CFP: The art market, heritage and sustainable local development (University of Bologna in Rimini, 1-2 Jul 2025)

Artworks and art collections are part of cultural heritage, and are often displayed and traded in buildings, historical areas and other immovable settings that are also part of cultural heritage. Moreover, artworks and art objects may represent tangible elements connected with intangible heritage, such as rituals and traditions. This workshop will explore how the art market can contribute to an inclusive and sustainable valorisation of cultural heritage for local development, minimising the associated socio-economic costs. This perspective is particularly important within a “post-covid scenario” in which recovery and resilience can well pass through these specific channels. It is relevant also to the historical study of art markets, where the infrastructure of local economies and issues of internationalisation, such as transport and communication, influenced the art market.

Cultural heritage can generate socio-economic growth, for instance through (cultural) tourism, which has long been considered as the main traditional channel through which cultural heritage can be translated into local economic development. However, how can this mechanism be made more efficient and sustainable from a socio-economic perspective? And, in particular, how can the art market enhance local cultural heritage to favour a model of sustainable local development, the revitalisation of more remote areas, or the establishment of alternative hubs? We can refer for instance to the attempts favouring the development of local or minor art markets, as opposed to overcrowded art markets and agglomeration effects in major cities. On the other hand, how the global art market, and implied transportation, can be more sustainable?

Although cultural heritage has gained substantial institutional and academic attention as a contributor to local economic development, the empirical evidence on this topic is still scant. The impact of cultural heritage on the tourism industry has represented a rather traditional way to address development, but the subsequent link with local development needs some additional and deeper reflections. As such, potential drawbacks of (excessive) touristic flows have been highlighted from many perspectives, but they have been mainly focused on social and environmental concerns, basically disregarding the related potentially negative economic effects, that could be there, too. Furthermore, it is important to consider also some intangible and more sophisticated mechanisms through which cultural heritage can be enhanced, to favour a sustainable local socio-economic development. These are mainly related to territorial context conditions and up to now have been almost neglected within the existing studies. The workshop aims at addressing these issues.

For the full call, visit ArtHist.net (the source of this call): arthist.net/archive/43672

We invite papers that explore forms, functions and impacts of the art market on the development of cultural heritage and it is sustainability from historical or contemporary perspectives. We aim for papers that significantly contribute and apply theoretical and empirical methodologies from different disciplines.