Abstract | This paper evaluates the design management competences used in the case of the Knitted Lives, an art project and museum exhibition created to improve the lives of older women. We discuss how design management contributed to the effectiveness of the project and, generally, the way that design could be managed in cultural organisations, specifically museums and art galleries that offer services to society. These services include: a) in the case of museums the research, collection, exhibition and preservation of art works, cultural heritage objects and other types of material and/or intellectual human achievements and b) in the case of art charities the involvement of isolated social groups in creative activities to improve well being and combat social exclusion. Both these kinds of organisations contribute to cultural and personal growth, education, entertainment, knowledge dissemination and appreciation of the individuals towards the arts, as well as, their own lives and capabilities. Consequently, they are agents of social change. We believe that design and design management, have a key role to play in any social innovation process and, in this particular paper, we explain how. |
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