The artist in the room: an investigation of the independent artist as stakeholder in the decision-making of subsidised theatre in the UK

Empirical evidence from participant interviews, documents and focus groups, and drawing on Mitchell, Agle and Wood’s (1997) theory of stakeholder salience, demonstrates that, although present within value creation and production, artists lack salience in decision-making.<br><br>This study presents important findings that show political and public management influences dominate arts policy and subsidised theatre, prioritising economic value and accountability.

Within these processes, artists are detached, devalued, normalised as precarious, non-economic and dependent on the patronage of organisations and public bodies. Leaders of organisations and officers in public bodies are compromised by self- interest and networks of dependency, struggling to meet the multiple, interdependent, competing expectations of sector, artists, and the state as a dominant stakeholder. Important conclusions are drawn about subsidised theatre being rendered an unethical rationality in which no player can resist dominant systems of value and decision-making without a radical alteration of how the sector operates.

It may be desirable to see a wholesale dismantling of publicly subsidised organisational and policy systems, but this study suggests the interdependencies at play mean change cannot be achieved without radical collaboration between existing players.<br><br>These implications raise questions about the ethical responsibility of cultural leadership and arts policy-making. Further, it asks how assertions of intrinsic artistic value (distinct from or opposed to, economic valuation) can be sustained if research and practice continues to devalue the status of artists.