Art Without A Market: Creating Artistic Value In A Provincial Art World

Symbolic interactionism is defined as the study of social acts and social objects. Paintings are social objects whose value is almost entirely created in the social acts called art worlds. Important art worlds are currently organized as art markets, in which art is created, exhibited, bought, sold and discussed by artists, museums, dealers, collectors, and critics. In St. Louis, where fieldwork was done, the art market is marginal; art schools and faculty artists replace dealers, collectors, museums, galleries, and critics in the local production of art, the creation of art value, and the determination of artistic status.