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Bring in the Arts and Get the Creativity for Free: A Study of the Artists in Residence Project
Alexander Styhre and Michael Eriksson
In the literature on creativity and innovation, there is a tendency to idolize great contributors to the liberal arts as extraordinarily creative individuals. Such ex post facto accounts of great men and women are, however, of limited value for everyday practices in organizations. This paper reports insights from a Swedish project named Artists in Residence (AIRIS) wherein artists, including musicians, painters, actors and directors, dancers and choreographers, collaborated with a regular company or workplace during a ten-month project, aimed at helping the co-workers think in new and creative ways. The study concludes that there are many benets from making the world of artists and the world of work intersect, but there is also a demand on the participant to fully commit to the project. Even though the culture project was positively received among co-workers, only a limited effect on workplace climate could be reported for the 2005 evaluation, while the 2006 evaluation indicates more positive effects. Still, the amount of texts advocating artists creative skills and experiences outnumber the cases of actual projects bringing the two groups together. Studies of projects like AIRIS show that there is a great potential in bringing artists into industry.

Introduction
Art is a means of experiencing the process of creativity. The artifact itself is quite unimportant. Viktor Shklovsky ([1929] 1990: 6) Culture and art are beside science two of the most praised human accomplishments. Museums and galleries throughout the world are dedicated to various forms of culture and art. At the same time, artists tend to be marginalized until they have managed to attain recognition within their eld (Menger, 1999). In few other elds is the contrast between the poor struggling artist before his or her recognition and the life of the famed and successful artist afterwards more accentuated. The case of Vincent van Gogh is a particularly good example: during his lifetime he lived an obscure and troubled life, but after his death he became the paragon of modern painting, constituting a veritable art industry in his own right. In the eld of innovation management and in the literature on creativity in general and as an organization resource, there is a tendency
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to regard various forms of artists as embodiments of creativity. Cultural icons such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Bach, Mozart, etc., are stock household names denoting the creative capacity of the genius. However, not even Bach the rst of the great German composers in the tonality tradition was fully recognized during his lifetime (McClary, 1987, p. 55). Osbourne (2003, p. 519) is sceptical about such uncritical accounts of creativity (see, e.g., Miller, 1999) and advocates what he calls a post-heroic conception of creativity. From history we learn that creativity is situational and contingent and the product of complex discursive articulations (Amabile et al., 1996; Amabile, 1997, 1999; Andriopoulos, 2001; Mumford et al., 2002; Basadur, 2004). Creativity is what is declared in ex post facto secondorder statements rather than some innate quality of a particular work. Still, artists and culture workers of various orientations are trained to think in new terms and along divergent lines. Such properties are increasingly valued in a working life characterized by time pressure and the demand to do more with less (Adler, 2006; Lanham, 2006).

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Several studies of innovation and the use of creativity emphasize the need to expand horizons and to take alternative views in innovation and creative work. From such a perspective, artists are often regarded as a resource poorly exploited in industry. However, there are few studies of how such collaborations are carried out. This paper reports a study of a Swedish project, Artists in Residence (AIRIS), among whose aims is to make artists and industry collaborate more closely. The project, originally started in 2002 and still running, is an interesting example of how artists and industry and public sector organizations can learn from one another. Projects like AIRIS are representative of a general recognition of the opportunity to cross-fertilize the eld of culture with industry. It is the product of a society becoming increasingly aware of the need not only to netune the existing order of things but also to be able to think in new terms.

