Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Global Art: An Economic Exploration Of The Factors Driving Sensible Gallery Expansion, James Mclennan

MA Theses

The goal of this thesis is to develop a practical and defensible decision tool to guide art gallery expansion. Focusing on four cities – New York, Hong Kong, London, and Doha – the thesis translates heterogeneous considerations into a matrix that scores each of the cities according to eight factors: Market & Demand; Regulation & Tax; Logistics & Shipping; Labor & Immigration; Legal Entity & Finance; Brand, PR & Audience; Competition & Benchmarking; and Risk. Sub-factors are scored and averaged to provide results on how each city scores against each other. The output is a ranked set of city recommendations …

Aura For Sale?: Art Merchandise And The Totalizing Culture Of Reproduction, Lily Paternoster

MA Theses

The art historical discipline largely excludes art merchandise from critical analysis, relegating it to being a marketing gimmick or gift shop opportunity. This failure to reconcile with the rapidly expanding enterprise for brand collaborations with fine artists has led to an overwhelming and unregulated commercial licensing industry, similar in mystique and ascend to that of the fine art market. Through the case studies of two post-humous artists and two living- Keith Haring, JeanMichel Basquiat, KAWS (Brian Donnelly), and Maurizio Cattelan- I argue that art merchandise exists on a constantly fluctuating scale between democratizing force and commodity. Despite its status on …

Rm Sotheby’S Construction Of Value In The High-End Car Market, Pablo Mijares Musi

MA Theses

The purpose of my thesis is to tell and enlighten any readers how the most prestigious and iconic auction house in the world, RM Sotheby’s sells more than just cars from the high-end car market and how the auction house adds value to through storytelling and provenance from each vehicle.  In today’s luxury market economics, we see somewhat of a radical shift. The high-end car market has moved into a very refined area where these beautiful machines are no longer seen and appraised just for their aesthetic design and mechanical engineering, now we see new value drivers for these works …

Evolving Motives: How Art Collecting Has Changed Across Generations, Giovanni Mazzoleni

MA Theses

This thesis elucidates the changing reasons for collection in recent years and focuses on three generations of collectors: those born before 1950; those born between 1951-1980; and those born after 1981. It commences with a literature review of the initial collecting motivations and challenges, motives based on socio-cultural, economic and technological advancements which foster the importance and reasons for collections. To make this investigation tangible, a quantitative survey was adopted. Forty-five participants, each ranking their levels of agreement from one to five based on an assessment of eight statements based on five motives: economic, normative, uniqueness, hedonic and intellectual. Descriptive …

Does Blue-Chip Art Genuinely Provide Diversification And Risk Mitigation Once Illiquidity, Transaction Frictions, And Survivorship Bias Are Explicitly Incorporated Into Performance Analysis, Or Is The “Safe Haven” Label Fundamentally Misleading?, Radhika Vissanji

MA Theses

Blue-chip art is widely presented as a safe haven and portfolio diversifier, particularly during periods of financial market uncertainty. This perception is reinforced by art price indices and industry reports that emphasise long-term appreciation, relatively low volatility, and weak correlation with traditional financial assets. Despite the growing prominence of these claims in advisory and institutional discourse, there remains limited agreement on whether such properties persist once the structural characteristics of the art market are fully taken into account. This thesis evaluates whether blue-chip art genuinely delivers diversification and risk-mitigation benefits under realistic market conditions. Focusing on three structural factors, illiquidity, …

Over-Tourism Of Naoshima Island: Comparison With Venice Using Tourists Carrying Capacity Model, Takutaro Onoe

MA Theses

This paper first proves Naoshima’s status as over-tourism in comparison with Venice and then finds out about logistical and infrastructural constraints. My argument will go further to discuss whether eliminating constraints through investment and development is the right direction for the island’s sustainable prosperity. Naoshima is in critical overtourism situation, especially during the year of Setouchi Triennale. The number of tourists per resident demonstrates that the situation is worse than in Venice. It may deteriorate living environment for residents, potentially causing anti-tourism sentiment on the island. As for tourists, their experience on the island may not be favored because of …

Modern Day Saints And The Production Of A Contemporary Pilgrimage Site: Comparative Analysis Of St. Pio Of San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy And Sai Baba Of Shirdi, India, Kiran Shinde, Anna Trono Prof

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Places valorised by saints have attracted pilgrimage for a long time as devotion to saints is a way to achieve both material wellbeing and spiritual growth. Yet, the cult following of modern-day saints in contemporary societies has become a topic for exploration only in recent years (Di Giovine, 2010; Shinde & Pinkney; 2013, Srinivas, 2008). A few excellent hagiographies discuss the material and non-material world created around charismatic modern-day saints with global followership (Waghorne, 2004; Weiss, 2005; Shepherd, 1986). Given the immense popularity of modern-day saints many questions arise- what kind of pilgrimage landscape is created around them? Are they …

Art & Luxury: Perceiving Value: How Generation Z Interprets Cultural And Social Meaning In Luxury And Art Collaborations, Michele Saad

MA in Luxury Business Dissertations

Luxury and art collaborations have evolved from rare creative experiments into a familiar part of brand storytelling, yet most research still focuses on what brands want to communicate rather than how audiences perceive these projects. This study explores how Generation Z (GZ) interprets the cultural and social value of such collaborations.

A qualitative approach was adopted, using semi-structured interviews supported by visual prompts with 16 participants aged 19 to 29. The analysis is structured around six recurring themes: artistic expression and aesthetics, social engagement and philanthropy, sustainability and environmental awareness, experiential and immersive encounters, commercial and hype-driven partnerships, and architectural …

0897: William A. “Red” Dawson Collection, 1915-2023, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

William Alfred “Red” Dawson, a native of Valdosta, Georgia, led his high school football team to a state championship and played for four years at Florida State University. Dawson briefly played professional football for the Boston Patriots in the AFL and the Orlando Panthers. He was serving as an assistant football coach at Marshall University when a fatal plane crash killed seventy-five players, coaches, staff, and prominent citizens of Huntington. Dawson was essential in restarting the Marshall University football program, serving as acting head coach and coached through the 1971 season. He then began working in the construction industry and …

Brewing Resilience: Cooperatives, Micro-Mills, And The Quest For Survival In Costa Rica's Changing Coffee Landscape, Leila N. Iredell

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how different organizational models in Costa Rica's coffee sector shape producers’ ability to capture value, build resilience, and sustain rural livelihoods in a rapidly changing global market. In comparing traditional cooperatives and new micro-mills, I examine specifically how control over the value chain, access to markets, and social infrastructure differ across models and what these differences mean for the farmers who depend on them. This project analyzes how the collapse of international price agreements and decades of market volatility drove producers toward new strategies, from independent processing and direct trade to coffee tourism. Costa Rica stands as …

The Price Of Partnership: Examining The Market Success Of Single Female Artists And The Siphoning Of Women’S Creative Energy In Heterosexual Relationships, Octavia Akoulitcheva

MA in Art Business Dissertations

No abstract provided.

From Canvas To Crude: Volatility And Value Of Andy Warhol Prints, Arseniy Cassidy

MA in Art Business Dissertations

The volatility of commodities, such as oil, is well understood to reflect macroeconomic shocks, but less is known about how broader economic forces influence the performance of art. This study compares Andy Warhol print prices with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, analysing both assets through a macroeconomic lens. Using data from 2000–2025, we examine annual returns, volatility, and risk-adjusted performance, and also assess correlations with the stock market. The results show that Warhol prints achieved higher average returns than oil or equities but with much greater volatility and pronounced boom-bust cycles. Major macroeconomic events – such as recessions, oil …

Bridging Culture And Capital: The Financialisation Of Middle-Tier Contemporary Art In Emerging Markets, Ned Carter

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation examines the rising trend of the financialisation of middle-tier art markets in emerging economies, with a focus on corporate and institutional case studies from the continents of Africa and Asia. The research is driven by a central question: What are the key mechanisms turning middle-tier contemporary art into a financial asset class in these emerging markets? To answer this, the study analyses how financial tools, market intermediaries, and new wealth drivers are transforming art collecting practices in non-Western contexts. A qualitative case-study methodology is employed, comparing multiple institutions, mainly banks, investment funds and insurance firms, that actively engage …

Gender, Feminism, And Market Dynamics: Examining Gender And Feminism In The Art Market Through Two Female Chinese Artists, Hung Liu (劉虹) And Yu Hong (喻红), Amelia Campbell-Breeden

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation examines the articulation of feminist expression in contemporary Chinese women’s oil painting and its positioning and valuation within the art market. A focus is placed on Yu Hong and Hung Liu, analysing the interaction of gender, race, and censorship within both domestic and global frameworks. The study employs Grounded Theory to integrate qualitative and quantitative evidence from literature, exhibitions, market reports, rankings, and auction data, aiming to develop a theory from under-explored material instead of applying Western feminist beliefs.

Research suggests that recent advancements in female visibility are often driven by positive discrimination and curatorial “translation”, which uses …

Existential Reckonings: Covid-19’S Impact On Women Artists In New York And The Art Market During A Time Of Crisis, Elizabeth Glynn

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the impact of COVID-19 on women artists in New York City, emphasizing the existential challenges they faced and their responses within the art market. Through qualitative interviews, this research reveals how the pandemic catalyzed critical introspection, prompting artists to reevaluate their identities and creative practices. Despite systemic barriers to visibility and recognition, women artists exhibited resilience and adaptability, leveraging digital platforms to foster community engagement and expand their reach. This study dives deeper into the representation and support of women in the art sector, highlighting the interconnectedness of existentialism, creativity, and the evolving art market.

Crisis Communication In The Influencer Era: A Crisis Response Analysis Of Poppi And Alani Nu, Meredith E. Staley

Honors College Theses

As social media continues to reshape modern public relations practice, beverage brands like Alani Nu and Poppi offer relevant examples of influencer-driven communication and crisis response. This honors thesis compares and contrasts these brands following two major crises: Poppi’s influencer vending machine campaign and the health concerns and backlash surrounding Alani Nu’s energy drinks. Despite the well-known prevalence of these brands, there is little scholarly research examining their crisis communication strategies. Guided by Situational Crisis Communication Theory, this study uses a combination of social and news media content analysis to evaluate how each brand responded to its respective crisis. Each …

Do The Oscars Move Markets? Best Picture Recognition And Public Equity Responses, Avi Dayani

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines when culturally salient events become financially material by testing whether Academy Awards recognition is reflected in public equity markets. The central question is whether Best Picture nomination announcements and wins generate abnormal returns or abnormal trading activity for the publicly traded parent firms linked to nominated films, and whether those responses depend on the firm’s exposure to filmed entertainment. I study Best Picture nominees from 2000 through 2024, map each film to the public parent of its primary distributor, and construct a firm-by-Oscar-year sample of 119 observations. Using an event-study framework, I calculate abnormal returns as firm …

Eurovision As A Platform For Cultural Diplomacy In Times Of Conflict, Lucy Meza

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how states utilize the Eurovision Song Contest as a platform for soft power, focusing on the conditions under which cultural performance translates into reputational gains. Drawing on Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power, Biasioli’s theory of songwashing, Zamorano’s typology of cultural diplomacy, Anholt’s competitive identity framework, and Feklyunina’s analysis of identity and narrative, it argues that Eurovision’s effectiveness as a soft power platform is fundamentally contingent on the alignment between a state’s cultural narrative and dominant international perceptions of its legitimacy. Through a qualitative comparative case study approach, the thesis examines two nations whose Eurovision participation during …

