Rural Art Festivals and Creative Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This article examines how creativity-based social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial networks in the context of small-scale rural art festivals can advance social and regional revitalization goals in peripheral island communities. This qualitative- and action-based research explores the effects of artistic activities on rural revitalization through the analysis of four small-scale rural events: a traditional matsuri (festival), and three contemporary art, music, and film festivals. The adaptability and diversity of the festivals’ entrepreneurial networks are investigated in greater depth by combining the literatures on rural revitalization, social entrepreneurship, bricolage, and resourcefulness with the embedded and relational aspects of creative entrepreneurial networks. The study also analyzes the complex relationship between the individual actions of creative festival entrepreneurs and the socially engaged creative networks that facilitate population retention and resource exchanges in a community, and therefore rural revitalization.