| Abstract: | SUMMARY From a critical perspective, this paper examines the development of closer relationships between business and the arts. There has been a concerted effort to expand “exchange transitions,” a fundamental marketing concept, so that marketing is now viewed as a pervasive social activity. As such, marketers like corporate sponsors are the possessors and disseminators of a new and powerful language. Three strands of investigation are pursued: the conceptualization of the consumer in relationship to the arts organization; the significance of the (American-based) Business Committee for the Arts, since its founding in the late 1960s, in championing stronger relationships between commercial enterprises and arts organizations; and interventions by visual artist Hans Haacke, as an example of culture jamming, against what he perceives to be the corporate takeover of the arts. These cases are points of contact representing the complex and contested managerial imperatives faced by arts organizations. |
