Making Value and Career Building in the Creative Economy ― Evidence from Contemporary Visual Art

This work offers a nuanced perspective based on empirical evidence of the role of talent and creativity for economic growth, prosperity, social and spatial inequality, and precarity in creative cities by arguing that creativity and talent need to be valued and eventually rewarded to achieve sufficient conditions for individual economic success. Shedding light on the recent momentum of a growing convergence of cultural and economic spheres in post-industrial societies by building on a case study of contemporary visual art from interviews with commercial gallerists. Written from an economic geography and historical-institutional perspective while leveraging the analytic strength of the established repertoire of other social science disciplines this book will provide a fascinating read for economic geographers and other social scientists researching the creative and knowledge economy as well as arts professionals aiming to better understand the process of making value of contemporary visual art.

Melanie Fasche studies cities and the creative economy with a focus on value creation. She recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Cities team at the Martin Prosperity Institute in the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. While working on Richard Florida’s Cities team she led a research project on urbanization and the rise of an urban creative class in Southeast Asia and assisted with teaching and educational development. Melanie completed her PhD in Urban and Regional Economic Studies at HafenCity University Hamburg, and previously worked as freelance consultant and visiting lecturer in Berlin.