Measuring the economic and social impact of the arts:
a review
Michelle Reeves
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my thanks to the following people for their contributions
and help in identifying relevant research studies for this review: Paul Allin
(formerly Department for Culture, Media and Sport), Margaret Cooney
(formerly East England Arts), Ian Gasse (Arts Research Limited), Sue Grace
(Essex County Council), Helen Grady (North West Arts), Tanya Hutchinson
(Scottish Arts Council), Helen Jermyn (Research Consultant), Mari Martin
(Norfolk County Council), Francois Matarasso (Comedia), Simon Mattey
(re:source), Jane Robinson (Northern Arts), Helen Scott (West Midlands Arts)
and Mary Wright (Yorkshire Arts).
I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Social and Economic Contexts
Team and artform departments in the Arts Council of England for providing
information on research studies and organisations. Thanks are also due to
Adrienne Skelton and Ann Bridgwood in the Arts Council's Research
Department for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the Review, to
Rosemary Amos in the Arts Council's Publications Department for
proofreading and editorial work, and Tom McVeagh for his web support.
Michelle Reeves
Research Officer
MEASURING THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE ARTS
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2.
2.1
METHODOLOGY
Literature Search
4
3.
3.1
3.2
ARTS IMPACT RESEARCH IN THE UK: HISTORY, RATIONALE
AND POLICY CONTEXT
The economic importance of the arts
The social impact of the arts
7
7
13
4.
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
IMPACT AND VALUE
What is meant by 'impact'?
Definitions of the arts and creative industries
Definitions of economic impact
Definitions of social impact
Measurement of arts impacts: the debates
Towards a model of effective arts impact evaluation
21
21
23
27
29
30
45
5.
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
APPROACHES TO IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN THE ARTS
Introduction
Approaches to economic impact assessment in the arts
Current position of social impact research methods
Towards a typology of methods of social impact assessment of the
arts
49
49
50
56
58
6.
6.1
6.2
THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE ARTS
The literature
Selection of research exploring the economic impact of the arts
84
84
85
7.
7.1
7.2
7.3
CONCLUSION
Supporting social and economic development
Building the evidence base
Research needs and future arts impact agenda
101
101
102
102
BIBLIOGRAPHY 106
APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Quality assessment criteria for research design and
methodology
Appendix 2 Performance and impact measurement - indicators
and other tools
1. Matarasso (1997) list of 50 social impacts identified
through Comedia's study of participative arts
programmes
2. Williams (1997) key outcomes areas for the arts in
community cultural development
3. Institute for Employment Studies (2000) guidance for
recording 'soft' outcomes and 'distance travelled' by
beneficiaries of projects funded under ESF Objective
3 programmes.
4. QUEST's (2000) Key Performance Indicators
5. DETR (2000) framework and menu of 29 local
indicators of sustainable development
6. Health Development Agency (2000) impact of work
identified by arts projects in survey of communitybased
arts projects which impact on health and well-
being
118
118
120
Section One
1 Introduction
1.1 Aim and objectives of the Review
The aim of the Review is to provide an overview of arts impact research to
complement a recent Arts Council-commissioned review on arts and social
exclusion.1
This review is available online at the Arts Council's website at
www.artscouncil.org.uk/news/publicationsindex.html, and covers this area of
policy in more depth. Inevitably there is some overlap between the two
publications.
The objectives of the Review are to:
• collate and review existing research on the economic and social impact of
the arts
• share understanding of methodologies and measures used for assessing
the impact of arts projects, facilities and programmes, as well as the
creative industries
• assess the comprehensiveness and quality of the existing evidence base
• inform the future agenda for impact research within the sector, and support
evidence-based policy making by the Arts Council
• identify key research needs to help improve the robustness of research
methods and evidence demonstrating the contribution of arts and culture
to the social and economic objectives of national and local government,
and other key partners
• provide a practical resource to assist those working in the field
1
Jermyn, 2001
2
Drawing on selected literature, the Review will address the following topics:
• concepts and definitions of impact, economic impact and social impact as
they relate to the arts and creative industries
• different models and methods of measuring the economic and social
impact of the arts
• assessing the quality and appropriateness of existing research design and
methods
• discussion of key issues raised by existing research and their implications
for future research and policy development.
1.2 Structure of the Review
Section one outlines the aim and objectives of the Review and the structure
of the Report.
Section two presents the methodology used for the Review.
Section three explores the background, rationale and policy context for the
development of research into the economic and social impact of the arts.
Section four examines concepts and definitions of 'impact', 'economic impact'
and 'social impact', and how these concepts have been interpreted by
different studies. It outlines debates around the measurement of arts impacts
and presents a provisional model of effective arts-impact evaluation.
Section five presents two typologies of different research methods and
frameworks which have been used to gather evidence of the economic and
social impact of the arts, respectively.
Section six using the typologies presented in section five, reviews research
study examples of some of the research methods identified, and is therefore
not intended to be comprehensive. The findings and conclusions for each
3
study are presented alongside an attempt to assess its strengths and
weaknesses, using the Arts Council's Draft Standards for Reporting on
Statistics2
and guidelines developed by the National Foundation for
Educational Research (NFER) for assessing research quality.3
The Arts Council's Draft Standards for Reporting on Statistics and NFER's
guidelines for assessing research quality can be found in Appendix 1.
Section seven highlights key issues raised by the existing body of research,
gaps in research evidence, and identifies areas of research methodology and
policy thinking which require further exploration. It discusses the implications
for a future research agenda, and makes some recommendations for the
development of research by the Arts Council and its partners.
A full bibliography is included at the end of the Report which provides a
comprehensive listing of sources which are wider than can be reviewed within
this publication. Examples of performance and impact measurement
frameworks and indicators used by government departments, the Quality,
Efficiency and Standards Team (QUEST) and other organisations, which are
relevant to the arts impact agenda, are included in the appendices.
2
Hutton, 2001
3
Sharp and Benefield, 2001
4
Section Two
2 Methodology
2.1 Literature search
The methodology adopted for the Review comprised a number of search
strategies, which included:
• two separate analyses of the Arts Council of England’s library database,
'Heritage', for literature using the keywords 'economic impact' and 'arts'
and 'social impact' and 'arts', respectively
• a manual search of the smaller libraries of the Arts Council's Research and
Development Department
• review of a database of research studies collated for the Realising the
Potential of Cultural Services4
project, held in the Research Department of
the Arts Council
• postal, telephone or e-mail enquiries to the Statistics and Social Policy Unit
of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Scottish Arts
Council, Arts Council of Wales and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, a
range of DCMS-sponsored Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) with
a remit for arts, culture or media, including National Lottery Distributing
Bodies (NLDBs). Information was gathered on completed and ongoing
research addressing the impact of arts interventions
• an e-mail circular to relevant staff in the Arts Council's art form
departments, and to the ten Regional Arts Boards in England, requesting
information on local, regional or national impact studies focusing on either
individual venues, specific cultural sub-sectors, or strategic initiatives
• meetings with members of the Social and Economic Contexts Team of the
Arts Council's Research and Development Department, and with Helen
Jermyn, the Research Consultant employed to compile the Arts Council's
literature review on arts and social exclusion. Contact details of
4
Coalter, 2001
5
organisations, which could provide additional research material on such
policy areas as arts and health, and arts and the criminal justice system,
were also obtained and followed up.
These search strategies were supplemented by making reference to existing
literature reviews in this area (Shaw, 1999; Blake Stevenson Ltd, 2000;
Coalter, 2001; Jermyn, 2001).
The search of the Arts Council's library database identified 22 research
publications, addressing the arts in the UK, Europe, Canada, the USA and
Australia. A further 33 publications were identified through the Realising the
Potential database, a significant number of which had been identified through
other sources. Cross-referencing was carried out to remove any duplication.
Other searches, enquiries and meetings generated awareness of further
publications which were added to the bibliography.
A small number of studies were retrieved, read and assessed using the Arts
Council of England's Draft Standards for Reporting on Statistics (Hutton,
2001), and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)
guidelines for assessing research quality (Sharp and Benefield, 2001). Their
references were also scrutinised for further potentially relevant material. This
process led to further additions to the Review bibliography.
