scientific Committee:

Nikki Kane, School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, UK
Elisabetta Lazzaro, Business School for the Creative Industries, University for the Creative Arts, UK
Allan Madden, School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, UK
Nathalie Moureau, RiRRa21, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France
Adriana Turpin, IESA, Paris, France

This workshop is supported by Thinking Culture / Collaborations & Cultural Activities Committee in the School of Culture & Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow.