Developing creative careers by mentoring

Understanding social resilience in the art field/creative industries

Paper presentation at the 12th International Conference on Cultural Policy Research, ICCPR2022.

Abstract: 

Recent years there has been a rise in professional development programmes for artists, including different kinds of mentoring programmes. However, mentoring is an under researched topic within cultural policy research. In this paper we analyse mentoring as a tool for developing creative careers, by study three different programmes implemented in Norwegian creative industries. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with mentors, adepts, and administrators, and survey data and applications and reports from one of them. Through the theoretical terms social capital and social resilience, we argue that despite potential downsides and pitfalls, mentoring can offer a holistic approach to learning and its activation of collective resources and contribute to sustainability and resilience in creative careers. 

Key words:  Mentoring, creative industries, creative work, the art field, social resilience, social capital