where is the story hearts and hands set? Is this a story that broadens our cultural horizons or helps us to understand experiences of those very different from us?
Answers
Answer:
It’s extraordinarily hard to measure and quantify an idea like
value in relation to culture, because the use of the term raises
so many questions – not least, ‘who is asking about value?’, and
‘what does value mean?’. You can’t tick a box marked profundity.
This is important work for the arts and for museums. Cultural organisations want
to know their audiences better and to understand why they like what they like.
We need to go deeper than generalities, whether enthusiasms or criticisms. When
people say things like ‘I loved that book’, or ‘that theatre makes excellent work’, or
‘that band changed my life’ - what does that actually mean? Further, politicians
require us to justify taxpayer investment, but how do we capture for them the
power of culture on the individual?
These are hard questions, and coloured by subjectivity, but we should not avoid
them if we are to better understand and articulate the essential contribution that
the arts make to all our lives.
In the past, the question of value has been considered by academics through describing two types of impacts: those where culture makes a contribution to wider
policy areas (such as supporting economic growth, health and education) and
those which are associated with benefits to the individual (like happiness or inspiration). These differing areas of value have been described as ‘instrumental’ and
‘intrinsic.’
Most people simply don’t think about culture in this way, of course and neither is
this thinking particularly helpful to the Arts Council’s mission and goals. Would it
ever be meaningful to talk about funding an excellent museum that had no effect
on the world around it?
FOREWORD
ALAN DAVEY
Chief Executive, Arts Council England
UNDERSTANDING the value and impacts of cultural experiences
However, we cannot ignore this ‘instrumental’ and ‘intrinsic’ debate and the way it has shaped the current body of research. Earlier this year, the Arts Council published The value of arts and culture to people and society, a review of the existing literature on the impact arts and culture can have on, for example, health, education and social cohesion – those benefits that may be seen as ‘instrumental’. This was limited in scope, but it did show that there is a considerable body of research literature available on the subject – but also many gaps. There is a lack of data, for example, about the economic benefits of museums and libraries, and about the importance of the arts to the creative industries, particularly in regard to innovation. It also showed that we lack longitudinal studies of the health benefits of participation in the arts, and comparative studies of the effects of participation in the arts as opposed to say, participation in sport. We cannot demonstrate why the arts are unique in what they do. As a result of this research, we decided for the first time, to provide research funding to plug some of these gaps in our knowledge about both ‘instrumental’ and ‘intrinsic’ benefits. We asked WolfBrown to undertake this international literature review and to help us understand how others have considered this question. The focus for the report was on academically-robust research and influential policy papers from the past twenty years. Like any literature review, the range was restricted. It would be impossible to explore all the possible contributions to this debate in recent years, let alone the historical or philosophical contexts. There are a number of other projects in the UK that aim to add to our knowledge in this area, including the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Cultural Value Project and the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value. These projects will all help shape how we understand the value and impact of our work. We will use the lessons of these projects, along with this report, to explore what practical steps we might take to shape the evaluation of our activities. Further research and testing of new ideas will complement our current methods of measuring individual impact, and this report’s Coda describes some exciting ongoing activity in this area. Our aim in commissioning this review is to shed light on this debate, and to enliven it. A full picture depends on the contribution of diverse voices, and we hope readers will add theirs, to help us better understand and articulate the value and impacts of cultural experiences.