Cultural Funding and Financing

“This impressive book gives contemporary academic and multidisciplinary insights into the complex topic of funding and financing of art and culture. It covers a broad range of funding opportunities, from traditional funding models to new and fully digital models, leveraged by new technologies. I highly recommend the book for scholars and practitioners in the cultural and creative sectors.”

Trine Bille, Professor of Cultural Economics, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

“This timely collection of essays by a number of distinguished contributors will fill a significant gap in the cultural economics literature. The volume will provide essential guidance to artists, cultural organisations and policymakers in their efforts to deal with rapid changes in the arts funding landscape in the contemporary world.”

Professor David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, Australia

“What makes this book stand out is its insistence on bridging traditional and emerging models—philanthropy, public subsidy, crowdfunding, online patronage, and more—while resisting simplistic narratives of innovation or decline. The editors bring together a remarkable range of scholars who ground their chapters in conceptual clarity, empirical rigor, and an interdisciplinary sensibility that reflects the real complexity of cultural production today. For researchers, policymakers, and practitioners alike, this collection is an indispensable guide to the shifting terrain of cultural finance.” Joanna Woronkowicz, Associate Professor, O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, US

This edited open access volume offers a comprehensive analysis of new and traditional funding models for the arts and culture. In the economic and political contexts of reduced art funding, the book takes an objective, pragmatic and heterodox approach to demonstrate how financial sustainability in the arts can be achieved via a range of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms which are valued either in terms of institutional or crowd-based legitimacy. The book aims to offer both a scholarly interpretation of funding and financing practices, as well as guidance for artists, creators, and cultural programmers.

Carolina Dalla Chiesa is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Economics at the Department of Arts and Culture, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

Anders Rykkja is a Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Industries Management at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.