• Korean Association of Arts Management
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• no.55
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• pp.5-38
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• 2020

This study focuses on the emergence of "hobby-preneurs" and the ways in which they are transforming the virtuous cycle of arts and cultural ecology. The hobby-preneur pursues and expands his or her favorite hobby into a professional job and/or arts business. Hobby-preneurs are the new driving force in the arts and cultural industry. Their activities enhance the arts as a public good even as they build valuable social capital for arts organizations and have a profound impact on supply and demand in the arts and cultural marketplace. Thus we found that by injecting and potentiating certain values that professional artists cannot directly deliver to arts consumers, hobby-preneurs function as major intermediaries in the virtuous cycle of arts and cultural ecology. To understand more about these emergent actors we examine their personal, social, and economic values and how these values guide their arts-related activities and thereby impact the ecology of the arts and cultural sector. In this study we use a phenomenological approach to investigate five hobby-preneurs and the particular ways their acquisition of professionalism is transforming the arts education node of the virtuous cycle in the creative sector.