Cultural administrators as creative workers: the case of public and non-governmental cultural institutions in St. Petersburg

ABSTRACT

Despite the increasing number of studies dedicated to creative professionals, there are still many topics that remain understudied. One such topic is the interconnection of professional labour and cultural institutions, which frame labour conditions. Furthermore, while much research has been devoted to the UK, other regions or global concerns have gained little attention. This article concerns creative professionals in post-Soviet Russia. It offers an overview of the field of cultural institutions in St. Petersburg in relation to the cultural administration and the professionals working for them. In particular, this study focuses on the public sector in Russian cultural production and the new non-state institutions founded by young entrepreneurs and activists, which have to struggle constantly for recognition and support from the city’s administration. Based on the fieldwork conducted in St. Petersburg between 2012 and 2015, the empirical study includes 26 in-depth interviews with cultural managers, employees of art centres, lofts, creative spaces, museums, and theatres. The research items highlighted here are concerned with the specificity of the newly established Russian institutional environment, framing creative labour in public and non-governmental cultural institutions. It discusses whether the post-socialist system presents a ‘luckier’ medium for a ‘good’ creative job than that of advanced capitalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Creative labour
• culture administration
• cultural institutions
• Russia
• St. Petersburg

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Margarita Kuleva is researcher and lecturer at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and a PhD fellow of the Centre for German and European studies St. Petersburg State University – University of Bielefeld. Creative labour is one of her main research interests along with network approach in sociology of the arts and clothing consumption/fashion production. Currently, Margarita implements an international project on cultural institutions as workplaces in three cities: Moscow, London and St. Petersburg.

ORCID

Margarita Kuleva http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0552-8288

Notes

1. The most of the data (20 IDI) was collected as a part of the project ‘Creative city: reformatting public space’ (2013–2014) by a team of researchers: (in alphabetical order) Alexandra Barmina, Maria Safonova, Nadezhda Sokolova, Tatyana Tretyakova, Fedor Veselov, Anna Zhelnina, and the author of this paper.

2. For Houses of Culture, see Pape and Smirnova in this special issue. Kruzhki is the Russian for unofficial thematic gatherings of professionals and enthusiasts that often take place in cultural and educational institutions.

3. McRobbie uses rave culture to illustrate example of networked creativity, as well as the high atomisation of cultural production that was associated with the developments in the British cultural scene in the 1990s (p. 202).

4. See, for example, Gnedovskii 2005, describing the activities of the independent agency called Institute for Cultural Policy and promoting creative industries approach in Russia.

5. For example, the Garage museum is financed by the oligarch Roman Abramovich who is also the owner of Chelsea football team that plays in the British Premiere League.

6. These interviews are available online, see http://www.polit.ru/article/2011/01/02/eaprojekt/

7. Studies on the Russian IT sphere, which is also regarded as part of creative industries, are more advanced. However, this research presents a picture quite different from the cultural sector. For instance, Zemnukhova (2012) writes about the financial stability and reliable employment as one of the main motivations of IT-specialists, while Shkaratan et al. (2008) point out the successful involvement of IT-workers in the well-to-do middle class. That is why, in this article, IT-studies are not considered in detail.

8. For example, Neff et al. (2005) point out that models and IT professionals do a lot of additional work, e.g. socializing, whereas their basic job consists of fashion shoots and shows and software development correspondingly.

Additional information

Funding

This research has received funding from the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Project ‘Promoting Youth Involvement and Social Engagement: Opportunities and challenges in the context of intergenerational relations’, 2016). The article has also benefited from the support of the Centre for German and European Studies Bielefeld University and St. Petersburg State University (DAAD with funds from the German Foreign Office).