The Concept of Aesthetics and Its Importance for Creativity


Aesthetics
The concept of aesthetics is arguably as old as Aristotles Poetics (Holquist, 2003, p. 368). However, it was not until the Romantic Movement in Germany in the eighteenth century that the German philosopher Baumgarten and his more famous disciple Immanuel Kant invented the discipline of aesthetics. Since then, aesthetics has become part of continental philosophy. Perhaps the most widely cited text on aesthetics is Friedrich Schillers Letters on Aesthetic Education, rst published in 1795. Schiller thus places aesthetic cultivation at the centre of the development of man: In a word, there is no other way to make the sensuous man rational than by rst making him aesthetic, Schiller ([1795] 2004, p. 108) claims. Aesthetic education is for Schiller, then, not a matter of guiding the pupil in the domain of the decorative and ornamental arts but of providing him (and later on, her) with the tools for becoming rational. Kant did not follow Schiller on his insistence on giving aesthetics a clear social role but rather spoke of art as having a Zweckmssigkeit ohne Zweck, having a quality of being purposeful without having a purpose (Holquist, 2003, p. 368). Ever since Kant, aesthetics and forms of rational thinking, grounded in logic, have been separated (Luhmann, 2000, p. 15). Art on the one hand, science on the other. In his recent discussion of the concept of aesthetics, Shusterman (2006) emphasizes that

the concept is deeply ambiguous, complex and essentially contested. This is the case partly because the underlying categories of aesthetics such as art and beauty are themselves ambiguous, partly because the term aesthetics has a complicated, heterogeneous, conicted and disordered genealogy (Shusterman, 2006, p. 237). That is, the term has been used in a variety of ways. Still, Shusterman (2006, p. 237) denes aesthetics as the philosophy of art and beauty. Sociologists of art and aesthetics share with Shusterman (2006) the view that aesthetics and other culture sector categories are poorly dened (DiMaggio, 1987; Heikkinen, 2005; Roodhouse, 2006). For instance, in a much-cited paper, DiMaggio distinguishes between three types of classications operating in conjunction with one another: commercial classication, professional classication, administrative classication. Heikkinen (2005), exploring the diversity of what DiMaggio calls administrative classications in the four Nordic countries of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway, found that each country used individual systems to classify the arts and artists. Roodhouse (2006, p. 48), studying the case of the UK, is very critical of this inability to establish shared classication systems and argues: At best, the data collected and used to inform management at micro and macro levels and to provide evidence for policymaking is inaccurate; at worst, it is seriously unreliable. In summary, from both a theoretical and practical perspective, aesthetics is a concept riddled with ambiguities. Yet the concept remains useful; vague terms still signify, Shusterman (2006, p. 243) says. A number of scholars have recently suggested that aesthetics and art are of great importance for organizations and for understanding contemporary organizations. Lanham (2006) suggests we are living in an attention economy, where attention, not information, is the scare resource to exploit. In addition, Lanham (2006) argues, style rather than substance is what attracts attention. Adler (2006) is most enthusiastic about the future function and role of art and aesthetics in industry and offers a variety of examples of how art is used to improve individual and collective performance. For instance, researchers at Yale Medical School have [a]lready found that by introducing medical students to art, through an introductory art history seminar, the student-doctors diagnostic skills improve signicantly (Adler, 2006, p. 395). Speaking about computer programming, a social practice profoundly associated with exactness and rationality, Pieiro (2007, p. 105) argues that there is a great sense of aesthetics in computer
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programming work: Regardless of the restrictions forced upon human activity, if there is as much as an ounce of creative work involved or permitted, aesthetic concerns will thrive. Similarly, Guve (2007) speaks of aesthetics as a resource in risk capitalist work. In addition to these studies of work and activities not commonly associated with aesthetics, a number of studies emphasize the role of art and aesthetics in the domain of arts management, a category of work including a great many professions and occupations ranging from opera house directors to individual artists and musicians. Belore (2002), Gibson (2002) and Garca (2004) examine how art is used as a social resource in a number of urban renewal and city marketing projects, and Macnaughton (2007) shows how a newly built hospital in Middlesbrough, north-east England, is using art to create a more appealing environment for both patents and hospital staff. However, one of he principal critiques of such programmes and projects is that the arts are treated in overtly instrumental terms, being primarily conceived of as tools to accomplish political objectives. Belore (2002), for instance, concludes her analysis: [T]he main problem created by the argument that the arts are a source of urban regeneration, or that public subsidy is in fact an investment with specic, measurable social returns, is that the arts become entirely instrumental. Degraded to the function of mere tool, arts become a matter of value for money. One non-arts professional . . . puts this baldly: Im very positive about the use of the arts as long as its not art for arts sake: its a tool. Youve got to have clear determined aim and objectives, and have an end product. (Belore, 2002, p. 104) In summary, the concepts of art and aesthetics are loosely dened but still serve a function to denote a set of practices and certain ideologies in what Bourdieu (1993) called the eld of cultural production and Becker (1982) calls art worlds.

