Course 2013-2014 a.y.

Course Objectives

Students attending the Workshop of Cultural heritage and the Arts Market are given a broad view on the managerial, economic and financial aspects, as well as on the process of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in the cultural sector, with a peculiar emphasis on economic valorisation.

Moreover the course explores the most innovative and controversial issues of the intermediation of goods, services and copyrights of cultural institutions and their business partners, with a prominent attention on the most important international experiences.

The workshop surveys the management issues ofleading organizations that operate in the art markets and deliver related services (galleries, auction houses, fairs, publishers, exhibition designers, sponsorship brokers, etc.), to look over the value chain in the visual arts field, the relationships between producers and consumers and the connections through dealers, places and emerging professional profiles.

The course also aims to work out internship agreements with public and private institutions, in order to give the students the possibility to strengthen their personal forming path and to prepare their thesis projects.

Course Content Summary

The Course focuses on six main issues:

• Markets (theories, actors, dynamics in the last 20 years, the status creation process, what is a gallery, auction houses, rules and organizations, museums, art magazines, public rules (legal and illegal markets), rights (droit de suite).
• Institutions (Museum management)
• Territories (Heritage and local development - public art -)
• Policies (Regulations, incentives, evaluations in a comparative perspective)

Each of these issues is set in a theoretical framework in frontal lessons and developed empirically through the illustration and discussion of some case studies. To widen the range of knowledge some special lecturers are invited to tackle the professional sides of the fields, meanwhile external visits to museums, events, fairs and cultural institutions allow a first-hand understanding of how they work behind the scene.

A further educational step required by the Course is the Project Work. Students in groups have to deliver a project and public presentation to the class on specific topics, which are introduced and commented during the first week of the course, to enable properly the choice process.

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

For Non-attending students
Written exam (1h45m) on all the subjects covered in the textbooks.

For Attending students
The status of attending student is recognized in the first two calendar exams of 2013. Students attending the course are required to demonstrate their skill to analyse specific issues as well as to summarize complex issues using several communication tools, working alone and within groups. The students who attend the course get a final grade formed as follows:

• Each student is assigned to one group. Groups work on projects during the whole semester, present their results in the last sessions of class, and have until the date of the exam to prepare a 5 pages wrap up document on the project. Projects account 50% of the total grade and are assessed both by faculty and peers. The outputs that are assessed are the presentation of the plan, and the actual project as of week of December 9th.
• Final written exam (1 hour). This is an essay based on the lessons, readings and testimonials. The essay accounts for 50% of the total grade.

Textbooks

To be defined at the beginning of the course