Day of Arts Philanthropy

For the Day of Arts Philanthropy I will reflect on the instrumentalisation of art support in Denmark based on the findings from my thesis work (Jørgensen, 2016) investigating the underlying legitimations and institutional logics of two of the most significant foundations supporting visual art, in Denmark, the private New Carlsberg Foundation and public Danish Arts Foundation. Drawing inspiration from neo-institutional theory (Friedland & Alford, 1991) and French pragmatic sociology (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006), the thesis identifies the most central logics of legitimation underlying art support; the industrial, market, inspired, family, renown, civic, projective, emotional and temporal. The most prominent and consistently invoked instrumentalisations identified are the professional (industrial), artistic (inspired) and civic purposes of art support. The thesis shows that the instrumentalisations invoked are highly reflective upon wider societal institutions, prevailing institutional logics, moments of critique and the organisations’ practices and purpose. The thesis traces the last 40 years of art support conducted by the two foundations and identifies the noticeable rise of market and entrepreneurial instrumentality in the purpose of art support.