Creativity relevant skills can be dened as the ability to think creatively, generate alternatives, engage in divergent thinking, or suspend judgment. These skills are necessary because creativity requires a cognitiveperceptual style that involves the collection and application of diverse information, an accurate memory, use of effective heuristics, and the ability and inclination to engage in deep concentration for long periods of time. Scott and Bruce (1994, p. 581) say that the concepts of creativity and innovation are often used interchangeably in the literature but argue that creativity has to do with the production of novel and useful ideas . . . and innovation has to do with the production or adaptation of useful ideas and idea implementation. The British physicist David Bohm emphasizes that creativity is demanding because it insists on making us think against what we have learnt throughout our upbringing, namely that things may not be what they appear to be, that the order of things may be different, and so forth: [C]reative work requires, above all, a creative state of mind. And, generally speaking, what we learn as children, from parents, teachers, friends, and society in general, is to have a conformist, imitative, mechanical state of mind that does not present the disturbing danger of upsetting the apple cart. (Bohm, 1998, p. 16) Thus, more recently, creativity has been emphasized as an organizational resource that does not obey the same procedures as other organizational resources (Guilln, 1997; Linstead & Hp, 2000; Guillet de Monthoux, 2004). Antonio Strati (1999, p. 176), a proponent of an aesthetic view of organization, says: When we study peoples creativity . . . we observe organizational forms very different from those to which we have been accustomed by the dominant Taylorist and Fordist models. Sternberg (2003, p. 391) emphasizes creativity in leadership work: Creativity is important for leadership because it is the component whereby one generates the ideas that others will follow . . . Many leaders are academically and even practically intelligent, but uncreative; they lead people through their ability to inuence rather than through their agenda. Leading creative people is, Sternberg (2003) suggests, a complicated practice because creative individuals are thinking in new terms and are willing to redene problems, take risks and tolerate ambiguities. In the literature on creativity, the extrarational qualities of creative individuals are emphasized. Creative individuals accommo-

Creativity
In the eld of innovation management and the creativity literature, such a strict distinction becomes blurred. A number of denitions of creativity may be provided. Madjar, Oldham and Pratt (2002, p. 757) argue We consider employee creativity to be the production of ideas, products, or procedures that are (1) novel or original and (2) potentially useful to the organization. Shalley and Gilson (2004, p. 36) speak of creativity accordingly:
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date aesthetic skills and qualities and can see beyond the narrow horizon of utility that restrains many co-workers in organizations. On the other hand, some researchers have shown that creative artists have been inuenced and actually used managerial principles and methods such as motion studies to develop their work methods (Reeves, Duncan & Ginter, 2001; Van Delinder, 2005). Another concept brought into the analysis of creativity and innovation is play, conceived of as a domain where alternatives modes of thinking are permitted and actively promoted (Anderson, 1994; Dougherty & Takacs, 2004; Dodgson, Gann & Salter, 2005). Play, here, shares a number of characteristics with aesthetics, such as what broadening the perspective and enabling new worldviews. Some writers suggest that it is primarily large and mature organizations that need to develop such skills (Schumann, 1993; Sharma, 1999), while smaller and younger organizations have maintained their capacity to pursue creative thinking. In summary, creativity and innovation are, at least partially, informed by an aesthetic capacity of individuals or groups of individuals. An aesthetic view of things is enacting plural views which facilitates a change of perspective. It also helps defamiliarizing predominant beliefs, assumptions, or practices which opens up new lines of thought and discussion. However, even though such virtues are advocated or even cherished in theory, there is little evidence of how aesthetic thinking may be brought into industry in practice. In the following, one such project where artists and organization members are collaborating is examined.