It was not possible within this Review to undertake a comprehensive appraisal
of the wealth of literature, including published studies, conference reports,
journal articles and papers, which now exist on the subject. The Review is
therefore limited to research and opinion pieces published since 1988 until the
present day.
The start date coincides with the publication date of The Economic
Importance of the Arts in Britain (Myerscough, 1988), widely regarded as the
first publication which put the issue of the impact of the arts onto the political
agenda. It also makes reference to papers presented at the Convergence,
6
Creative Industries and Civil Society − The New Cultural Policy conference
held in Nottingham, from 26 − 29 September 2001.
The Review covers research primarily undertaken in England, but includes
selected research in Scotland and Wales, the USA and Australia, in order to
provide broader understanding of the subject.
The Review includes studies which concentrate on the economic contribution
of the arts, the cultural sector (or sub-sectors within it) or the creative
industries. It also covers studies which evaluate the social benefits and effects
of arts interventions on different target groups and communities, and in the
areas of regeneration, education, health and criminal justice.
In selecting materials for inclusion in the Review, a balance has been sought
between the following criteria:
• a broad geographical spread
• a range of study foci, eg. venue, participative arts programme, tour, local
arts development, award scheme, etc
• diversity of approaches and methodologies
• research quality
• target group(s) of study
• policy area or issue addressed
• date research undertaken
• influence on the sector
• presentation of 'best evidence' of the impact of the arts.
The Review does not attempt to reproduce, in great detail, the claims
articulated about the economic and social impact of the arts, as these have
been adequately covered elsewhere (Shaw, 1999; Blake Stevenson, 2000;
Kelly & Kelly, 2000; Jermyn, 2001).
7
Section Three
3 Arts Impact Research in the UK: History, Rationale and
Policy Context
3.1 The economic importance of the arts
The social benefits of the arts on individual and community development had
been argued by the Community Arts Movement since the 1960s. However,
although there was a significant body of evidence to support this argument,
most of it was anecdotal and there were significant gaps in the documentation
of work. The low priority accorded to the issue of impact measurement within
the political and policy agendas of the time, coupled with the lack of a
systematic evidence-base, meant that the case for the arts having a wider
societal impact was never sufficiently robust to convince policymakers to
release substantive funds for its further investigation.
However, from the early 1980s onwards, arts and cultural activity became an
increasing feature of urban regeneration programmes in Britain, as cities, in
particular, sought solutions to economic restructuring and the decline of
traditional manufacturing industry. Taking their inspiration from the
experiences of American and European cities, major cities such as Glasgow,
Manchester and Liverpool embarked on ambitious cultural development
strategies, often based on flagship capital projects. These strategies were
given added momentum by the publication of the Policy Study Institute's
seminal study, The Economic Importance of the Arts in Britain (1988), which
established the arts sector as a significant, growing and value-added sector in
its own right, with a turnover of £10 billion and employing some 500,000
people.
Myerscough (1988) demonstrated, through the use of a multiplier, that direct
spending on the arts led to spending in other sectors of the economy, which in
turn enhanced wealth and job creation, and made cities appear more
8
attractive to citizens and companies. The study had a far-reaching impact on
the cultural sector and strengthened its argument for the economic impact of
the arts as a powerful justification for continued public funding. The Report set
the stage for a generation of impact studies, and other analyses
commissioned by local authorities and other public funding agencies, which
sought to document and argue the case for the role of the arts and creative
industries as important agents for economic development and urban renewal,
and begin to measure this impact in quantitative terms.
As Pratt (1997) notes:
'much attention has been paid to developing analyses of the indirect impact of
the arts and cultural industries. Urban managers in the US and latterly the UK
have developed economic impact studies that have sought to explore the
extra economic activity generated by arts and culture; predominantly via
participation figures, and secondary impacts via proximity on shopping and
tourism, as well as transport and accommodation. Such studies have
effectively re-legitimized arts investment (that is not-for-profit art activity)
within a new state regime.' (Pratt, 1997)
Other key milestone reports in the chronology of economic impact
assessment of the arts published in the mid to late 1990s include O'Brien and
Feist's (1995) Employment in the arts and cultural industries: an analysis of
the 1991 Census, which identified a total number of 648,900 individuals
employed within the cultural sector (2.4% of the totally economically active
population), rising to 664,400 if self-employed craftspersons are included in
their definition of the sector. The study also showed that the cultural sector
was unevenly distributed across Britain, with the heaviest concentration in
London, and that there had been a 34% increase in the number of individuals
with cultural occupations between 1981 and 1991.
In 1995, the Policy Studies Institute also published Culture as Commodity
(Casey, Dunlop and Selwood, 1995) which provided an overview of the
economics of the arts and built heritage in the UK. The study focused on five
9
areas of cultural activity: the performing arts; the combined arts; museums,
galleries and national collections, crafts, the visual arts and the art trade;
media, including literature, film and video; and the built heritage, including
historical buildings, monuments and sites and presented an analysis of
published and unpublished secondary data for 1993/4. The findings of the
study confirmed the cultural sector as a significant employer, and showed that
it was characterised by: a highly educated workforce; significant 'nonstandard'
employment, with up to 40% of those working in the sector in selfemployment
or temporary jobs, and nearly 30% working on their own; and
higher levels of unemployment than in the labour force in general. Further, the
Study highlighted differential earnings across the sector, with some cultural
workers enjoying higher levels of earnings that other white collar workers,
while others were poorly paid. £5 billion was estimated to be generated by
consumer expenditure on the sector (Casey et al, 1995).
Pratt's (1997) paper, The Cultural Industries Sector: its definition and
character from secondary sources on employment and trade, Britain 1984 −
91 argued that the cultural industries have a significant volume of trade, with
gross credits from Film and Television alone of £570m (1991 figures),
although he noted that there are significant variations across the cultural
sector, as well as through time. He suggested that general figures regarding
the contribution of the cultural industries to the balance of trade should be
treated with caution since the value of royalties to national trade had often
been ignored. Moreover, he suggested that cultural royalties are set to grow
further in future years. According to his definition, cultural sector employment
was estimated at 972,000 employees, 4.5% of all employees in Britain in
1991.
By 1997, the creative industries sector had become recognised by Supranational
organisations such as the European Commission, the World Bank,
national and local government, as a major force in the fast-changing global
economy. Their expansion is related both to a move towards service sector-
10
based societies and changing social trends resulting in increased leisure time
and demand for leisure activities.
Policymakers argued that in this context, cultural industries can make an
effective contribution to wealth creation, invisible exports and employment.
Their potential for transforming many areas of existing practice, inspiring new
producers, and for providing skills and competencies such as innovation,
originality, creativity and problem-solving which could be effectively fostered
for regional and local economies, was also increasingly recognised.
The British government threw its weight behind the notion of the cultural
economy and for a time, many came to view 'Cool Britannia' as shorthand for
the government's cultural policy. The government established a crossdepartmental
Creative Industries Task Force in 1997, drawing upon key
industry players and policymakers, to identify a range of strategies designed
to maximise the creative advantage of the cultural industries.
1998 saw the publication of the Creative Industries: 1998 Mapping Document
(DCMS, 1998), which sought to provide a national overview of the economic
contribution of the creative industries. The Report estimated that the creative
industries generate £60 billion in revenues and an estimated £7.5 billion
exports per year, account for over 1.4 million jobs, and have a growth rate of
5%, faster than any other sector in the economy. The authors suggested that
if the sector grew by only 4% a year to 2007, it would generate £81 billion in
revenues and account for 1.5 million jobs (Creative Industries Task Force,
1998).
The Report also identified the opportunities and threats facing these industries
and helped set 'a blueprint for action for both Government and the industries'
(DCMS, 2001). It underpinned a series of investigations by the Creative
Industries Task Force, into a range of generic issues such as skills and
training, exports, intellectual property rights, television exports and the
relationship of creative businesses to the Internet. The Report served to
significantly increase recognition of the importance of creative industries, and
11
to embed creative industry development within national strategies for
competitiveness and economic development.
