Report Art Institutions of the 21st Century

Registered Charity Number: 1173044

December 2016
The Report Art Institutions of the 21st Century chronicles key aspects of the think tank Media in the Expanded Field, which took place at Fundación Casa Wabi, Mexico, in July 2016. The publication explores the changes in the role of art institutions in the 21st century, arising from a number of key factors such as globalisation, privatisation, and the impact of technology, alongside developments in the production and reception of art.

Please click on the following link to download a complimentary digital copy in pdf.
AI21C_Report_Art Institutions of the 21st Century

de Oliveira, N., La Rosa, M.: Art Institutions of the 21^st Century, by Montabonel & Partners for Alaska Editions, 2016

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AI21C makes its material freely and openly available to professionals and the public, both as a report to be shared with 3rd parties or quoted/referenced in research and articles. The book may however not be reproduced in whole or in part, including illustrations in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publishers.

Manifesto

1.
Facilitate collaborations between the public and private cultural sector.

2.
Provide a research platform for experts across disciplines to cooperate.

3.
Engage with research and development from the academic and entrepreneurial sector.

4.
Encourage flexible networks that create symbiotic relationships between and within institutions.

5.
Being publically-minded is more important than being private or public as an institution.

6.
A functional structure for the institution should be preferred to a hierarchical model.

7.
Acknowledge today’s audiences as active participants and generators of contemporary cultural content.

8.
Against the individualism, isolation and fast pace of the media age, institutions are a forum for meaningful interaction.

9.
A nomadic approach for institutions expands their boundaries beyond the confines of national identity.

10.
Cultural institutions of the future will be mutable physical and virtual entities, evolving from places of art storage and preservation to sites of ongoing knowledge production and exchange.

11.
Digitisation is not a virtual substitute for archival holdings, but a tool that expands visibility, access and content – if the map is of the same scale as that which it describes, it ceases to function.

12.
International partnerships between organisations perform the twin functions of supporting the local and attracting the global.

13.
It is in the interest of all agents in the cultural sector to support education, artist production and professionalization, as well as artist-run institutions and innovative curatorial practice.

14.
Institutions should identify and enhance their unique selling point and make use of independent strategic consultancy to ensure a degree of objectivity in decision-making.

15.
Advocate for transparency of institutions in relation to the market and vested interests.

16.
The institution of the 21st Century should acknowledge its complicity with that which it denounces.