Armlängds avstånd. Koncept eller verklighet? En studie över kommunala konsthallars självständighet

Sammanfattning: The idea of having a separation of power between government and public art institutions is a principle which Sweden upholds on a national level through the art council, “Statens Kulturråd”. The principle, namely the arm’s length-principle, is regulated on state level, but not on a municipal one in Sweden. This paper analyzes Swedish municipal “konsthallar” (derived from the German term Kunsthalle, a public art institution for contemporary art), to determine if any municipality violates the principle, why the principle is violated, and to determine governmental roles within municipalities according to the theory of The: Facilitator, Patron, Architect and Engineer. Using a qualitative content analysis, ten municipal “konsthallar” are compared to an ideal type of the arm’s length-principle. The results show that seven out of ten municipalities do not follow the principle. Following are explanations as to why the principle isn’t upheld. Municipal politicians use different means of control over the operations and employees of (the) “konsthallarna”. The municipalities in this study are categorized according to the ideal-type function of the Facilitator, Patron, Architect and Engineer. The conclusion of this categorization shows that there isn’t a common role that the municipalities assume and follow in their art policy.