An important regional dimension was added to the development of an
evidence base around the economic contribution of the creative industries,
with the establishment in early 1999, of the Regional Issues Working Group
by the Creative Industries Task Force. The group aimed to examine issues for
creative industries in the regions, their contribution to regional economic and
social development and to identify ways to promote further growth. The group
commissioned audits of the contribution of creative industries to regional
economies and three regional workshops to establish common ground,
develop contacts and identify priorities for action. The audits identified
regional employment in the creative industries ranging from 1.8% in the North
West to around 5% in the South East and South West and 7% in London. The
audits confirmed the creative industries sector as fast growing, diverse, with
wide variations in growth between sub-sectors. The creative industries sector
was seen as characterised by mainly small businesses with few support
networks and a low profile, a high proportion of freelance and part time
workers, and a small number of large regional companies, mainly in television,
radio, publishing and media. 33% of the UK creative industries sector was
identified as based in London which is home of many nationally and
internationally renowned creative and cultural institutions and activity, but
which also includes many small businesses which are experiencing similar
problems to those in the regions (Regional Issues Working Group, 2000).
Over the same period, as national analyses of the arts and creative industries
sector were gaining prominence, a number of key national sub-sectoral
studies, as well as sectoral studies had also been conducted at regional and
local levels. These included:
• Cherry Ann Knott's (1994) well-respected study of the socio-economic
position of craftworkers in the UK, which concluded that there were around
25,000 craftsmakers working in the UK, an increase of 20% since 1981
12
• Travers et al's (1996) study of the arts and cultural industries in the
London economy for London Arts Board, which estimated the total
numbers of people resident and working in the arts and cultural industries
in London at approximately 140,000, and showed that 5−7% of the
capital's economy was generated in the sector.
More recently, the Creative Industries Mapping Document 2001 (DMCS,
2001) suggested that the revenues generated by UK creative industries has
grown to around £112.5 billion and that exports contribute some £10.3 billion
to the balance of trade. Further, creative industries now account for over 5%
of the Gross Domestic Product and employ around 1.3 million people.
However, in revisiting the Mapping Document in 2001, the DCMS highlighted
the need for more robust data to examine the creative industries. To this end,
the DCMS has established a Creative Industries Statistics Group to review
data sources currently used to map the creative industries, and explore the
difficulties in collecting data in this area. Recommendations from this group
will address the provision of more timely, robust data on the creative
industries (DCMS, 2001). The Arts Council is a member of this group.
The Creative Industries Task Force through the Department for Local
Government, Transport and the Regions (DLTR) is also addressing the
contribution which localities make to Britain's success in the creative
industries, and the development of Regional Development Agency Regional
Economic Strategies are seen as effective vehicles through which expanded
opportunities will be provided to maximise and promote regional creative
industries more effectively, and thereby increase the benefits to regional
economies (Burns Owens Partnership, 2000).
In July 2001, the Policy Studies Institute published the results of its study into
the UK Cultural Sector (Selwood, 2001). The research established that mainjob
employment in the cultural sector in 1999, based on government
employment and earnings data, had risen by nearly three times the rate of
13
total employment since 1995, to represent approximately 2.4% of total
employment in main jobs in 1999 (about 647,000 people in main jobs in a
cultural industry, a cultural occupation or both). Further that in 1999, over a
third of the UK's total employment in cultural industries and cultural
occupations was in Greater London, with London and the South East
accounting for over half of all employment in cultural industries and cultural
occupations. The Report showed that over the period 1995 − 1999 cultural
sector employment grew much faster than in the economy as a whole, and
that there has been a growing concentration of cultural occupations and
industries in Greater London, which the Report suggests is set to continue.
The Report also highlights the diversity of employment in the sector, giving
rise to a wide range of occupations with markedly different characteristics, and
occupational changes as a result of new technology and other factors. While
drawing attention to the 'non-standard' nature of many cultural occupations,
the authors argue that such employment does not necessarily represent 'bad'
jobs, and that the sector offers continuing possibilities for employment growth
(Creigh-Tyte, A; Thomas, B (2001) in Selwood, 2001).
3.2 The social impact of the arts
In the early 1990s there was a sea-change in British urban regeneration
policy, which was to have major consequences for the recognition of the role
of arts and culture in wider social and economic development. As capital-led
developments repeatedly failed to address the social requirements of major
regeneration projects, with evidence suggesting that benefits were failing to
reach local communities, who had little ownership of, or involvement in,
regeneration processes in their neighbourhoods, interest shifted to the
potential benefits of arts and culture in communities. There was also a change
in emphasis in regeneration strategies towards seeing local people as the
principal assets through which regeneration can be achieved (Landry et al,
1996).
14
At the same time, there was a growing concern within the cultural sector that
debates about the value of cultural projects and activity centred exclusively on
economic benefits, articulated primarily in terms of job creation and increased
output. Many commentators argued that this partial view of arts impact failed
to take account of its contribution to such areas as health, education and
social inclusion.
There had been earlier studies which had explored the role of arts in particular
settings. For example, Peaker and Vincent's 1990 study of arts in prisons was
based on a survey of arts activities in prisons in England and Wales and five
in-depth case studies. The case studies involved interviews with prison
governors and staff, teachers, artists and prisoners, and observation. The
study identified a range of arts activities of varying quality and quantity carried
out in prisons, from visual arts and crafts, to literature, music, film and video,
drama and dance. The authors suggested there was a broad consensus
among the different groups about the benefits of arts activities, which they
saw as giving individuals:
'the opportunity to engage in creativity activity, to explore their own and others
motivations and to produce valued and admired objects. Hence they aid
personal development and may at times be said to be therapeutic. Some arts
activities encourage co-operative working and thus develop social skills. Arts
activities are particularly suited to an 'adult education' approach in which
participants make decisions and choices and take responsibility for their
actions and outcomes. In addition, arts activities offer recreation and pleasure
and the objects made may be sold or exchanged.’ (Peaker & Vincent, 1990)
Differences of emphasis however were discerned by the authors between
those responsible for the smooth running of the prison, who tended to refer to
the contribution of arts activity as positive and absorbing activity to 'dynamic
security', while education staff emphasised the benefits to prisoners from the
process and outcomes of creativity activity, and the benefits they themselves
gain from their involvement.
15
While Senior and Croall (1993), outlining the position of arts in health care in
the UK as it stood in 1992, identified around 300 projects, 'providing work for
several hundred artists and craftspeople, and access to the arts for thousands
of people who would not otherwise have the opportunity to be involved,
whether as audience or participants'.
However, the first investigation which made explicit reference to the new
policy agenda of the social impact of the arts was undertaken by Comedia in
1993 and supported by the Arts Council. It resulted in a discussion document,
The Social Impact of the Arts (1993). The document identified a consensus
across the arts funding system for taking forward an arts impact research
agenda, through a number of detailed case studies. Many of the case studies
were funded by Regional Arts Boards, in addition to the Scottish Arts Council
and a range of local partners. The findings of these case studies were later
reported in Matarasso's (1997), Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of
Participation in Arts Programmes.
Other early publications, such as Galloway's (1995) Changing Lives, The
Social Impact of the Arts highlighted the scope and quality of publicly-funded
creative work in Scotland, which had clear social objectives. Based on ten
case studies, it illustrated the positive social effects that the arts could achieve
for and with individuals.
In a 1996 study of the role of cultural activity in urban regeneration, Landry et
al, (1996) described 15 case studies of cities in Britain and Western Europe
where cultural activity had been used as the motor for individual and
community development. Cultural programmes in these cities were seen to
bring a number of important benefits, including: enhancing social cohesion;
improving local image; reducing offending behaviour; promoting interest in the
local environment; developing self-confidence; building private and public
sector partnerships; exploring identities; enhancing organisational capacity;
supporting independence; and exploring visions of the future.
16
The authors argued that the arts have a special character to offer local urban
renewal efforts because of their ability to engage peoples' creativity, stimulate
dialogue between individuals and social groups, encourage questioning,
imagining of possible futures, and because they offer a means of selfexpression,
are unpredictable, exciting and fun. They should be seen, not as
an alternative to regeneration initiatives like environmental improvements, etc,
but as a vital component which can have a transformative effect (Landry et al,
1996).
However, it was Matarasso's (1997) Use or Ornament? The Social Impact of
Participation in Arts Programmes, which produced a step change in
recognition of the sector's contribution to social development. This seminal
study provided a clearer definition of the potential social benefits of the arts,
and for the first time brought the issues fully to the attention of policymakers
and the arts funding agencies. It was the first large-scale attempt in the UK to
gather evidence of the social impacts arising from participation in the arts and
it provided the earliest authoritative evidence of the impact of socially-relevant
arts practice.
