Rainbow Cones by Space Cadets, Garden of Delights festival, Manchester, 2004 Photo: Paul Herrmann/Profile Photo Agency

Opera RoomCaption: The Opera Room by Helen Ottaoway, Alistair Goolden, Deborah Thomas of Artmusic at the Phoenix Centre, ExeterPhoto: Tim Cuff, Apex News Agency

Evaluating culture: a citizen-led approach

Vilnius Reflection March 2009

Catherine Bunting, Director of Research, Arts Council England

Do we know what we’re trying to achieve?

Anthony Sargent, cited in Bailey, C. (unpublished). ‘Millennial celebrations and cultural capitals: the case of the Arts Council’s Arts 2000 series’.

‘We were invited to do (the Year of Music), and asked “what are the objectives?” Everitt said, “well actually there aren’t any objectives”. There was a pause of a week or so, and I said we must know what we’re trying to achieve here. I said “shall we do some objectives”, and he said, “Oh! Would you? That would be terribly kind”.

How should value be defined?

• should individuals or decision-makers decide on the value of policy outcomes?

• if individuals are to determine value, which individuals values are important – all member of society or those in receipt of the intervention?

• should value be based on the preference for an outcome or some measure of the impact of outcomes on happiness or well-being?

"It's meant to depict a scenery of mountains and grass, blue sky and a sun, the arts to me means something that takes you out of yourself as if you're going out into the countryside, seeing something of beauty, the arts add that dimension to life." (retired, C2DE, medium engaged)

Valuing the arts

“Children are wrapped up in consumerism and blinded by advertising…I think it does enrich their lives and I think it gives them a much more thought-provoking aspirational life.” (parent, ABC1, medium engaged)

“A facility for creating, a facility for solace, a facility for happiness, sadness,

a channel for lots of those feelings.(retired, ABC1, high engaged)

“Relaxation, enjoyment, inspiration, all them things, if you didn’thave that access to art, you’d do a full day’s work, you'd go and

get pissed and you'd go home and go to bed.” (parent, C2DE, high engaged)

“I built my own house, but I’ve never thought of it before as an art form.

But…sometimes I’ll stand and look at it, and I think, ‘Oh yes’…”

(post-family, C2DE, high engaged)

Are we all talking about the same thing?

“It’s true, the arts are really something which is there for the upper classes and actually

they would rather the rest of us stayed away.” (retired, C2DE, low engaged)

“A really good drama, different portraits and landscapes, sculpture that inspires and is thought provoking, something that gives you a different perspective. Sometimes you seesomething and you think ‘wow, this gives me a different perspective on things’ so that would be art…(parent, ABC1, medium engaged)

“Art is expressing your opinions and your mind through certain activities.” (young person, C2DE, low engaged)

“Traditionally ballet would be ‘the arts’… ‘the arts’ are stuffier; it is paintings, theatre, and ballet mainly” (parent, ABC1, medium engaged)

“If I went to something that I hadn’t experienced before, would I have the

confidence to say, ‘Yes I like this,’ or, ‘I don’t like this,’ or understand it?”

(post-family, C2DE, high engaged)

Access and exclusion

“I wouldn’t be bothered because you think people look down on you because of the stereotype”(parent, C2DE, medium engaged)

“You need more publicity…I know if you look hard enough you can find out the information but sometimes you need it a bit more clear to encourage us to go.” (retired, C2DE, medium engaged)

“I would love to be able to do it but I am just too scared to give it a go.”

(young person, ABC1, medium engaged)

“I like the arts, it’s warm and inviting but there is a barrier up because I think it’s something that I’d like to do, but something that I never seem to get to do because of the barrier. I have nobody to go with or, it’s just not a regular thing for me. (pre-family, ABC1, medium engaged)

Funding for the public good

“And we liked that because it was working with local communities and involving local people into the actual finished article and bringing people together, and everybody could get involved. So, for me, I think the funding should be fair more than anything.” (post-family, C2DE, high engaged)

“A lot of the ones that we definitely funded are things that are definitely giving something back or beneficial or spreading, like for example, the ones that maybe help people with disabilities or provide a platform for young people to do something creative.”(parent, C2DE, high engaged)

“What was deserving enough, what was the key phrase? If it is long enough and wide enough, it will do the job…it has to

have a broad scope, really a broad brush. (parent, ABC1, medium engaged)

Deliberating outcomes

• excellence: arts experiences that enrich and challenge

• innovation: putting ideas into practice to crate fresh and distinctive work

• diversity: a multitude of voices, traditions, cultures and ideas expressed through the arts

• reach: increasing the proportion of people who experience the arts

• engagement: a sense of public ownership of and entitlement to the arts

From research to policy

• five core outcomes at the heart of the Arts Council plan for 2008-11

• major national campaign to encourage people to try something new in the arts

• new grants criteria based on the five outcomes

• new processes to involve a wider range of voices in decision-making

• ongoing work to

- further clarify the core outcomes

- develop metrics based on public perceptions and experiences

From policy to practice

Campaign initiationMembers of the public working with the arts sector to develop campaign values and core activities

Reading ManifestoQualitative research with readers and non-readers to inform the goals of a new multi-agency partnership to promote reading

Ongoing challenges

• embedding public value requires wholesale cultural change

• difficult to advocate for ongoing consultation and involvement – particularly in a recession

• policy makers can be fickle – and forgetful

• need a long-term view

“No, my whole perception of the arts has changed. It makes me think I’ll look more into…just something different. I won’t do the same thing every weekend, I’ll just go out and look for something different to do with the arts, whatever it be. But I’ve learned so much…my perception was theatre and now I’ve learned so many different types of the arts that I will look at every single one of them.”

(pre-family, ABC1, medium engaged)

www.artscouncil.org.uk

Thank you

• www.artsdebate.co.uk

• www.artscouncil.org.uk/audienceinsight

• catherine.bunting@artscouncil.org.uk