The Warhol Economy

How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City

By: Elizabeth Currid

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Which is more important to New York City's economy, the gleaming corporate office--or the grungy rock club that launches the best new bands? If you said "office", think again.

In The Warhol Economy, Elizabeth Currid argues that creative industries like fashion, art, and music drive the economy of New York as much as - if not more than - finance, real estate, and law. And these creative industries are fueled by the social life that whirls around the clubs, galleries, music venues, and fashion shows where creative people meet, network, exchange ideas, pass judgments, and set the trends that shape popular culture.

The implications of Currid's argument are far-reaching, and not just for New York. Urban policymakers, she suggests, have not only seriously underestimated the importance of the cultural economy, but they have failed to recognize that it depends on a vibrant creative social scene. They haven't understood, in other words, the social, cultural, and economic mix that Currid calls the Warhol economy.

With vivid first-person reporting about New York's creative scene, Currid takes the listener into the city spaces where the social and economic lives of creativity merge. p>The book has fascinating original interviews with many of New York's important creative figures, including fashion designers Zac Posen and Diane von Furstenberg, artists Ryan McGinness and Futura, and members of the band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.The economics of art and culture in New York and other cities has been greatly misunderstood and underrated. The Warhol Economy explains how the cultural economy works-and why it is vital to all great cities.

©2008 Elizabeth Currid (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Of course, everyone knows that art and culture help make New York a great place to live. But Currid goes much further, showing that the culture industry creates tremendous economic value in its own right."(James Surowiecki, The New Yorker)

I wanted to like this...

I am not sure what was missing. A better reading? Better content? More compelling argument? Maybe it was all of the above. This might be better as a lazy Sunday paperback read. But I would probably recommend just skipping over it in audiobook form.

A must read

Excellent material for anyone who dabbles in art or cultural production. Brilliant, well synthesized stats and observations pepper this entire book. If you're interested in a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between economy and culture, this is a great jumping off point.