The research was also important for establishing a workable methodological
framework for social-impact assessment, and providing practical evaluation
instruments to guide public policy planning and development. The study
showed that the arts make a valuable contribution to social policy objectives,
and concluded that a marginal change in social policy priorities was all that
was needed to capitalise on the positive benefits accruing from participative
arts activity.
The publication of the research coincided with the election of the Labour
government, with a commitment to a modernising agenda. It was determined,
on the one hand, to address issues of inclusion and saw opportunities for
exploring creative approaches to tackling some of societies' most intractable
socio-economic problems, and on the other, to make public services more
efficient and accountable. Various systems of performance measurement
began to be introduced across almost all public sectors. The cultural sector
17
was no exception and a requirement for credible impact assessment
emerged. At the same time, arts and cultural organisations were presented
with new opportunities offered by changes in lottery funding, and increasingly
through the non-art budgets of local authorities, regeneration agencies and
other statutory and strategic agencies. There was however, increasing
competition for these available funds, fuelling a need by arts organisations to
highlight their strengths and value to a range of partners.
Further studies by Comedia and others had served to build a further base of
evidence upon which to develop a social rationale for investment in the arts.
These studies have also developed and tested different approaches to social
impact assessment.
Following the publication of Bringing Britain Together: a national strategy for
neighbourhood renewal (Cabinet Office, 1998), Policy Action Team 10 (PAT
10) was established, together with a further 17 Policy Action Teams (PATs) to
look the multi-dimensional problems facing poor neighbourhoods in an
integrated way. Chaired by the DCMS, its remit was to explore best practice in
the use of arts, sports and leisure to engage people in poor neighbourhoods,
and ways of maximising the impact of government spending and policies on
arts, sports and leisure, on such neighbourhoods.
A literature review, focusing on arts and neighbourhood renewal, was also
commissioned to inform the work of PAT 10 (Shaw, 1999). In 1999, the PAT
10 report to the government's Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), concluded that
arts, sports, cultural and recreational activity 'can contribute to neighbourhood
renewal and make a real difference to health, crime, employment and
education in deprived communities' (DCMS, 1999). It identified a lack of hard
information on the regeneration impact of arts and sports as one of the key
barriers to be overcome in addressing this policy area. It also set out a series
of recommendations for government departments and Non-Departmental
Public Bodies (NDPBs). These were aimed at ensuring greater integration of
creative and sporting initiatives within regeneration programmes and
18
strategies to combat social exclusion, as well as more effective sharing of best
practice models. They represented a step change in the development of a
social inclusion policy within the context of the government's National Strategy
for Neighbourhood Renewal (SEU, 2001).
On reporting on the progress made by sponsored arts and sports bodies and
government departments, in Building on the PAT 10 Report, the DCMS
highlight:
• widespread acceptance of social inclusion as a genuine objective for
culture and sport, manifest in the development of strategies, action plans,
standards, together with research and investment to address social
inclusion
• development of partnerships at European, national, local authority and
project levels, with culture and sports at their heart
• the mapping of next steps with the identification of new areas of action,
and research on the long-term impact of culture and leisure on social
exclusion
(DCMS, 2001).
The DCMS has commissioned researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University
to explore evaluation and best practice in social inclusion by 14 case study
projects across arts and sports. The research will be completed in 2002.
More recently, the Arts Council's concentration on social inclusion as one of
its strategic priorities, has been the main driver for its involvement in the
impact research agenda. In Addressing Social Exclusion: A Framework for
Action (Arts Council, 2000a), the Arts Council committed itself to raising the
profile of the arts to government and other agencies, through:
• research, data collection, publications and other activities to promote good
practice and demonstrate the impact of the arts on community
development, neighbourhood renewal and regeneration
19
• establishing a coherent social impact evaluation programme, to address
the need for long-term arts evaluation studies, highlighted in the PAT 10
report.
In building on this framework, in its national strategy for action, Social
Exclusion − A Response to Policy Action Team 10 from the Arts Council of
England, (Arts Council, 2000b), the Arts Council in consultation with the
Regional Arts Boards established a two-year action research programme on
social inclusion in January 2000. The programme is funded through the New
Audiences Programme (NAP) and focuses on 18 pilot projects and four arts
partnerships across England. It is designed to develop, test and evaluate
different evaluation methodologies for three models of arts projects
addressing social inclusion, where the initiative comes from:
• Model One: a local group or community, who approaches a funded arts
organisation
• Model Two: an experienced regularly funded arts organisation for whom
working with excluded people is the mainstay of their work
• Model Three: a large, experienced regularly funded arts organisation, with
a commitment to this area of work, but little practical experience who
develops a partnership with a community-based organisation.
(Arts Council, 2000b)
Through a parallel programme of self-evaluation and independent evaluation,
it is hoped that a model will be provided for testing and assessing work in nontraditional
settings, when the programme is complete in 2003 (ACE, 2000b).
The Arts Council is also currently engaged in a number of other initiatives
addressing the twin agendas of performance measurement and evidence
gathering around the impact of arts and cultural interventions, including:
• work in partnership with the DCMS, QUEST and a range of stakeholders
working in local government and the arts funding system, around the
20
development of core cultural performance indicators against which to
measure funded work
• a review of data which the Arts Council gathers on funded activity and
organisations with the aim of reducing the burden on arts organisations
and working towards coherent data sets with other funders
• research to collate and analyse evidence about the use and effectiveness
of different local level performance indicators to inform the work of the
Audit Commission and the Improvement and Development Agency in
developing a library of recommended local performance indicators to
assist local authorities in their implementation of Best Value.
Taken together, all of these strands of activity represent a concerted attempt
to streamline the bewildering array of performance indicators currently in use
to assess the value and quality of cultural services and activities. Moreover,
they aim to establish coherent qualitative and quantitative benchmarks which
can capture the range and depth of the impacts which arts organisations and
cultural activities can bring, but to also locate these within the wider strategic
objectives of National and local government and their sponsored
organisations. Policymakers and funders are also concerned that any
evaluation frameworks and indicators which are developed provide practical
tools for practitioners and policymakers to assess the effectiveness of their
own practice and policies.
21
Section Four
4 Impact and Value
4.1 What is meant by 'impact'?
Landry et al (1993) in their discussion document, The Social Impact of the
Arts define ‘impact’ as:
'a dynamic concept which pre-supposes a relationship of cause and effect. It
can be measured through the evaluation of the outcomes of particular actions,
be that an initative, a set of initiatives forming a policy or set of policies which
form a strategy.’ (Landry et al, 1993)
A distinction is made by the authors between the notions of 'impact' and
'importance', where they argued that the latter is a static concept which can be
measured through the qualitative or quantitative description of the
characteristics of a particular problem, phenomenon, resource or set of
activities. It is emphasised that these differences suggest a need for different
methodologies.
While Lingayah et al (1996) put forward a practical way of understanding the
concept of 'impact' as it relates to arts processes and projects. They identify
inputs, outputs and outcomes as the three basic components of performance
used to measure the '3Es' of economy, efficiency and effectiveness,
respectively. According to Lingayah et al (1996), the differences in
measurement of inputs, outputs and outcomes can be viewed in terms of a
spectrum, where measurements at one end are relatively easy and 'objective'
and move gradually to the other end where they are much more difficult and
subjective. It is the measures concerned with outcomes, with their notions of
quality and quantity, which concern us when we talk about impact. They
suggest that the starting point for measuring outcomes must begin with an
22
acknowledgement of the purpose of cultural activities, against which their
effectiveness can be judged.
Table 1 Measurement of inputs, outputs and outcomes
Source: Barnard & Walker, 1994, quoted in Lingayah et al, 1996
Capturing the holistic nature, and sustainability of the effects, of arts activity
are at the heart of attempts to define the impact of the arts. This is because:
'The impact of a project is the sum of the outputs and outcomes, an overall
analysis of its results: unlike the outcomes, the impact of a project may
change over time as subsequent events unfold.' (Matarasso, 1999b)
However, despite a growing body of studies claiming to provide evidence of
the contribution of arts and culture to social and economic development, few
studies define what they mean by impact. Lingayah et al (1996) suggests that
there is often a lack of clarity about the purpose of arts activity, while Coalter
(2001) argues that a failure to define precisely the desired outcomes of
cultural services and assess the extent to which they are being achieved, is a
key impediment which limits the ability of cultural services to define the nature
of their contribution to the new policy agendas. He acknowledges, however,
that outcome definition and measurement in most cultural services is in its
infancy.
THE MEASUREMENT SPECTRUM
Inputs Outputs Outcomes
Easy to measure Hard to measure
Objective Subjective
Relation to goals: Relation to goals:
unclear clearer
23
More generally, commentators have argued for the development and use of
standard definitions and agreed concepts to build a common language of
understanding, and for the development of a culture in which output and
outcome definition, monitoring and evaluation are regarded as central
components of planning, management and services delivery (Allin, 2000;
Coalter, 2001).
4.2 Definitions of the arts and creative industries
Economic impact studies have become an important tool for cultural planning,
and to inform the economic development and regeneration strategies of local
authorities and other public agencies. They have also been used effectively to
advocate for greater public investment in arts and cultural facilities and
activities, and by arts organisations, to demonstrate their value to funders and
stakeholders. In the context of policy debates about maximising the
significance of the creative and other 'knowledge' industries, economic impact
studies have played a key role in helping to identify intersectoral relationships,
clarify strategic interventions to facilitate growth, and support forecasting.
However, one of the key challenges to measuring the economic impact of the
arts is definition: firstly of the arts and creative industries themselves, and
secondly, of 'economic impact'. As yet, there is no consistent definition of the
arts and creative industries across the sector. These is however, a recognition
among commentators, that the complex nature of the creative industries
makes 'scientific' definition difficult (DCMS, 2001b); and that whatever
definition is adopted brings with it difficulties with respect to measurement
(Pratt, 1997). There are also conflicting views as to how this current situation
should be resolved, with some in the sector suggesting that the establishment
of a generic definition for the sector will not satisfy the different objectives that
researchers, policymakers, academics wish to pursue (O'Connor, 1998), while
others are calling for common definitions of what constitutes arts and creative
industry activity to enable assessment of the sustainability of its impacts
(Shaw, 2000).
24
This Review considers a few of the definitions of the arts and creative
industries that have been employed to illustrate the diversity of approaches.
Standard definitions of the cultural sector have relied on interrogation of
existing statistical data by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC), although most commentators
accept the inadequacy of the codes in their representation of the sector, and
in reflecting the dynamics shaping the sector and the wider economy. They
also highlight the limitations of the classifications in providing sufficient
information to enable accurate assessment of the sectors’ economic
contribution.
Myerscough (1988) adopted a broad definition of the arts sector, which he
saw as going beyond the public sector. It included:
'independent provision alongside grant-aided activities and it covers the
museums and galleries, theatres and concerts, creative artists, community
arts, the crafts, the screen industries, broadcasting, the art trade, publishing
and the music industries.’
(Myerscough, 1988)
Amateur organisations and arts education were excluded from his
conceptualisation. While in O’Brien and Feist’s (1995) formulation, the total
cultural sector was defined as:
‘total number employed in cultural industries and total number of individuals
with cultural occupations working outside the cultural industries.’ (O'Brien and
Feist, 1995)
The authors used the Census of Population as the basis for their analysis of
employment in the arts and cultural industries, favouring it over other sources
of data because of its comprehensiveness in terms of size, coverage of the
population and response rate.
25
Pratt (1997) in The Cultural Industries Sector: its definition and character from
secondary sources on employment and trade, Britain 1984 − 91, suggests a
working definitions of the cultural industries sector, formulated around its
products, which he identifies, as:
‘ performance, fine art and literature; their reproduction, books, journal
magazines, newspapers, film, radio, television, recordings on disc or tape;
and activities that link together art forms such as advertising. Also considered
are the production, distribution and display processes of printing, and
broadcasting, as well as museums, libraries, theatres, night-clubs and
galleries.’ (Pratt, 1997)
In his paper, Pratt notes that in applying this definition to an analysis of
secondary data sources, it is inevitable that employees who are not artists will
also be included, but points to arguments made by other commentators
(O'Brien and Feist, 1996) for the inclusion of non-artistic skills and
occupations on the grounds of their role in supporting cultural industries. He
concedes, however, that sports, tourism and entertainment are omitted from
this definition, because they are considered to be a separate sector from the
cultural industries sector. Pratt (1997) adopts the convention of labelling
'individual industries that fall under the cultural umbrella as 'cultural industries'
and to group those that have a strong internal relation as the 'cultural
industries sector'.
O’Connor (1998) suggests that the problem in attempting to define the cultural
industries is conceptual rather than simply a question of deciding what is in
and what is out. He poses a number of questions – ‘What allows us to group
certain activities together?’, ‘What are their common elements?’, ‘How are
they differentiated from other activities?’, ‘What structures and dynamics
organises these activities?’ on which he suggests greater clarity is needed
before questions about the type of interventions required to grow the creative
industries, and their implementation can be addressed.
26
In his study, O’Connor used the term, ‘cultural production’ to focus attention
on the production of cultural goods and specifically ‘those involved in the
creation of new product or content, which is the basis for the creation of value
across the sector’. In so doing, he states that his intention is not to 'privilege
creative production at the expense of context or infrastructure within which it
takes place or distribution, or to emphasise ‘artists’ or ‘creatives’ at the
expense of all others vital to the sector’s well-being, but to underpin and guide
strategic intervention where promoting creativity is at its heart' (O'Connor,
1998).
The Creative Industry Task Force, in the first Creative Industries Mapping
Document 1998, outlined a definition of the creative industries as:
'those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent
and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation
and exploitation of intellectual property’. (DCMS, 1998)
The document identified a number of sub-sectors constituting the creative
industries, including:
Table 2: Definition of the creative industries
• Advertising • architecture
• the art & antiques market • crafts
• design • designer fashion
• film and video • interactive leisure software
• music • the performing arts
• publishing • software and computer services
• television • radio
Source: DCMS, 1998
The Report also recognised the close economic relationships with other
sectors such as tourism, hospitality, museums and galleries, heritage and
sport.
27
Throsby in Economics and Culture (2001) provides a functional definition of
culture and cultural activities, which he sees as being made up of three key
characteristics. These are:
'that the activities concerned involve some form of creativity in their production
that they are concerned with the generation and communication of symbolic
meaning, and that their output embodies, at least potentially, some form of
intellectual property’. (Throsby, 2001)
He suggests that traditionally defined arts such as music, literature, dance,
drama, and visual arts would fall within this definition, as would film-making,
story-telling, festivals, journalism, publishing, television and radio and some
aspects of design, since all meet the three criteria to a greater or lesser
extent. He concedes, however, that while sport could be seen to meet all
three criteria, its status as a cultural activity is still contested. Further, he
suggests that the above criteria are a useful first step in distinguishing cultural
goods from 'ordinary economic goods', but acknowledges that in some
contexts a more rigorous specification may be necessary for economic
analysis.
The value of having a clear conceptualisation of the cultural industries sector
to underpin the validity of future analyses, cannot be overstated, according to
Pratt (1997), even where technological, social, business and organisational
changes may force a periodic redefinition of the sector from an empirical point
of view. Further, he argues that by taking a cultural industries sector concept
seriously, it is possible to find a way forward which undermines the traditional
polarisation between arts and industry.
4.3 Definitions of economic impact
According to Radich (1987), the economic impact of a given phenomenon can
be defined as 'the effect of that phenomenon on such economic factors' as the
economic behaviour of consumers, businesses, the market, industry (micro);
28
the economy as a whole, national wealth or income, employment, and capital
(macro)'.
While The European Task Force on Culture and Development (1997) is of the
view that the economic contribution of arts and culture to society at large, can
be summed up as follows:
Table 3 Contribution of arts and culture to society
Direct economic impacts The arts and culture serve as a main source of
contents for the cultural industries, the media and
value-added services of the telecommunications
industries.
They create jobs and contribute significantly to the
Gross Domestic Product.
Cultural institutions, events and activities create
locally significant economic effects, both directly
and indirectly through multipliers.
Works of art and cultural products have their own
autonomous ‘value-adding’ markets (eg, gallery
sales and fine-art auctions), which often give them
good investment potential.
