Valuing Culture
Making the arts vibrant and confident
-- Anthony Sargent, General Director, The Sage Gateshead
Demos believes that culture should be valued for three reasons: it is appreciated and enjoyed by the public; it plays a role in social policy, especially in learning and the creative economy; and because cultural organisations can improve our society.
Any arguments for public funding must address all three of these points, but we don’t have a shared and convincing language to discuss the value of culture from the perspective of audiences. Instead, cultural organisations tend to justify their existence in terms related to policy-makers’ concerns, such as economic development or social exclusion.
Demos is working with cultural organisations to help them to articulate and evaluate the contribution they make to society. We are creating a framework to improve the way that politicians, professionals and the public engage with each other.
Current Projects
Publications:
- Capturing Cultural Value
- The Right to Art
- Creative Reading
- Challenge and Change
- Hitting the Right Note
- How old do you have to be to be an artist?
- Valuing Culture in the South East
- So Giotto Drew on Rocks - Children's Art