Impact and sustainability in art based social enterprises

This paper maps the emergent territory of social entrepreneurship in the arts in Australia in relationship to international developments and investigates factors that impact upon the ability of artbased social enterprises to sustain their work and create meaningful social benefit. The paper is presented in three parts; (i) a literature review of the field of art and its relationship to social enterprise, including issues, potential benefits and research gaps; (ii) findings from a pilot study examining the tensions between artistic, social and economic goals in artbased social enterprises; and (iii) directions for further research. The paper draws upon organisational management knowledge and aims to improve existing industry practice by looking at social enterprise as a model for both financial growth and the creation of social impact in the art sector.