Economics of Visual Art

An interdisciplinary microeconomics primer covering for-profit and non-profit institutions in the visual arts. Accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations, wide-ranging case studies, and discussion questions, this volume explores the complexities of how economics applies to art, and by extension to design and creative industries.

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How can arts managers, artists, and art market observers approach the study of economics? Accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations, wide-ranging case studies, and expansive discussion resources, this interdisciplinary microeconomics primer engages with complex – and, at turns, political – questions of value and resourcefulness with the artist or manager as the decision-maker and the gallery, museum or studio as 'the firm'. Whitaker arms the reader with analytic and creative tools that can be used in service to economic sustainability for artists and organizations. By exploring the complexities of economics in application to art, design and creative industries, this book offers ways to approach the larger world as an art project.