art world or artworld

   Members of an art-centered group of people. Characteristic of artworlds are its people, places, activities, ideas, and times in history. The artworld that speakers first acknowledged includes everyone involved in art. Although this set of art-centered people continues to be referred to this way, another set that is frequently acknowledged is the one called "mainstream," generally referring to the contemporary network of art specialists who are most influential. An artworld might also be as broadly focused as the European artworld, or the twentieth century artworld. But others can be much more narrowly focused, as in the current ice-sculpting artworld in Chicago, the artworld of Romanian art conservators, or the traditional pottery-making artworld of the Cotswolds.