Indirect economic
impacts
The arts are ‘socially profitable’ in that they offer
cultural credit or esteem for people and institutions
(eg, financiers, sponsors, collectors or
connoisseurs.
Works of art and cultural products create national
and international stocks of ideas or images which
can be exploited by the cultural industries (eg, in
advertising or cultural tourism).
Works of art can enhance and so add value to the
built environment (eg. by adorning buildings and in
urban design).
Source: The European Task Force on Culture and Development (1997)
29
The Task Force argues that economic considerations should be balanced
against the impacts that arts can make in addressing key principles of identity,
diversity, creativity and participation, within cultural policies. They warn of the
dangers of arts being treated only as a component of economic and trade
policies, which can result in a favouring of commercially popular arts at the
expense of experimental and innovative work. To avoid this danger, they
propose two additional principles for underpinning cultural policy: according a
high priority to the core areas of artistic creativity; and enhancing intersectoral
policy coordination with a view to the long term maintenance of cultural
diversity.
4.4 Definitions of social impact
Although the social impact of the arts has become an increasingly familiar
phrase in policy debates, again, few studies have attempted to define it. A
notable exception is Comedia’s discussion document, The Social Impact of
the Arts (1993). It presented a working definition of the social impact of the
arts, which is described as being concerned with:
'those effects that go beyond the artefacts and the enactment of the event or
performance itself and have a continuing influence upon, and directly touch,
people's lives.'(Landry et al, 1993)
According to this definition, the social impact of the arts are those effects
which are sustained beyond actual arts experiences, and have resonance with
the life activities and processes of individuals. For Lingayah et al (1996), one
way of looking at the social impacts of an activity is by considering its 'effects
on people and the way in which they relate’. In their working paper, Creative
Accounting: beyond the bottom line (1996), the authors suggested that the
distinction between economic, financial, environmental and social impacts
arising from such activity is likely to be blurred in reality.
30
The European Task Force on Culture and Development in In From The
Margins: A contribution to the debate on Culture and Development in Europe
(1997) identified the social contribution of arts and culture as:
Table 4 Contribution of arts and culture to society
Direct social impacts The arts and culture provide ‘socially valuable’
leisure activities, ‘elevate’ people's thinking and
contribute positively to their psychological and social
well-being and enhance their sensitivity.
Indirect social impacts The arts enrich the social environment with
stimulating or pleasing public amenities.
They are a source of ‘civilising’ impacts and of social
organisation (eg, amateur arts).
Artistic activity, by stimulating creativity and a
disregard for established models of thinking,
enhances innovation.
Works of art and cultural products are a collective
‘memory’ for a community and serve as a reservoir
of creative and intellectual ideas for future
generations.
Arts and cultural institutions improve the quality of
life and so in urban areas enhance personal security
and reduce the incidence of street crime and
hooliganism.
Source: The European Task Force on Culture and Development, 1997
4.5 Measurement of arts impacts: the debates
Prior to the 1980s, very little literature existed on the impact of the arts in the
UK, reflecting perhaps that the cultural sector has been relatively slow in
providing systematic evidence of its contribution to wider social and economic
development. The sector have relied primarily on aesthetic rationales and on
arguments emphasising their intrinsic and 'civilising' values. While these
31
arguments are still valid, changing public policy priorities has meant that alone
they are no longer strong enough to enable the arts to win more resources.
Indeed Kelly and Kelly (2000) have suggested that at a time when pressure
on the arts to justify its value is at its strongest, and there is increased
competition for scarce funds, accurate measurement of the impact of arts
organisations' interventions provides one source of competitive advantage.
Over the last 13 years, as recognition of the role that the arts play, firstly in
economic life, and more recently in contributing to a stable, confident and
creative society (Matarasso, 1997) has grown, there has been a steady flow of
arts impact studies. In general terms, these studies measure the effects on
the wider economy or society of arts and cultural interventions, be they
policies, programmes, projects or initiatives. The focus of economic impact
studies, according to Becker (1997), is in assessing the economic
consequences of specific strategic interventions, policy actions and initiatives,
while social-impact studies explore the social consequences of different types
of projects or interventions.
Impact evaluations are also valuable decision-making tools for policymakers
according to the World Bank
(wwww.worldbank.org/poverty/impact/overview/whatisie.htm) which suggests
that this is because they are 'aimed at providing feedback and helping to
improve the effectiveness of programs(sic) and policies….and make it
possible for programs to be accountable to the public'.
Debates about the measurement of arts impacts have focused around a
number of common themes:
Lack of robust data and evidence
Demonstrating the impact and value of projects and programmes across the
funded cultural sector and determining 'how to measure outcomes rather than
outputs' are identified as 'the most important nut to crack' for the sector (Allin,
2000). There is also widespread consensus among commentators that there
32
is a lack of robust evaluation and systematic evidence of the impact of arts
projects, or cultural services, more broadly, despite a wealth of anecdotal
evidence.
As Shaw (1999) notes in her Review of literature on arts and neighbourhood
renewal to inform the PAT 10 Report,
'there remains a real shortage of 'robust evaluation' about the impact of this
work at neighbourhood level….evaluation of the longer term impact of arts
work is rare….and there is a lack of research into the impact of the arts on
family life, community structures and neighbourhood renewal.'(Shaw, 1999)
Coalter (2001) concurs, stressing that 'although decision-making in cultural
services may depend on the balance of probability, rather than the elimination
of reasonable doubt, many aspects of the performance of cultural services
currently rely too heavily on anecdotal and limited qualitative evidence'. For
him, the need for more robust evidence is clear 'to inform the design of
programmes and achieve optimal allocation of resources to achieve desired
outcomes'. While the Health Development Agency (HDA) (2000) stresses the
importance of capturing 'evidence of the impact of arts on health to ensure
proper recognition of their effect and the availability of appropriate levels of
investment to sustain any positive influences'.
Available research, however when it does exist, has significant limitations.
Jermyn (2001) highlights 'small sample surveys, reliance on self-report
measures, presentation of case-studies in a generalist way, lack of analysis
relating to processes and so on. Often the conclusions drawn from such
studies require qualification' as aspects drawing criticism.
Coalter (2001) identified a number of key information needs required to
address the current 'information deficit' among cultural services. These
include output data on:
• the total number of individual users/visitors
33
• the proportion of the local population (within an appropriate catchment
area)
• the socio-demographic characteristics of users (and, by implication, non-
users)
• the proportion of specified social groups among current users, compared
to their proportion in the local community
• the frequency with which different types of users use the service
• the nature and type of new users (as a result of inclusion initiatives) and
the extent of retention of such users
• users of local cultural services (especially for urban parks).
He also draws attention to the need for comparable cross-service data to
enable the estimation of the number and nature of users of all cultural
services, and the extent to which all sections of the community are catered for
by a range of services; and data about the extent, nature and cause of nonuse:
nature of non-users, level of public awareness of each service, reasons
for non-use, perceived relevance and use of alternative forms of provision,
nature of any institutional, personal and social barriers to use, and relative
potential of each service to address issues of social inclusion (Coalter, 2001).
In addition, the difficulties of producing robust data on the creative industries
due to problems of outdated Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) and
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) are widely acknowledged.
Problems of classification, however, go beyond matters simply associated
with official statistics. For Pratt (2001), they go to key questions about whether
we should be looking at industries or sectors, and about what criteria we
should use to classify them: whether that be markets, processes or location.
Furthermore, a number of key information and research needs relevant to the
strategic development of creative industries have also been identified. These
include: information on the dynamics of the creative industries and of the
creative process; good practice in building sustainable pathways for creative
individuals and creative businesses, and in forging effective partnerships
34
between stakeholders to establish and maintain these pathways (Jeffcutt,
2001); output, turnover, and organisational data on creative industries;
network intelligence: What are the size of creative industry networks? How do
they operate? What types of knowledges are important within them and how is
knowledge transferred?, and broader policy-making intelligence (Pratt, 2001).
Suter (2001) warns however that it not just a matter of collecting data, but
stresses the importance of being clear about what different information is for,
how often it should be collected, and who should collect it. Only with such
clarity will it be possible to assess the added-valueness of information, and
ensure it is put to effective use to influence and change policy.
