The purpose of this study is to understand and distinguish the mainstream of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in culture and art in Turkey. It aims to examine all parties related to CSR in culture and art (corporations, artists, art institutes and art communities) and their expectations of CSR. It is also aimed to understand the relationship between government and art institutions, communities and organizations.
To be able to understand the general tendency, applications and problems of CSR in culture and arts, 17 in‐depth interviews were implemented with corporations, art institutes, communities and individual artists from different art fields. All interviews were digitally audio taped. All digital recordings were encoded and analyzed after the interviews and findings were grouped under four general topics.
General environment, comments and problems are defined in situation analyses. Government relations and corporation relations are separately evaluated. Future prospects, expectations and projects are included in the last headline. Government and corporations are the main supporters for art and art organizations but there is a very serious risk for art organizations to lose their corporate funds to environmental and educational CSR projects and sport sponsorships.
This study shows the gap of needed and existing funding and support in culture and art field in Turkey. There is a great potential in upcoming period for cultural investment in Turkey, which may produce both social welfare and corporate image increase. Turkish culture and art environment should be monitored for European Capital of Culture in 2010 organization.