A Note on Methodology
The AIRIS project was studied by one of the authors during the period 20042007. The rst year, 2004, was examined through retrospective telephone interviews with company and public organization representatives. From 2005 and onwards, the project has been followed in greater detail. The methodology of the study is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods. In order to examine the willingness to change in the participating organizations, two instruments (Gran Ekvalls widely used workplace climate inventory and the psychologist Sven Kylns defensive routine mechanisms survey instrument) were used at three times during the project: at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the project. On each occasion, 20 randomly selected participants in each project were

asked to ll in the questionnaire. The response rate was about 80 percent, taking into account signicant variations between projects (ranging between 60 and 95 percent). In addition, interviews were conducted with the managing director and a co-worker representing the personnel function or the trade union at the site. By the time of the middle and end surveys, the participating artists had been interviewed. Interviews were semi-structured and conducted by two people, one researcher and one representative of the AIRIS administration team. By the time of the middle measurement questionnaire, the research team had conducted a eld study of the individual projects, providing a more contextualized and detailed insight into the projects. Interviews lasted for about one hour and were taperecorded. Moreover, in the 2006 project, one of the authors participated in meetings with the AIRIS project team, serving as a discussant for the project team and helping to provide a more coherent theoretical and methodological framework for the project. The paper also uses formal documentation available on the AIRIS homepage (http://www.vg.skadebanan.org/ airis/index.html) and a research report written by Lindqvist in 2005, evaluating the 2002 to 2004 AIRIS projects. Although Lindqvists report covers the rst three years, her ndings are of relevance even for the period 20052006; some changes have been implemented in the overall project design but the basic ideas are the same. It is noteworthy that the study of the AIRIS project was not conducted on the level of individual projects, that is, as mini-ethnographies of individual artists collaborations with the companies and workplaces. Therefore, the presentation of the project emphasizes the staging of the entire project and its political and artistic objectives rather than their individual outcomes at each workplace.

The Artists in Residence Project


Background
The concept Artists in Residence is widely used when artists are given the opportunity to work on their individual art projects in a company setting or in collaboration with companies. Famous and widely acclaimed artist-inresidence projects include the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centres (PARC) PARC Artists-inResidence project (PAIR), described in Harriss (1995) edited volume. PARC was set up and designed to serve as a creative centre for the Xerox Corporation and, as part of this project, PAIR was started to help both artists and Xerox
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engineers develop their creative skills. The Swedish AIRIS projects was not designed to operate in an equally prestigious setting but sought to use some of the basic ideas from other artist-in-residence projects. In Sweden, the culture sector is largely funded by taxes and only to a minor extent by ticket sales. Culture workers and artists also face periods of unemployment. On the other hand, Swedish industry and public sector organizations are working under great pressure to become more effective and to do more with less. In such conditions, organizations become less able to think in new terms and to fully exploit the creative competencies of its co-workers. The AIRIS project is one arena where artists and industry may join hands and learn from one another. In the following, learnings from the project will be discussed. The Skdebanan organization was founded in 1910 to work with theatre as a means of public schooling, making individuals with little experience from theatre and other cultural forms become involved in cultural activities. Skdebanan became a movement with local and regional ofces and organizations scattered throughout Sweden, engaging in a variety of culture projects (see Guillet de Monthoux, 2004, for an overview). The Vstra Gtaland regional Skdebanan ofce collaborates with a number of organizations including the Gothenburg Business Region organization, the Vstra Gtaland regional government, and the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs. The AIRIS (Artists in Residence) project aims at expanding the intersection between industry and public administration and the domain of culture. In Sweden, a number of organizations are actively promoting an increased intersection between culture and industry. For instance, the Arts and Business organization is an organization promoting basically the same goals as Skdebanan, arranging workshops and events where the benets of bringing culture and industry closer is elaborated upon.