Matarasso (1996a), Moriarty (1997), Shaw (1999), Blake Stevenson Ltd
(2000) and Jermyn (2001) have all identified reasons for the lack of robust
research and evaluation. These include:
• lack of interest by the arts world (outside the context of funding
relationships) in developing evaluative systems through which to prove its
value
• evaluation regarded as additional, rather than integral to arts activity,
requiring disproportionate resources in the context of most arts
organisations' limited budgets
• a lack of a thorough and formal approach to evaluation
• lack of planning norms for arts facilities, against which to measure the
quality or quantity of provision
• organisations' primary motivation for undertaking evaluation being to fulfil
funders' objectives rather than evaluating the impact of their activity on a
particular neighbourhood
• data collection being perceived as a chore rather than a tool to help
organisations improve their own practice
• cultural resistance to, and negative perceptions of, evaluation by those
involved in arts projects, who often regard it as intrusive.
35
Shaw (1999) also suggests that the lack of a policy imperative for the arts in
England to address particular social policy issues until recently, may also
have accounted for a lack of research into the impact of the arts work. While
Jermyn (2001) argues that a sense that small funding grants are overmonitored
and a lack of in-house skills and expertise to conduct rigorous
evaluations, may also account for the lack of formal evaluation.
The deficit of information sharing was highlighted at a meeting of National
Lottery Distributing Bodies (NLDBs) held in June 2001 to examine the social
impact of lottery funding. NDLBs suggested that at an institutional level, there
is little exchange of the findings of research, or experience, of carrying out
research and evaluation, and no mechanism to facilitate this. This has meant
that shared use of common social impact indicators has not evolved and
those that exist, such as the DCMS's Common Broad Quantitative Indicators,
are not universally or wholly implemented by NLDBs. While some NLDBs
undertake post-completion evaluation of revenue funded projects, there was
acknowledgement that post-completion monitoring is difficult to maintain once
revenue funding has ended. How evaluation and research is funded,
budgeted and perceived, was highlighted as a significant issue influencing the
depth of evaluation carried out. Further, some distributing bodies suggested
that most evaluation is treated as an administrative cost and therefore is
afforded a limited budget in relation to total project funding. In only a minority
of cases was specific funding made available for project evaluation by
recipients (CELTS, 2001).
A question of values
Putting definitions of social and economic impact of the arts into practice is by
no means a simple task. This is because it involves value judgements about
the relative worth of arts activity and about what will and will not be measured.
For Matarasso (1996), this raises a fundamental question of which value
systems are used to provide benchmarks against which work will be
measured, and about whom defines quality, value and meaning. He goes on
to assert that defining value is an essential part of creating reality, and in do
36
doing, we not only make visible those things that we name, but render
invisible or misconceive those things that are not named or are mis-named.
Arts organisations, who frequently define themselves around cultural and/or
social values, rather than simple financial returns, face particular challenges in
gaining recognition for, and validation of, their work.
Kelly and Kelly (2000) concur, stressing the value-driven nature of any system
of arts impact measurement, and highlighting the relative infancy of evaluation
methodologies in the not-for-profit sector. They too pose a number of
questions which are at the heart of vigorous debates about how to measure
the impact of the arts, 'Should we be measuring in terms of economic impact,
social change, the creation of new, and quality, cultural work? What is quality
in the arts? How is quality measured? Should we even be measuring at all?'
There are also those in the sector who are concerned that social and
economic rationales for the arts, with their emphasis on the arts as a means to
other ends will serve to devalue arts for its own sake. This view has been
articulated strongly by John Tusa:
'Mozart is Mozart because of his music and not because he created a tourist
industry in Salzburg or gave his name to decadent chocolate and marzipan
Saltzburger kugel. Picasso is important because he taught a century new
ways of looking at objects and not because his painting in the Bilbao
Guggenheim Museum are regenerating an otherwise derelict northern
Spanish port. Van Gogh is valued because of the pain or intensity of his
images and colours, and not because he made sunflowers and wooden chairs
popular. Absolute quality is paramount in attempting a valuation of the arts; all
other factors are interesting, useful but secondary.'
(Tusa, 1999, reproduced in Kelly and Kelly, 2000)
In a similar vein, at a recent conference, Convergence and Creative Industries
and Civil Society – The New Cultural Policy, Delgado (2001) from the Interarts
Observatory in Barcelona, argued that there is a pressing need to move away
from instrumental objective-led cultural policies to focus on cultural values,
37
such as sustainability, cultural preservation, cultural diversity, autonomy,
creativity, solidarity, cultural rights etc. His contention is that an exploration of
cultural values will enable boundary crossing and better connections to be
made with other global/local developments.
Difficulty of quantifying impacts
Matarasso (1996) suggests that the legitimacy of activities, feeling or
relationships which are difficult to measure in quantitative terms, is frequently
called into question, but argues that the value and importance of arts activities
should not be negated simply because they are difficult to express using
conventional systems.
These sentiments are strongly echoed by Moriarty (1997) who cautions
against measurement being seen as the necessary guarantor of action or as
the only way of validating experiences, especially those which are difficult to
quantify:
'Much that doesn't get measured does get done – beautifully, gratefully, with
vigour and pride. Children are loved, friendships are nurtured, songs are
written and sung, stories are told to entertain and encourage.' (Moriarty, 1997)
While for Moore et al (1999) the greatest testimony to the power of
involvement in performing arts comes from, 'witnessing at first-hand the work
of such a group (of people with learning difficulties), and through personal
experience of performing
arts they produce.' By the same token, Kelly and Kelly (2000), stress the
importance of valuing and supporting art which is difficult and new, and for
which there is no market.
Many commentators also question the appropriateness of scientific methods,
and particularly those which rely heavily on the use of quantitative
performance measures for measuring such dimensions as artistic quality,
quality of life, or for capturing the life-changing effects an arts project may
38
have on an individual, or the processes through which those impacts are
generated. For example, Williams (1997) in her working paper, How the Arts
Measure Up, Australian research into social impact, concluded that existing
frameworks for assessing the value of community-based arts practice are
inadequate since they fail to embrace concepts of cultural democracy, social
capital or learning for human development.
There is also concern that specific, clear and measurable outcomes may not
in themselves reflect the complexity of social impacts (Jermyn, 2001). On this,
Matarasso (1997) concurs, suggesting that the outcomes of arts participation
are highly complex. This is because 'people, their creativity and culture,
remain elusive, always partly beyond the range of conventional inquiry'.
The complexity of social impacts is reiterated by Annabel Jackson Associates
(2000) in their report on the social impacts of Millennium Awards. They
suggested that data on the subject requires careful interpretation and that the
scale of impact is often difficult to judge. More is not necessarily better, as
Annabel Jackson Associates, explain,
‘ a grant that reaches more people is not necessarily better than one that has
a transforming effect on one person; a grant that improves ten elements of
personal impact is not necessarily better than one with a major effect on one
element’.
(Annabel Jackson Associates, 2000)
Those working around the social dimensions of cultural activity are also
increasingly recognising the need for more sophisticated evidence gathering,
based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods and
for 'evaluation procedures which take account of the legitimate subjectivity of
different stakeholders.’ (Matarasso, 1996)
'By recognising that the same activity or programme can be perceived
differently, depending on one's point of view, it may be possible to create a
39
composite picture which is, if not the truth, at least a reliable basis for further
action.’ (Matarasso, 1996)
Within the creative industry agenda, Burns (2001) argues for the need for
'sophisticated narrative tools' to tell the story of independent cultural
producers, while Pratt (2001) calls for the creation of appropriate monitoring
and evaluation frameworks and criteria which will support understanding of
the creative industries on its own terms. Such frameworks should be based on
process measures which tell us what his happening in the sector, and the
processes involved. He draws attention to research methods such as diary
studies, product and labour life-cycle studies which he believes will allow us to
explore the contrasting dimensions of the creative industries.
Intended outcome and development of appropriate indicators
Other methodological challenges inherent in attempting to measure the
impacts of arts activity which have been cited by commentators stem from a
lack of clarity by arts organisations about the intended outcomes of arts
interventions, or a lack of formalisation of these outcomes. Jermyn (2001),
however, suggests that it is worth noting that many arts projects do not regard
hard social impacts as the primary intended outcome of their work, and some
prefer to distance themselves from predefining what the social impacts of their
work will be.
