Experience and the Arts

Abstract

This chapter presents how the notion of experience is most appropriately suited to the arts. It describes the social nature of art, and the way socialization through the arts is a distinct attribute not found in most for-profit products and services. It explores both Dewey’s work as well as Pine and Gilmore’s notion of The Experience Economy and combines Pine and Gilmore’s distinct arguments to further differentiate nonprofit arts from other products and services. These differences are found in aesthetic issues, audience interaction, and experience required. The chapter also includes the case of Sally Taylor’s Consenses, an arts project that centered on an exploration of perception, culminating in audience experience.