interact,1 (2) a business development goal aimed at enhancing the creative capabilities of industry and public sector organizations, and (3) a labour market goal where new arenas for employment opportunities for professional artists are being created. The AIRIS project was marketed in the Vstra Gtaland region and companies and workplaces signed up to participate in the project. The AIRIS organization selected workplaces to achieve a representative mixture of workplaces (e.g., service companies, knowledge-intensive rms, manufacturing companies, public sector organizations, etc.). The managers rationale for joining the AIRIS project and bringing an artist into the organization was, Lindqvist (2005, p. 75) argues, to create a better work environment and to provide a meaningful and creative break from the regular work. The artists work was thus conceived of as a vehicle for creating a more effective and socially appealing workplace. Managers also conceived of the project as an opportunity to nourish the creativity of the co-workers and to help them deal with unanticipated events and occurrences. Finally, managers also appreciated someone being brought in from outside, who would have a fresh eye on the companys activities, giving advice on how to improve the day-to-day work. The ofcial AIRIS documentation also quotes managers advancing such arguments. The culture projects are individually designed collaboratively between the artist and the participating organizations and include three phases. During the rst phase (two months), the artist is researching the organization and creates contacts with the co-workers and they jointly formulate an action plan for the project. The action plan is thus the outcome of a close collaboration between the two parties. In the second phase (six months) the artist is working with the action plan and develops a number of activities, events or workshops in collaboration with the co-workers in the organization. The last phase includes an evaluation of the activities and a nal seminar where all participating artists and companies report
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The Project
While organizations like Arts and Business primarily promote the idea of using artists skills more effectively in industry, the AIRIS project is a project where artists are actually located in a specic rm or organization for a period of ten months to work with a culture project. However, the culture project actually include three separate goals: (1) a culture-political goal to create an arena where industry and the culture sector and its agents can meet and
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In Sweden, public funding at the level of the Swedish state, the regional government, or the local municipality supports most cultural institutions. Most political programmes thus include a so-called culture-political agenda and declaration. The term culture-political goal here denotes the political decision to broaden the institutional arena for the traditional arts (e.g., theatre, ballet, classical music) to bring them into new settings and communities, thereby further exploiting the skills and competencies of artists. The term culture-political goal is a direct translation of a common expression in the political discourse (Swedish, Kulturpolitiskt ml).

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Table 1. Participants in the AIRIS Project 2006 and Project Description Artist 2006 Artist Photographer Actor/playwright Choreographer Singer/songwriter musician Actor/director Company/industry Project description

Food supermarket Healthcare organization Truck manufacturer Construction company Technical department, municipality Shipping company

Singer and musician Choreographer

Dental healthcare Pharmaceutical company

Music video on the theme dreams, introductory lm about the company Photographic documentation of the way to work; self portraits and co-workers portraits Writing course, literature seminar, theatre visits followed by discussions Performance art work, communication training, joint visits to cultural events Radio program, culture festival day, joint lm work The documentary movie Sea sickness about the everyday work at the shipyard, photo projects documenting work Breathing exercises, vocal training, joint visits to cultural events Training in communicating through the body; joint photograph documentation project

Source: AIRIS 2006 (available at http://www.vg.skadebanan.org/airis/download/airis_2006dok.pdf, accessed 9 May 2007).

their experiences and learnings. The AIRIS project includes a number of different categories of art forms such as acting, arts, popular and classical music, choreography and photography. In addition, the participating companies and organizations represent a great variety of industries and public sector organizations. Participating companies pay a relatively small fee (about 5,000 euros per project in 2005 and 15,000 euros in 2007) to participate and the artists are paid by the AIRIS project. Tables 1 present a summary of participating artists, companies and activities for the 2006 project, and Table 2 presents a summary of participating artists and companies in the earlier years of the project. In the AIRIS project, artistic freedom is emphasized. The artists are not evaluated in terms of measurable output but in terms of qualitative effects, for instance if the coworkers learned something about themselves or their work, or if they started to think in new terms. Therefore, the quantitative evaluations conducted by the research team was not used to review individual projects but was used by the programme board to evaluate the overall effects of the projects and to provide some quantitative evidence to use when communicating with politicians and decision makers. The artists are also expected to work with methods and events that suit their own domain of expertise, even

though in practice there were examples of artists orchestrating activities outside their core artistic domain. For instance, a dancer worked with painting as part of her project. It is also worth noting that the participating artists have signicant work life experience with cultural institutions and departments, but that most of them have never been part of a project like AIRIS. In 2007, however, a number of artists with previous experience from AIRIS projects are engaged in new projects. In order to support them in their individual projects, the artists met and discussed their experiences throughout the project period. The role of the artists is to operate as what may be called a creative consultant, even though the participating researcher claimed it was important not to take on readymade identities and roles but to conceive of the creative process as the gradual emergence of new and innovative positions for both parties involved in the project. However, here the concept denotes someone capable of offering alternative perspectives on predominant beliefs and assumptions, existing routines and work practices, etc. Many participating artists reported that they initially faced some mild scepticism or even resistance by the company or workplace representatives, conceiving of the project as some kind of management fad, stealing valuable time from more prioritized
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Table 2. Participants in Previous AIRIS Projects 20022005 2005 Artist Artist Choreographer Choreographer Actor/director Musician Actor/director Musician 20032004 Artist Choreographer Actor/playwright Musician Artist Actor/director Musician 2002 (Pilot study) Artist Musician Artist Actor/director

Real estate company Healthcare organization Healthcare organization Design bureau Architecture rm High school Public transportation call centre Engineering company National Institute of Working Life Petroleum company Real estate company Working life department, municipality Medical technology company High school Engineering company School Civil engineering department Engineering company Human resources department, municipality

concerns. However, after spending some time together and having outlining the purpose and objectives of the project, most participants thought of the collaboration in more positive terms. The key to overcoming initial scepticism and resistance appear to be collaborative work capable of eliminating the preconceived ideas of both parties. When examining what activities took place in the projects, the variety of activities is very noticeable. In some cases, the artists have arranged seminars and workshops or engaged the co-workers in producing their own artistic accounts of their work life experience. For instance, a photographer, working at a healthcare organization caring for elderly people, encouraged the co-workers to take their own photographs of their journey to and from work, accounting for their day-to-day experience of an all too familiar and largely taken-forgranted route. In addition, the co-workers made photographic portraits of their col 2007 The Authors Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing

leagues. In other cases, the artist has documented the work. In other projects, it was particular skills that were focused and trained. In one such project, a singer and musician, collaborating with a dental healthcare organization, arranged voice-training sessions where the breathing and use of the voice were exercised. In most of the projects, the artists work was initially regarded with some scepticism. For instance, in the truck manufacturing company, the artist claimed that the co-workers thought that he was hired as some kind of consultant to lay people off. After a while, having been properly introduced and after spending some time together, the participants in the companies and organizations thought of the collaboration with the artist as being rewarding and helping them to learn something about themselves and their co-workers. Experiences from the AIRIS projects suggest that leadership support is imperative for the success of the individual projects. In cases where leaders have changed during the tenmonth period, the participating artists have faced a more turbulent situation. Besides the leadership issue, it is difcult to say what contingencies determine a successful project, but it is clear that both artists and company or workplace representatives need to maintain an open attitude towards the collaboration. In her evaluation of the 20022004 AIRIS projects, Lindqvist (2005) found that managers in participating companies were very positive about the collaborations with the artists but they also had a problem in identifying immediate, measurable effects. The general belief was that the AIRIS projects improved work satisfaction and thereby indirectly enhanced productivity through lower degrees of sick leave and absenteeism. In the formal documentation of the 20052006 period, managers articulated similar beliefs and experiences. An evaluation by a research team of the effects of the 2006 projects could nd little evidence of any signicant changes in the work climate in the work places in the 2005 evaluation. A rather small improvement in what was called work climate is, however, accounted for. In 2006, when additional resources were added to support the artists work, changes in work climate were signicant, but in workplaces where leaders changed, thereby disrupting the process, the effects were less signicant. However, the lack of rm quantitative evidence supporting the AIRIS project does not need to be overstated. Research shows that it is complicated to provide evidence for signicant changes in behaviour from most training and education investments. Instead, what may be called anecdotal evidence suggests that, equally, participating

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artists and co-workers conceive of the AIRIS project as being rewarding and interesting. Previous research shows that changes in attitude are not fully accounted for before 12 to 24 months after projects are terminated. Criticism of the AIRIS project, for instance articulated in a debate in Gothenburgs largest newspaper, Gteborgs-Posten, emphasized the use of art and artists as a production factor in the broader move towards the increase of the creative content of work life declared by, for instance, Richard Florida (2002). However, such debates need to be contextualized within a broader debate over the nancing and funding of culture in Sweden. Proponents of the liberal arts argued that artists should not have to prove themselves useful but that art just like science, its spokespersons suggest (Gieryn, 1983, p. 787) has an intrinsic value beyond utility. Also Lindqvists (2005) report, otherwise afrmative regarding the attempts at bridging the world of art and industry, addresses some of the concerns regarding artists role as creative consultants. However, the AIRIS project was never articulated and enacted in such terms but rather was intended to help industry and the public sector develop new skills and capacities on basis of their cultural training. These objectives proved to be appreciated and a project was awarded the prestigious SABA prize, the Swedish Arts and Business Award, in November 2006.

Discussion
In the debate in popular management writings, there is an emphasis on unleashing the creative potential of co-workers. However, tapping into such resources is by no means a trivial matter, and years of specialization in certain domains and activities may not easily be abandoned to embrace new thinking. In addition, several authors suggest that one must recognize the aesthetic qualities of organizing, thereby broadening the scope of possibilities. The concept of aesthetics is here used in a rather broad manner to denote a range of qualities and virtues. On the one hand, there is the organization creativity literature emphasizing the need for novel thinking, and on the other hand, the literature on aesthetics assuming that an aesthetic mindset is capable of improving the creative capabilities of co-workers. However, there is a shortage of studies demonstrating the actual use of aesthetic skills and competencies in organization. In the AIRIS project, the participating artists argued they initially encountered a mild scepticism from the co-workers who thought of the project as being some kind of management fad. As the project evolved,

