The conference will analyse the relationship between emotions and cultural consumption. According to the professor ‘to know the role played by emotions, but also the motivations, is a necessity due to the fact that not only do they lead us to practice and consume artistic activities, but also it produces in turn an improvement in the positive emotions, with the resulting effect on our health’. However, he adds that ‘society has been considering the reason, the intellect, as a priority and has forgotten about the important role played by emotions in our life. They are key issues in important choices such as choosing a partner, casting a vote, choosing a menu or attending to a theatrical show.’ He highlights that for some time now, several disciplines such as neuroscience, psychology, sociology and marketing have started to study them.

Manuel Cuadrado García is a tenured professor of the Department of Marketing and Market Research of the Universitat de València, Spain. His main line of research is marketing in the art industry. He has participated in several national and international congresses related to this topic and he has published in different journals. He is co-author of the books ‘Arts and Culture Marketing; The consumption of cultural services’; and ‘Cultural Markets: Twelve Marketing Studies’. He was the president of the 9th International Conference on Arts and Cultural Management (AIMAC07), the 2nd Workshop in Cultural Economics and Management (2010), some Academic-Professional Sessions about Marketing and Performing Arts and he is the director of the Master's Degree in Cultural Management of the Universitat de València. He is member of the publisher committee of the International Journal of Arts Management as well as copy editor of several scientific publications. He has been guest researcher and has taught in the London School of Economics (London, United Kingdom), the HEC (Montreal, Canada) and the Università Bocconi (Milan, Italy), among others. Moreover, he has given several seminars, postgraduate diplomas and conferences and at the same time he collaborates with cultural entities and projects.

The programme ‘Art i Ment’
‘Art i ment’ (http://www.uv.es/cultura/artiment) is a sociocultural intervention project promoted by the Office of the Vice-Principal for Culture and Equality of the Universitat de València. It is a programme that links psychology with education and aesthetic experience to promote self-esteem, motivation, creativity and artistic sensitivity in children of 10 or 11 years old, an important age for their development. The programme is being evaluated with a test and interviews designed by professionals. All the activities are free and the enrolment was closed quickly, a success that leads to its continuity the next academic year.

The setting up of this programme has been possible thanks to the General Foundation of the UV and the implication of a great number of entities: Caixa Popular, Per Amor a l’Art Foundation, Antonia Mir Foundation, Berklee College of Music of Valencia, the Faculty of Psychology of the UV (Master’s Degree in Drug Dependence: Research, Treatment and Drug Pathologies), the Professional School of Music of Valencia, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Associació ÀMBIT, Fundación por la Justicia, IVAJ (Generalitat Jove) and the public schools Cervantes, Dr. Oloriz, Primer Marqués del Turia, Mestalla and Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados.