IJAM Volume 25 Number 3 (PDF)

FROM THE CO-EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Favoring universal access to the arts has been a matter of concern for both cultural consumption scholars and arts practitioners for a long time. More recently, the BLM movement in the US and the revamping of culture wars all over the world have revitalized the debate about fostering diversity and multiculturalism and about the ways arts institutions can help in overcoming barriers to democratic participation in the arts and fighting against stereotypes and prejudice.

We are therefore delighted to publish an entire Special Issue on Arts Consumption, Diversity and Inclusion, which will progress the debate on the issue within our scholarly community. The Special Issue has been edited by Manuel Cuadrado García and Juan D. Montoro-Pons (University of Valencia), who we thank for their valuable work as Guest Editors for IJAM and their attentive reviewing of the issue’s manuscripts.

This IJAM Special Issue is enriched by two other pieces, closely related to its principal topic. The Practitioner Perspectives article, It Takes Four to Tango: Designing E-D-I Practices in Cultural Districts, examines strategies that cultural districts and arts institutions can use to promote equity, diversity and inclusion. Marco Luchetti (University of Macerata) and Alex Turrini (Bocconi University) interviewed arts executives of one of the largest arts districts in the US, the Dallas Arts District, and offer stimulating new research cues to the cultural district literature, which has surprisingly overlooked the topic of diversity and inclusion.

The Case Study, From the “Efforts of the Weak Horses” to the International Arena: The Istanbul Biennial and Art Worlds, by Esra Yildiz (Istanbul Bigi University), leverages the case history of the Istanbul Biennial and pushes us to reflect on ways that Biennials of the South might enhance their reputation and visibility both locally and in an increasingly globalized contemporary arts world.

We hope that this new Special Issue of IJAM will pave the way for new paths of inquiry and a vivid debate among scholars and practitioners on a topic deserving even more attention in the future.