Communicating an arts foundation’s values: sights, sounds and social media

Purpose This paper tests and refines the long-established signal transmission model of the communication process by examining the ways in which a newly-formed nonprofit arts foundation communicated its professed values to its stakeholders. Methodological approach The study uses a mixed method case study approach. Interviews with key informants and observations of the foundation’s webpages enabled the identification of the professed values of the arts foundation. Next, a questionnaire survey established whether these values had been successfully decoded by stakeholders and identified the channels via which the values-related signals had been received. Findings The transmission model was found to be relevant as a model. However, to improve its fit within a nonprofit arts context, a modification to the model is suggested which highlights the importance of multi-sensory channels, the importance of context, and the increasingly important role of the stakeholder. Research limitations This study is a small-scale case study, although its mixed methods help to ensure validity. Practical implications The findings will help nonprofit arts organisations to decide on how to best communicate their values to their stakeholders. Social implications A determination by an organisation to uphold an uplifting range of values, such as those which were found to be transmitted by Folkstock, impacts upon society by the potential contribution to a better quality of life. Originality /value Literature which provides in-depth examination of the communication of values within a nonprofit arts context via a range of channels, including traditional, online and multi-sensory, is sparse. The opportunity to study a newly-formed nonprofit arts organisation is also rare. The results of this study provide valuable evidence that even in today’s social media-rich world, people, sounds, sights and material objects in physical space still have a vital role to play in the communication of values

The lived experience of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers: a serious leisure perspective

Along with other sporting mega-events, the Olympic Games, in all its versions, makes extensive use of volunteers. The 70,000 London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers, for example, played a vital role in the delivery of the event. Stebbins’ theoretical perspective of serious leisure includes consideration of volunteering and there are calls for its further empirical evaluation. This study, therefore, uses a qualitative study of the lived experience of London 2012 volunteers to test the relevance of the serious leisure framework to Olympic volunteering. The data are drawn from the reflective diaries of 20 participants who volunteered in a variety of roles during London 2012. It is concluded that all of the qualities of serious leisure are identifiable to various extents within the experiences of the London 2012 volunteers. This finding will help Olympic and other sporting mega-event managers to understand and improve the experiences of their volunteers. Recommendations are also made, in the light of the findings, for the further refinement of the serious leisure perspective. Particular attention is paid to highlighting how the findings might contribute to recent debates around whether sporting mega-event volunteering is best explained by the serious leisure quality of career volunteering, or by the serious leisure associated concept of project-based leisure, or alternatively by the competing term of episodic volunteering

Initiations, interactions, cognoscenti: social and cultural capital in the music festival experience

This thesis explores the role of social and cultural capital in the music festival experience. It does so by gathering observations and post-festival accounts from attendees at three separate music festivals located in England. The data were analysed using Fairclough's approach to critical discourse analysis, resulting in the identification of styles and orders of discourse. Little research, particularly of a qualitative nature, has investigated the roles of cultural taste and social inter-relationships in the music festival experience. Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital and the inter-linked theory of social capital, developed with slightly different emphases by Bourdieu, Coleman and Putnam, were selected as providing an appropriate theoretical framework. Cultural capital, particularly its component of habitus, was a useful lens for focusing on the ways in which participants' cultural tastes related to their festival experience. Social capital was useful for its orientation towards the role of social inter-relationships in the development of cultural taste and festival experience. This thesis found that the youth years, particularly through peer influence, were a rich period for initiation into a taste for a particular genre of music. Initiation could also occur later in life. This contrasts with cultural capital theory's emphasis on early socialisation through family and school. A sense of being a member of the festival music genre's cognoscenti was also found to play a role in the festival experience. Participants discovered complexity in all genres of festival music, challenging the hierarchies underpinning cultural capital. Festivals were found to be sites where connections with already known associates were intensified (bonding social capital), rather than sites where enduring new connections were made (bridging social capital). This thesis critically develops approaches to social and cultural capital and suggests drivers for cultural policy

The genetics of blood pressure regulation and its target organs from association studies in 342,415 individuals

To dissect the genetic architecture of blood pressure and assess effects on target-organ damage, we analyzed 128,272 SNPs from targeted and genome-wide arrays in 201,529 individuals of European ancestry and genotypes from an additional 140,886 individuals were used for validation. We identified 66 blood pressure loci, of which 17 were novel and 15 harbored multiple distinct association signals. The 66 index SNPs were enriched for cis-regulatory elements, particularly in vascular endothelial cells, consistent with a primary role in blood pressure control through modulation of vascular tone across multiple tissues. The 66 index SNPs combined in a risk score showed comparable effects in 64,421 individuals of non-European descent. The 66-SNP blood pressure risk score was significantly associated with target-organ damage in multiple tissues, with minor effects in the kidney. Our findings expand current knowledge of blood pressure pathways and highlight tissues beyond the classic renal system in blood pressure regulation

Social capital in the music festival experience

This chapter uses the theoretical concept of social capital as its framework to examine festivals in the context of social and cultural policy. Government policies have cited culture and the arts as social tools which can help combat social exclusion, bridge barriers between groups and foster community cohesion. Leading social capital theorist Robert Putnam specifically suggests that cultural events can bring together diverse social groups. To investigate these claims in practice, this study collected empirical data designed to provide insight into the operation of social inter-relationships at three festivals: a pop festival, an opera festival and a folk festival. The empirical data, comprising observations, screening questionnaires and in-depth interviews, was analysed using critical discourse analysis to bring out styles and discourses relating to social interactions. It was found that the reinforcement of existing relationships, termed bonding social capital by Putnam, was an important part of the festival experience. The formation of new and enduring social connections with previously unconnected attendees - Putnam’s bridging social capital - was not, however, found to be a feature of festivals, despite a sense of general friendliness and trust identified by some. This study therefore suggests that music festivals are not valuable sites for social and cultural policy aims of combating social exclusion, bridging barriers between groups and fostering wider community cohesion

A ‘Big’ legacy? Evaluating volunteers’ experiences of London 2012 and beyond

This study aims to discover whether the Olympic experience transformed London 2012 volunteers into engaged citizens. The chapter was underpinned by the British government’s hope that Olympic volunteering may help with building a ‘Big Society’. The experiences of twenty London 2012 volunteers are structured into three phases, with data taken from their diaries and interviews. There is evidence of transformation in many of the participants’ lives and sense of self, with some experiencing clear turning points or rites of passage. It also seems that their London 2012 volunteering experience increased their community engagement in the widest sense

The special challenges of marketing the arts festival

Arts festivals encompass a wide range of genres and time scales and are situated in locations across the world in towns and villages, cities and rural greenfield spaces. According to Arts Council England (2012), art forms include dance, literature, music, theatre and visual arts. Multiple art forms may also be brought together or combined into multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary work under the umbrella of festivals. Arts festivals therefore vary substantially in content, although all are anchored to one or more of these art forms.... Devising effective arts festival marketing strategies requires knowledge of the special nature of the festival, as well as the special nature of the festival participant. This chapter will highlight theories and concepts which will help in understanding both of these elements

Introduction: the need to understand the social dimensions of events

Events operate on a range of scales, from the small, volunteer-run community event for 100 or so people, to the professionally organized, politically driven mega-event which takes years to plan and attracts millions of attendees. Events take place across the world, in rural and urban locations, within developed and developing nations, as well as in the virtual domain. Events encompass a wide variety of themes and formats, from music festivals to sporting competitions and trade exhibitions. Despite their many differences, however, linking all of these events is the presence of people who interact with each other