Contemporary visual art practices within the entrepreneurial university: Context, framework and conflicts

Currently, one of the perspectives for change in art education is intrinsically related to economic interests. This paper concentrates on the contextual analysis of the current entrepreneurial perspective of higher education: an environment where art education and its future are daily discussed. The term ‘societal impact’ through economic growth justifies the need for an alliance between government, industry and university, wrapped up by the ‘entrepreneurial university’ concept. Understanding the entrepreneurial higher education as a meta-narrative, correspondently, contemporary visual art practices are the character to be investigated. Previous research reveals that this meta-narrative constantly requires agencies and agents to join its discourse, including the art world. What does this request mean?

Through the absence and the unknown, by a conflicting path, this paper aims to contextualize the framework within the entrepreneurial university from contemporary visual arts practice perspective. History and its archive are two central characters to the development of this research, revealing common discourses, similar narratives, analogous absences, and dissonant voices. This investigation suggests that manufacturing the discourse associated with the ‘entrepreneurial university’ comes at the cost of the value of contemporary visual arts for society.