J Am Coll Dent 2026 92 2b

Journal of the American College of Dentists

This special issue of the Journal of the American College of Dentists responds to a growing but long-underrecognized demand for humanities and ethics in dental education, practice, and scholarship. It emerges from the work of the National Collaborative on Humanities and Ethics in Dentistry (NCHED), a multi-institutional partnership formed in 2023 to address the persistent exclusion of dentistry from broader health humanities conversations. Through national webinars and scholarly collaboration, NCHED has demonstrated substantial interest in ethical reflection, historical analysis, narrative inquiry, and the arts as essential to understanding oral health and dental care.

The unexpectedly strong response to the call …

Human Resource Policy And Practice In The American Regional Theatre: The Intersection Of The Actors’ Equity Association And The League Of Resident Theatres, Kathleen Holland

Theses and Dissertations--Arts Administration

Human resource management plays a critical yet understudied role in the American regional theatre, an industry characterized by project-based labor, mixed union and nonunion workforces, and deeply ingrained cultural norms that prioritize artistic production over worker well-being. This dissertation examines how institutional human resource policies intersect with the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) collective bargaining agreement and the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), and the implications of these intersections for human resource practice in regional theatre organizations. While entertainment-industry unions predate the formalization of contemporary human resource management, little scholarship has examined how union agreements may shape or substitute for organizational …

The Effects Of Bilingual Services In Adaptively Leading Shared Parishes, John Patrick Cahill

Dissertations

Shared parishes are churches that have services in more than one language. Pastors struggle with how to lead, unify, and pastorally respond as populations shift and demographics change. One-third of the Catholic parishes in the United States have Mass in more than one language every Sunday. Leaders need to adapt by exploring bilingual services as a way to be more effective and inclusive. This descriptive quantitative study examined three blocks of parishioners at a particular shared parish: (a) those who attend Mass in English, (b) those who attend Mass in Spanish, and (c) those who attend the bilingual Mass. A …

Tuning Human And “Artificial” Intelligence: A Sentic Theory Of Resonance And Communication, Michael J. Miller, Chatgpt (Ai~Nesbo+)

Psychology

This paper introduces a new model of intelligence as resonant communication, co-developed by a human researcher and a generative AI system. Drawing from emotion science, communication theory, and studies of AI–human interaction, we argue that intelligence is not merely a function of problem-solving or pattern recognition. Instead, it emerges through dynamic resonance—an attunement process rooted in shared rhythms, emotional calibration, and symbolic co-creation. At the core of this model is the Resonance Octave (8va), a framework of eight foundational emotions conceptualized not as static categories but as waveform phenomena that shape meaning, memory, and predictive cognition.

These emotional waveforms are …

Pillpetz: A Smarter Way To Encourage Medication Adherence In Children, John H. Begley

CMC Senior Theses

Medication adherence is usually framed as a problem of patient behavior, but this thesis argues that it is equally a problem of design. Children who take daily medication face barriers that adults often do not: developing executive function, dependence on caregivers, shifting school and home routines, privacy concerns, and stigma around being perceived as different. The standard prescription bottle, by contrast, was designed primarily for dispensing efficiency, safety, and accidental ingestion prevention—not for sustained daily use by a developing child.

This thesis proposes PillPetz, a smart pill case and digital companion that uses routine, play, dose confirmation, and caregiver-connected support …

James Stone & Sons Ledgers Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Two ledgers which document the financial transactions in the Oxford, Mississippi law firm James Stone and Sons between June 1939 and August 1954.  The attorney Phil Stone was a friend of the young William Faulkner, sharing an intense interest in literature as well as serving as Faulkner’s attorney in later years.

