Is There More to A Visual Art Exhibition Than Just Art

INTRODUCTIONFestivals and events are among the fastest-growing segments of tourism in the world (Goeldner, Richie & McIntosh, 2000). Since the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in 1974, the first national arts festival in South Africa (Saayman & Saayman, 2006; Snowball & Webb, 2008), the country has experienced an unexpected growth in festivals. However, this growth only came after 1994, ironically enough when the government cut budgets for arts due to a greater focus on the provision of housing, education, and health services to the less fortunate citizens in the country (Belfiore & Bennett, 2007; Dobson & West, 1990; Hendon, 1990; Morrison & West, 1986; Reiss, 2001; Saayman & Saayman, 2006). Consequently, entrepreneurs and the private sector had to fill the void, with the result being that more art festivals were launched.One such festival is the Aardklop National Arts Festival (also referred to as "Aardklop"), which celebrated its sixteenth birthday in October 2013 (Botha, Viviers & Slabbert, 2012; Saayman & Saayman, 2006). This festival provides a quality platform for the promotion of the arts and supports the artist community while enriching the local society (Lee, Liu, Chung & Ho, 2015). Furthermore, Saayman, Douglas and De Klerk (2008) mentioned that Aardklop incorporates theatre, dance, music, cabaret and visual arts during a week-long programme at different venues in Potchefstroom. The focus of this study is the visual art exhibitions held at three different venues-namely, the North-West University's Botanical Garden, Sanlam Auditorium and Gallery. During Aardklop, these venues are used to display the art of up-and-coming artists as well as artists with a reputable status. According to Boll (2009), art galleries support and promote young artists by helping them develop and arrange exhibitions that attract collectors and buyers; art galleries are thus the intermediary or link to the art market. The number of people visiting festivals such as Aardklop (specifically, art galleries and exhibitions at festivals) is still on the increase (Higgs, Polonsky & Hollick, 2005; Slater, 2007). Most of the arts festivals in South Africa are younger than 15 years, but with this growth came a boom in visual arts and competition amongst art galleries, which has resulted in art organisations mirroring a business-like approach that emphasises revenue production, marketing and promotion (Higgs et al., 2005). Artists and arts organisations need an audience, and one of the main tasks of management is to build this audience (Boorsma, 1998). Rogoff, Lee and Suh (2004) further mentioned that internal and external factors are determinants of business success, including factors that are beyond the control of the manager. Management must therefore shift from an art-centred business to a more client-focused enterprise (Shaw, 2002). Introducing collaborative and effective marketing models (product promotion, market accessibility and networking) can thus lead to the diversifying of revenue sources by obtaining new audiences, products, venues and multi-art experiences (Kader, Mohamad & Ibrahim, 2009; Radbourne, 1997). This fact, according to Higgs et al. (2005) has stimulated a response on the part of the artists, who have become more concerned with effective management by means of different marketing and good service delivery. The different approach is becoming increasingly important, as research indicates that 55% of the respondents prefer to buy art at galleries. This has led to the purpose of this paper, which is to determine the critical success factors of visual art exhibitions at the Aardklop National Arts Festival-in other words, to determine what managerial aspects visitors to art galleries see as important to satisfy their needs and persuade them to buy artworks.According to Ralston, Ellis, Compton and Lee (2007), the quality of the delivered service is a dynamic concept, derived from understanding both how the visitor believes that service should be rendered and how a manager attempts to provide a service. …