Creation and Consumption Experience of Cultural Value in Contemporary Art

Abstract

This article utilizes marketing theory to improve insight into the value relating to visual art creation and consumption by advancing understanding of its roles in the creation of the cultural value associated with contemporary art. This theoretical analysis enables construction of a conceptual model of value creation. The authors inform this by drawing on their qualitative research data on the cultural value of a contemporary art exhibition. Creation and sharing of value, including networks and discourses of value, are central to this agenda. Aesthetic experience and symbolic consumption are as influential or more so than instrumental measures of value. This can be visualized in a circle of value involving culture, marketing, and consumption, which shape meaning. A competency spectrum can be used to explain how and why each stakeholder behaves differently with respect to the cultural value present.