The Art of Success In Art

Social Origin, Gender, Education and Career 1945-2007

Research project funded by the Committee for Educational Science, Swedish Research Council. Period Jan 2006 - Dec 2008 (prolonged until 2010, due to parental leaves).

Summary

Few individuals are admitted to higher education in the fine arts, even fewer manage to make a living as artists, and a very small number become successful. The question of social, gender-related and ethnic imbalances in the recruitment to higher education is posed with particular urgency here. Moreover, the distinctive features of aesthetic education deserve special attention and invite a comparative approach.

The project focuses on art students’ origins, education and careers. Important questions include: What paths lead to higher education in fine arts? What are the characteristics of those who end up there (social origin, gender, scholastic success, etc)? What are their prospects? And how has all this changed over the last fifty years?

Five studies are included. Two of them take as their object the whole space of upper secondary, preparatory and higher art education. One compares art and drama education. The recruitment to two specific schools–The Royal University College of Fine Arts and The University College of Arts, Crafts and Design–and the students’ careers are the focus of another. Additional ways of entering the artistic field is the theme of the remaining study.

Scholars from economic history, sociology of education, and art history will co-operate. Data sets comprising all students in secondary and higher education for selected years, historical census data, archival material from art schools and other institutions, surveys and interviews will be used.

For further information, see project Application (In Swedish).

Researchers and Research Environments

Scholars from economic history, sociology of education, and art history co-operate in this project. Prof. Johan Söderberg together with PhD Martin Gustavsson represents one research environment at the Department of Economic History, Stockholm University. Prof. Donald Broady is the director of the research group of Sociology of Education and Culture (SEC) at the Department of Education, Culture and Media (EDU), Uppsala University. The following members of SEC also participate in the project: Mikael Börjesson (PhD and co-director of SEC), Ida Lidegran (PhD candidate), Emil Bertilsson (PhD candidate) and Andreas Melldahl (PhD candidate). Art history is represented by PhD Christina G. Wistman and Barbro Andersson (Phd-candidate at Stockholm University). Also contributing to the project is director Bengt Carlsson from the National Academy of Mime and Acting (Teaterhögskolan). Raoul Galli, (PhD-candidate in Social Anthropology at Stockholm University), and Hanna Landström, (student in Art history at Uppsala University) also work as research assistants. Brigitte Le Roux (UFR mathématiques et informatique, Université René Descartes, Paris) is engaged in the project as an expert in statistics, such as Correspondens Analysis and other Geometric Data Analysis. At an earlier stage, Gergei Farkas (Phd-candidate in Sociology, Stockholm university) was also involved in the project.

Martin Gustavsson
<martin.gustavsson@ekohist.su.se>
Department of Economic History
Stockholm University

Mikael Börjesson
<mikael.börjesson@edu.uu.se>
Sociology of Education and Culture (SEC)
Department of Education Culture and Media
Uppsala University