Report on the emergence of values in cultural production and heritage

This report explores the emergence of values linked to culture production and heritage management. The repertoire of guiding values and the value dynamics in this area depend on the diversity of cultural sectors and the perspective of actors (cultural producers, critics, professionals, managers, etc.). On the other hand, values in cultural production and heritage management manifest in the practices of actors interacting within them in different kinds of institutional contexts and practical situations as well as in valuation mechanisms. We focus our inquiry into the vast field of cultural production and heritage management in such a way that we encompass the greatest possible diversity of sectors that are characteristically different in terms of their repertoires and dynamics of value. In order to cover the greatest number of values that are put into play in cultural production and heritage management, we have first selected organisations, practices or events linked to creation and production within the art sector and the cultural and creative industries. Secondly, we have identified within each artistic-cultural sector those areas where intrinsic values prevail (e.g. aesthetic criteria, conservation, education etc.); areas where extrinsic values predominate (e.g. economic or social); and, finally, areas where there is an evident tension between intrinsic and extrinsic values. Thirdly, organisations, practices or artistic-cultural events, where professionals develop their cultural production, were taken into account. Regarding cultural production, we have selected at least three case studies linked to professional cultural production, namely: (1) a case study linked to live performance and cultural production in the arts, in which intrinsic evaluation criteria -associated with aesthetic-conceptual experimentation- prevail; (2) a case study linked to cultural production in a sector of the creative industries, where, due to the type of production carried out, a tension between intrinsic values (aesthetic experimentation) and extrinsic values (economic and/or social) is manifested; (3) a case study linked to cultural production in a large company or cultural industry, where extrinsic principles of economic-profit valuation predominate. Regarding heritage management, we have identified three case studies of heritage management: (4) A case of an intercultural museum in its long process of establishment, with conflicting values of social integration and economic sustainability changing over time; (5) A case study on the reconstruction projects of the Buda Castle (Budapest, Hungary) where in different ideological frameworks questions of representation and authenticity may be analysed; (6) A case study concerning a Roma art exhibition in the Budapest History Museum, where tensions between top-down, bottom-up and participatory curatorship may be retraced as well as different approaches of minority and mainstream heritage management. The selection of each case study also took into account the geographical proximity of the partners involved in this area of research: Spain, Italy and Hungary, since the type of study requires both access to information sources and in-depth and peer-reviewed knowledge of contexts. Based on these parameters, six cases of studies linked to cultural production and heritage management were identified: three cases related to cultural production, and three cases related to heritage management.