A series of nine texts that confronts, from within the sector itself, what culture can and cannot do for society. Each takes a story the cultural world tells about itself (that it transforms lives, that it includes, that it democratises, that it recognises talent) and examines what lies beneath once the rhetoric is stripped away. This is not a case against culture: it is the conviction that culture is best defended by telling the truth about its reach. We criticise what we love.
The nine texts may be read separately, yet they form a journey, from the producer to the recipient and from the physical workshop to the screen.
- The impact we claim to have – The gap between the effect cultural mediation documents and the transformation it proclaims.
https://juanesteban.art/en/the-impact-we-claim-to-have/ - Art and good conscience – Why a work’s good social intentions are no substitute for its value as a work.
https://juanesteban.art/en/art-and-a-good-conscience/ - What we choose to remember – Preserving heritage always means selecting, and selecting is a decision someone is responsible for.
https://juanesteban.art/en/what-we-decided-to-remember/ - Working for the love of art – How vocation is used to cheapen cultural work, and whom it leaves out.
https://juanesteban.art/en/working-for-the-love-of-art/ - Art that raises the rent – When the cultural activation of an area benefits it and when it opens the door to displacement.
https://juanesteban.art/en/art-that-raises-rent/ - The hand that funds – How funding structures shape what a cultural organisation can say.
https://juanesteban.art/en/the-hand-that-finances/ - Who feels invited – Why access to culture remains unequal when the barrier is not price but the feeling of not being invited.
https://juanesteban.art/en/who-feels-invited/ - How a reputation is manufactured – How recognition is manufactured and why visibility should not be mistaken for value.
https://juanesteban.art/en/how-a-name-is-made/ - The access promised by the screen – Why digitisation is not, in itself, democratisation.
https://juanesteban.art/en/the-access-promised-by-the-screen/