such scepticism tended to wane and most co-workers thought of the collaborations with the artists as being rewarding. The variety of activities arranged by the artists is substantial and so is the scope of workplaces and industries participating in the project. It is generally quite difcult to draw any conclusions from the projects because of this variety of activities and local conditions. The research is also complicated by the fact that out of a total of 16 projects over 20052006, only 11 may be regarded as fully accomplished for various reasons. The quantitative evaluation of effects of the project in terms of work climate only showed small direct effects. Still, the so-called anecdotal evidence suggests that representatives of the participating companies and workplaces expressed their appreciation for being given the chance to join the project. However, it is noteworthy that the participating companies and workplaces are only paying a rather modest fee for the ten-month project and that it is the project itself nancing the artists work. To date, it is rather uncommon for companies to hire artists to serve as a creative resource, but projects like AIRIS are providing evidence that artists may in fact contribute with their skills and experiences. Still, the ability to make fruitful use of such skills and experiences is demanding signicant investment from both the artist and the participating companies and workplaces. Artists are used to operating in a domain where art is regarded to have a value beyond its immediate utility, while in industry and public administration there are other concerns dominating the agenda. Making artists see how they can contribute to everyday work life is thus a crucial objective for initiatives like AIRIS. At the same time, co-workers in companies and organizations hosting an artist need to become aware of the fact that the outcome of the collaboration is dependent upon their full engagement. The domain of aesthetics and the domain of work must therefore intersect in meaningful and productive ways. If artists fail to take the role of the other, the co-workers in companies, there may be only marginal joint learning from the project, and if co-workers cannot open up for new thinking and action, there are few opportunities for exploiting the creative potential of the co-workers. Rather than merely assuming that aesthetics is a useful resource in organizations and particularly in creative and innovative organizations, or advocating an increased exchange of ideas, the AIRIS project is one of few projects actually bringing artists and companies together. The outcome is mixed but overall positive. For instance, artists, Lindqvist (2005) reports, had a feeling that it was their social
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skills and ability to orchestrate creative projects that was valued by the rms, not their artistic qualications. Yet the artists endorsed the programme and thought of their experience as being valuable for their future careers. Given these ndings, our contention is that managers in organizations should consider the opportunity to collaborate with practising artists. Their ability to introduce new methods of working, communicating, and collaborating may be of great value in many organizations. However, one must not think of artists merely as what are brought into the organization to provide some entertainment or spectacle but to actually inuence the day-to-day operations through de-familiarizing or naturalizing certain practices and assumptions. Moreover, managers must take into account that most organization change projects take time and demand considerable efforts on the part of the organization members. Just to bring in some artists for a few months is not very likely to produce instant effects. At the same time, the ability to collaborate with individuals with complementary skills and experiences may prove to be a source of long-term competitive advantage (Adler, 2006; Lanham, 2006). Speaking in more general terms, cases like the AIRIS project is valuable for the literature on creativity and innovation because it shows that there are opportunities for making use of skills and experiences from the domain of the liberal arts in regular workplaces.

place is relatively modest and that there is little evidence at least in Sweden of companies hiring artists to make them become more receptive to new ideas and wok in new ways. Still, projects like AIRIS indicate the great potential in better exploiting the skills of artists. It is hoped that the future will bring new arenas where artists and industry can collaborate.

References
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Conclusions
In the general interest for various forms of creativity in industry and public administration, creative artists and authors hold a position as the paragons of creative capabilities. Numerous essays and papers have pointed at the extraordinary contributions of a narrow range of iconic individuals such as Picasso or Van Gogh. In the contemporary economy, preoccupied with dening and exploring the opportunities for selling experiences and other creative services or events (see, e.g., Wolf, 1999; Jeffcut, 2000; Julier, 2000; Nystrm, 2000; Chung et al., 2001; Florida, 2002; Bryman, 2004; Nixon, 2005; Ritzer, 2005; Lanham, 2006), the ability to combine aesthetic skills with market thinking is a highly attractive combination. Rather than being mere ction or a fantasy about a coming creative economy, such ideas must be tested in real life settings. The AIRIS project is one attempt to actually bring together the world of aesthetics and the world of business. Although the overall reception of the project was positive, it is noteworthy that the costs for the participating company or work 2007 The Authors Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing

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Alexander Styhre (Alexander.Styhre@ chalmers.se) is professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. He received his PhD from Lund University. Alexander is interested in the management of knowledge-intensive organizations and innovation work. He has published widely in organization theory and management studies journals and is the author, co-author and co-editor of ten books including The Innovative Bureaucracy (Routledge, 2007) and Managing Organization Creativity (Palgrave, 2005). Michael Eriksson is a PhD student at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, and works for the Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology. He received an MSc in Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology. Michael is interested in the management of change and organizational creativity.

2007 The Authors Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing

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2008

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