Traveling Artists' Roles: an Asynchronous Email Interview

Abstract

This study uses as a case the dilapidated neighborhood of Lakkos in the city of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, to broaden the conventional view of traveling artists, as creative producers of artistic spaces with tourism potential. Through the use of secondary sources, observations, and asynchronous indepth email interviewing having as a sample 24 traveling artists who voluntary devote their time and effort to an art project outside their original countries, this study found that the traveling artists under study place emphasis on long-term travel schedules that allow them to perform three roles while visiting Lakkos: those of tourists, artists, and volunteers. These attributes distinguish them not only from mainstream tourists visiting the city of Heaklion and the island of Crete, but also from cultural, art, and creative tourists. The findings of the study are discussed in relation to the methodology of asynchronous email interviewing and the findings of past research.