Indicators for arts and cultural policy: A Global perspective

Taking an international view of cultural indicators, this paper is an account of the state of play of indicator development. It reviews the literature on cultural indicators, raising analytical and global coordination issues, and adapts ‘good practice’ ideas from the literature. It is argued that improving cultural indicators is not simply about improving statistical methods: it is also about understanding better the nature of arts activities, improving the articulation of arts policies and considering the complex interrelationships between statistics and policy and the impacts that measurement can have on ‘stakeholders’ in the arts and cultural sectors.     

Minding the gap: Elucidating the disconnect between arts participation metrics and arts engagement within immigrant communities

A growing gap between national metrics of arts participation and the many, evolving ways in which people participate in artistic and aesthetic activities limits the degree to which such data can usefully inform policy decisions. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) is the primary source of arts participation data in the USA, but this instrument inadequately evaluates how members of minority and immigrant communities participate in the arts. As the USA nears a historic demographic shift to being a majority–minority nation – non-Hispanic White individuals will no longer be a demographic majority by about 2041 – obtaining more accurate measures of artistic activities that are meaningful to a more diverse population will be of increasing importance for public policy-making. To better understand the extent to which the SPPA's questions capture the range of artistic activities engaged in by members of immigrant communities, we cognitively tested a subset of the survey's questions with Chinese immigrants to the USA as a pilot case. We found that interviewees participate in a range of culturally specific and non-culturally specific arts activities that they did not report in response to the survey's questions. In this article, we draw upon these interviews to discuss the reasons underpinning the gap and suggest implications for updating research tools and future research. A better understanding of the gap between measured and actual “arts participation” will lead to improved measures and information to support artistic expression and arts more reflective of contemporary society.     

Public participation in the arts in the United States: Summary of the national endowment for the arts 1997 survey

The 1997 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts examines the extent to which adult Americans throughout the US participate in the arts ‐ by attending live events and exhibitions, listening to and watching broadcast or recorded arts programmes, as well as personally performing or creating art themselves.

Respondents indicate that 35 per cent of American adults visited an art museum or gallery at least once in 1997. Other popular activities included attending ‘musical plays’ (25 per cent), non‐musical plays and classical music (both 16 per cent). Twelve per cent of the populated went to performances of jazz and dance other than ballet. Reading literature and visiting a historic park or an arts/crafts fair also had high participation rates ‐ the former, 63 per cent, and the latter two, about 47 per cent.

The chapter is divided into eight sections. The first three sections describe total participation, rates of participation, and participation by demographic group for each arts activity by types of participation: attendance at live events, participation through media, and active participation. The fourth section is devoted to socialisation, the amount of education and exposure to the arts. The fifth compares participation rates for the arts and other leisure activities. The sixth section focuses on music preferences, and the seventh on the geographical distribution of participation in the arts. The final section presents a summary and conclusions. Appendices to the report provide background and history of the survey, details of its methodology and analysis, and the questions asked in the survey.     

The arts,Bohemian scenes,and income

ABSTRACT

Where and how does arts activity drive neighbourhood revitalization? We explore the impact of arts establishments on income in US zip codes, nationally and across quantiles (from four to seven subgroups) of zip codes stratified by disadvantage (based on income and ethnicity/race). We focus on what is new here: how neighbourhood scenes or the mixes of amenities mediate relationships between the arts and income. One dramatic finding is that more bohemian/hip neighbourhoods tend to have less income, contradicting the accounts from Jane Jacobs, Richard Florida and others. Arts and bohemia generate opposing effects, which emerge if we study not a few cases like Greenwich Village, but use more careful measures and larger number of cases. Some arts factors that distinctly influence neighbourhood income include the number of arts establishments; type and range of arts establishments; levels of disadvantage in a neighbourhood; and specific pre­ and co­existing neighbourhood amenities. Rock, gospel and house music appeal to distinct audiences. Our discussion connects this vitalizing role for arts activity to broader community development dynamics. These overall results challenge the view that the arts simply follow, not drive, wealth, and suggest that arts-led strategies can foster neighbourhood revitalization across a variety of income, ethnic, and other contexts.     

The arts in England: Developing a survey of attendance,participation and attitudes

Reliable data on attendance, participation and attitudes to the arts are needed by planners, policy makers, arts organisations, those concerned with marketing the arts and researchers.

This chapter describes the development and piloting of a national survey of people's engagement with the arts by the Arts Council of England and the Office for National Statistics. It outlines the main reasons for the development of the survey, presents results from the pilot and compares them with other national and international sources of data.

From the outset, procedures for obtaining feedback on the pilot questionnaire were built into the planning process. The paper discusses respondents’ reactions to the questionnaire, their views on how meaningful the questions were and how well the interview worked. It also explores respondents’ understanding of such terms as ‘the arts’ and ‘public funding’, and how they responded to questions.

The chapter concludes with a summary of the changes made in the light of the pilot and outlines future plans for the survey.     

Cultural mapping and sustainable communities: planning for the arts revisited

The field of arts and cultural planning and the aspirations of cultural practitioners, arts development officers and town planners has had a long, if frustrated, history in the United Kingdom. The relationship between the land-use development system and arts and cultural policy has lacked specific provision guidance or standards. This is in contrast to other areas of leisure and recreation, such as parks and open spaces, sports facilities and libraries. In large part this is due to the discretionary nature of much arts provision and also the fact that there is no single type of provider. Arts facilities and activity are delivered directly and indirectly by local and county councils, community and independent not-for-profit arts organizations – large and small – and private enterprises in the commercial entertainment and cultural industries. The absence of planning guidance and comparable data to assess the need for, and location of, a range of cultural amenities has also hampered an equitable, distributory planning approach. However, renewed interest in amenity planning and the role of cultural activity and opportunity in “place making” is evident internationally, and in the UK in particular, as new housing growth areas, demographic change and population increases require the planning of social as well as physical infrastructure on a scale not experienced since the last major new town developments. This article reviews the evolution of arts and cultural planning in the UK, including an assessment of recent concepts, guidance and resources in the UK and elsewhere. Cultural mapping and planning approaches are then demonstrated in housing growth areas, followed by a proposed methodology and framework for populating the cultural map. Finally, conclusions are made on the state of data and policy integration in what continues to be a fragmented cultural system.     

Theory-based evaluation and the social impact of the arts

The well-documented challenges in researching the social impacts of the arts are closely related to key issues in contemporary social research and evaluation, most particularly the problem of causal attribution. The article contends that some of the most common criticisms of the evidence base for the social impact of the arts relate to the successionist model of change which underpins positivist social science research and evaluation. Illustrating this with reference to research on the arts and quality of life, the article considers the alternative generative understanding of causation that underpins theory-based evaluation (TBE) approaches, favoured recently in the UK as part of the “What Works?” agenda. While these approaches fit well with knowledge about the determinants of arts impact, the article considers whether in fact TBE approaches offer an effective strategy for understanding how and why arts engagement can result in social change. The limitations and possibilities of TBE are considered with reference to four recent UK studies of the impact of the arts on individuals which make use of them.