Female artists work and creativity in the rural: Beyond core and periphery

Abstract

In this paper we suggest that far too often economic geographic theory has been based on simple core-periphery dualism that mask the reality of creative work in rural or peripheral areas. We take a relational approach and suggest that being on the periphery does not necessarily mean isolation from the centre nor does it mean relegation to lower levels of professional and creative possibilities. The study examines a sample of female contemporary visual artists in the rural Swedish region of Värmland and suggests that affordability and work-life balance are the essential reasons for the locational choices of these peripheral artists. Once settled they employ two strategic coping mechanisms: embracing the creative possibilities of being on the edge; active creation of network spaces and relations. We suggest that for creative workers’ binary spatial divisions are not appropriate and that more nuanced relational geographies support both rural and individual creative careers. In particular, we emphasise one such binary: the presumption that whilst urban creativity is collective, rural creativity is individual and lacking the benefits of closeness and agglomeration. Rather than the dualism presented in the creativity literature, we suggest that the case exposes the importance of thinking relational, spatially and temporarily in terms of project and career life cycles. These artists are not making black or white choices between the social city and the isolated rural but attempting to mix the advantages of both together through translocal processes and networks.