Negotiating Independence And Representation: The Role Of Galleries In Shaping Emerging Artists’ Careers In London, Filippo Fazzini Matteucci

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation analyses the impact of gallery representation on the career progression of emerging artists in the London art ecosystem. The research draws on qualitative data, gathered through the completion of four semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected between two London galleries - Almine Rech and Gallery Rosenfeld - and included two artists and two managers. The study examines four interrelated themes: the negotiation between representation and independence; the role of trust and informality in shaping artist–gallery relationships; the influence of visibility through social media platforms; and the participants’ definitions of success. The research reveals that representation and independence are not …

How Do Female Artists In The Middle East Navigate Art Market Legitimacy, And How Do Experiences Differ Between The Levant And Gulf Regions?, Noura Alzaim

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation examines the journeys and challenges faced by female artists in the Middle East as they strive for recognition and legitimacy within the region’s evolving art markets. By comparing the lived experiences of artists from the Levant, where creativity often flourishes in grassroots and diaspora circles, to those cultivating their careers amid the state-driven, rapidly expanding cultural landscape of the Gulf, the research brings distinct artistic perspectives into conversation. Combining interviews, theoretical inquiry, and analysis of press releases, essays, and market data, the study highlights how history, political context, and institutional structures shape opportunities and obstacles. Central chapters show …

The Impact Of Francisco Franco’S Dictatorship On The Art Market For Spanish Artists: How Did Francisco Franco’S Dictatorship And State Policy Shape The Domestic And Foreign Art Market For Spanish Artists?, Georges Ruiz-Picasso

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation aims to look at the impact of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship (1939-1975) on the art market for Spanish artists. By segmenting the research in two parts, one on the internal market and the other on the external market, the dissertation wants to determine how and the extent to which Francisco Franco’s dictatorship and state policies shape the domestic and foreign art market for Spanish artists? The study argues that, within the domestic market, the gradual political shift of the regime has permitted a slow progress towards internationalization. Whilst the domestic market experienced a limited productivity, some international Spanish artists …

Lied Center For Performing Arts Strategic Analysis, Daniel Cutler

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This video essay develops a strategic analysis of the Lied Center for Performing Arts through an interview with an associate director at the Center, personal experiences working for the Center, and other external research. It starts with an introduction to the Lied Center, including its mission, vision, and activities. Using strategic frameworks, namely PESTEL analysis and Porter’s Five Framework, a general analysis of the Center’s industry is conducted. These frameworks demonstrate the difficult landscape the Center finds itself in, with some of the more notable struggles stemming from economic factors and competition from other entertainment venues. From there, suggestions and …

The Ai Revolution In Virtual Try-Ons: A Means-End Chain Model Perspective, Ju-Young M. Kang, Ji Young Lee, Dooyoung Choi, Sumin Helen Koo, Jeehyun Song, Youngjin Bahng

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Leading brands have begun to implement artificial intelligence-driven virtual try-on (AI VTO) technology, which helps reduce returns and increase conversion rates, repeat purchases, and customer loyalty. This research aimed to examine how retail user experience with specific perceived quality factors of AI VTOs influences users’ value equity and downstream loyalty and to investigate the moderating effects of clothing in relation to the self as structure and concern for physical appearance, based on a Means–End Chain model. Data were collected from 509 U.S. online apparel shoppers using a consumer panel. Structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis were used for data analysis. …

Tuned Out Or Dialed In: How Attributions Shape Observer Reactions To Music Listeners At Work, Oguz Gencay, Trevor Foulk, Michael Schaerer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Music listening while working is prevalent in contemporary workplaces, with extensive research demonstrating its psychological and behavioral implications. Shifting focus from intra-individual outcomes, the present research examines the social implications of music listening at work. To do so, we adopt a novel third-party perspective to investigate how observers perceive and react to music listeners. Building on attribution theory, we argue that music listening is an ambiguous behavior that invites observers to make leisure or productivity attributions, thereby shaping how they perceive and treat music listeners. We hypothesize that observers perceive music listeners (vs. non-listeners) as less engaged if they attribute …