Organizing Cultural Projects Through Legitimising as Cultural Entrepreneurship

Purpose
This paper is a study of creating organization in the case of cultural projects; cultural entrepreneurship. This includes taking advantage of opportunities and using ones social capital through networks. It is a case study of Vandalorum which is an Swedish international art- and design centre with a strong regional connection. They want to offer close collaborations between artists, designers, and the creative industry. It is located in Värnamo in the south of Sweden and was inaugurated in April 2011 after an establishment process running over fifteen years. Renzo Piano has created the architectural concept of Vandalorum, inspired by traditional Swedish materials and building techniques.
Design/methodology/approach
Through interviews with significant actors over many years and secondary analysis of data collected by others we describe and analyse the establishment process of Vandalorum Art and Design Centre.
Findings
The case of Vandalorum shows that organizing a cultural project like Vandalorum is characterized by no well-defined starting and stopping point, but – quite typically for entrepreneurship as an organization-creation process – builds momentum and legitimacy narratively.
Originality/value
The originality lies in answering the question that we chose to focus on, which is embedded in the opening story of Vandalorum: how can such a cultural project become legitimized in a place like that, outside and rather far from any large city? In a changed cultural landscape with reduced public contributions, our claim is that it is crucial to legitimize the idea and project in relation to the main/key stakeholders. Such legitimization is a key entrepreneurial achievement.