Abstract

This study investigates aspects of working artists’ lives when in their home
environments and when travelling and holidaying in the elsewhere. Artists are seen
by Florida (2002) as being a central group in the functioning of a new creative
economy in the West based within a global division of labour. This creative economy
is seen to be founded on the proliferation of bohemias in cities as catalysts of growth
and regeneration, as artists are seen to attract further ‘creative capital’, and form
new directions of consumption and lifestyle through their creative outputs and
practices. Surprisingly, very little study has been done that gives voice to artists in
relation to aspects of their lifestyles, that may inform new directions of consumption.
Just as importantly, artists’ views in relation to changing bohemias, wrought through
gentrification processes, have often been ignored. This thesis investigates the
meanings of place, changing place through gentrification, leisure practices and the
travel and tourism preferences of this group.
Empirical findings suggest that a desire for an integrated life that blurs the
boundaries of work, leisure and travel or holidaying is important to this group.
Creativity is a central aspect that permeates the life world of my participants.
Gentrification processes are viewed negatively or ambivalently. These processes are
not predominantly disparaged due to fears of immediate displacement however, but
are related to ideas of changing place, including the social makeup of newer users of
the Ouseburn Valley and their sheer numbers, and the associated increased levels
of bureaucratic regulation and commercial interests in the formerly ‘marginal’ Valley.
During the course of the study, empirical and theoretical directions led to the
construction of what I have termed a ‘governing ethic’ that can be seen to inform
many of the discourses and practices discussed in relation to the working artist in the
Ouseburn Valley. This ethic is one that promotes an integrated life of self-expressive
individualism. It is seen to have origins within the Romantic Movement in the late 18th
Century, and can be detected in creative-countercultural ideologies and practices up
until the end of the 20th century.