Coalter (2001) identifies a number of generic research needs relating to
outcome definition and measurement across the cultural sector, but
recognises that in some areas, this is both contentious and also presents
substantial theoretical and methodological problems. He adopts Bovaird et
al's (1997) distinction of 'intermediate' and 'strategic' outcomes to refer to the
impact that participation in cultural services has on individuals or groups or the
immediate impact of investment (eg, jobs); and the broader (more amorphous)
outcomes which are often the product of the successful achievement of the
intermediate outcomes (community development, reduced levels of crime,
increased social cohesion, improved quality of life), respectively.
40
He suggests that the most urgent issue for cultural services to address,
through research, is the issue of intermediate outcomes: the extent to which
services achieve:
• personal social capital outcomes and practical outcomes associated with
participation
• personal confidence and self-esteem outcomes
• educational impacts
• local economic impact and regeneration
• health promotion.
Equally, however, effort should also be directed towards addressing strategic
outcomes, such as: increased social cohesion, community development,
community empowerment, social inclusion, a sense of local identity, improved
community safety and sustainable development, all of which he asserts,
depend on the successful achievement of intermediate outcomes. Although
he acknowledges the difficulties in measuring and proving such 'cause-andeffect'
relationships.
He also highlights a need within evaluations of intermediate and strategic
outcomes, to analyse organisational and cultural factors: the processes and
practice which underpin successful projects, and the extent to which they are
replicable.
Commentators have pointed to additional difficulties:
• developing appropriate indicators which reflect the aspirations of diverse
stakeholders
• finding ways of identifying the unforeseen benefits of impacts
• proving negative impacts.
(Matarasso, 1996; Jermyn, 2001)
41
There is still as yet no clear consensus across the sector about the feasibility
of developing common impact or outcomes measures. While bodies such as
QUEST (2000) and commentators like Coalter (2001) are calling for core or
generic indicators and outcomes measures, others, including many NLDBs
are sceptical about the adoption of shared (social impact) indicators across
diverse funders and programmes, and their incorporation into monitoring and
assessment procedures. They perceive this to be fraught with problems such
as difficulties of making comparison across projects which are not like-for-like,
of attribution and additionality. They argue that there is also the problem of
some funding eg, training bursaries, being evaluated at sectoral level in terms
of its effectiveness on the labour market or the industry, but not in the context
of its broader social impact on a particular artform, such as film. Concerns are
also articulated about the imposition of social impact measurement on lottery
recipients, which it is feared will go against moves to simplify lottery
application and assessment procedures, and make them more equitable.
Evaluation, case studies and research into social impacts is considered more
useful. (CELTS, 2001)
Ethical Issues
Debates about evaluating arts activity also raise other important issues, not
least about the rights of participants of arts projects, the ethics of seeking to
produce change in individuals without their informed consent, the importance
of participants and intended beneficiaries being involved in objective setting
and in determining the success criteria of projects, and for the performance of
arts projects to be evaluated in context. (Matarasso, 1996, Woolf, 1999)
Economic impact measurement
Although there have been methodological improvements for assessing the
economic impact assessment of the arts, a number of criticisms have been
levelled at exiting studies.
42
There is widespread consensus within the sector that there is a pressing need
to agree a common definition of the arts and creative industries sector which
reflects its contemporary importance as a growing and dynamic sector of the
economy. Indeed, delegates at the Arts Research Limited seminar, Measuring
the Impact of the Arts, held in June 2000 were of the view that research into
economic impact needs to be based on a detailed understanding of the
changes taking place within the creative industries (Shaw, 2000).
The fragmented nature of the sector, the impact of diverse working patterns,
and employment status, including significant freelance and part-time working
also present considerable challenges to assessments of economic impact.
Commentators have highlighted further limitations in current approaches.
These include:
• a reliance on narrow economic values and economic indicators considered
inadequate for measuring 'difficult-to-quantify' outcomes
• failure to take account of displacement and leakage of spending from the
local economy
• failure to distinguish between distributional effects and aggregate income
effects of arts spending
• failure to address export issues
• lack of consideration of non-quantitative economic effects of activity on
such aspects as the image of a city.
(Seaman, in Radich (ed), 1987, Matarasso, 1996, Lingayah et al, 1996, Kelly
and Kelly, 2000)
Further, Seaman (cited in Radich, 1997) suggests that supply-side constraints
may further complicate efforts to determine net increases in overall spending.
While Kelly and Kelly (2000) note that studies have also come under fire for
using numbers of jobs created as an indicator of economic value, since it may
overestimate employment figures because of the short-term contract nature of
the market. Translating to full-time equivalents is not seen to be the answer,
as it may underestimate the contribution.
43
Another area presenting considerable challenges is that of multiplier effects.
Multiplier effects are the indirect effects of expenditure in one area of the
economy. They exist in two forms: supplier impacts ie, the impact on the
sector of purchases of goods and services from local suppliers which in turn
enhance their spending; and induced effects accrued where the income of
households leads to expenditure on consumption that increases demand for
goods and services in then local economy. Estimating these accurately can be
difficult due to problems in measuring 'leakage' from the sector, as Throsby
notes:
‘….while the net valuation of external effects is in principle a valid component
of the total economic value of a facility such as an art museum, there are
conceptual difficulties of measurement which have to do with identifying how
'net' the measured values really are. So, for example, the so-called 'multiplier'
or 'second-round' impacts of a public investment project involving a museum
might be properly disregarded in a cost-benefit appraisal because such
impacts would accrue to any other similar project to which the investment
capital might be devoted.'
(Throsby, 2001)
Various multipliers have been used in the arts and creative industries in
Britain. Probably the best known are those used by Myerscough (1988), who
calculated that for every job in an arts organisation, 2.8, 2.7 and 1.8 further
jobs were attributable to the arts in the regional economies of Merseyside,
Glasgow and Ipswich, respectively.
44
Table 5 The use of multipliers
Project/Country Multiplier
Great Britain Myerscough
- Merseyside
- Glasgow
- Ipswich
2.8
2.7
1.8
Scotland (film
production)
1.30
B & NES Arts Impact
Study
Operations Spending
Audience Ancillary
Spending impact
Capital Spending impact
2.49
1.99
2.07
Source: Extract from Kelly and Kelly, 2000
Kelly and Kelly (2000) argue that for the purposes of accuracy, locally
developed multipliers are the most accurate and should be used above the
importation of multipliers from elsewhere. However, they concede that in their
absence, assessments from elsewhere can be used with caveats.
Finally, it is worth noting that some commentators have grave concerns about
the adoption of economic arguments, which they see as having ushered in a
culture of 'top-down' outputs and indicators. For example, O' Connor (2001)
suggests that while such arguments have been taken up within the DCMS
Mapping Document and in the policy directions of government, a coherent
conceptualisation of the creative industries and the cultural capacity of cities,
and economic tools to produce growth in the sector, have so far, failed to be
developed.
45
4.6 Towards a model of effective arts-impact evaluation
Much of contemporary debate and research is focused around developing
workable and appropriate frameworks and indicators for measuring the
effectiveness of arts interventions in achieving a range of socio-economic
outcomes. There are also attempts to understand processes underpinning
successful interventions and to identify best practice.
While there are great variations of opinion both within and outside the sector
about how to approach developing coherent and relevant research and
evaluation methodologies, there is widespread consensus than there is no
one-model-fits-all. Indeed, in an evaluation of the social impact of arts projects
funded under Bolton City Challenge's Cultural Activities Project, Moriarty
(1998), concluded that it was 'counter productive to adopt any one method of
assessing impact. It is more useful to use a case study approach, using a
check list to identify what methods may be most appropriate for each project'.
Table 6 Principles for effective evaluation
Matarasso (1997) Moriarty (1997)
• address stated needs or
aspirations
• spend time discussing reasons for
evaluation, identify stakeholders to
be involved and audience for
research
• unethical to seek to produce
change without informed consent
of those involved
• evaluation planned to take place
as early as possible in lifetime of
project
• needs and aspirations of
individuals or communities best
identified by them, or in
partnership
• needs and guiding principles of all
those involved met
partnership based on agreement of
common objectives and commitments
• use of language which makes
sense to all those involved
46
• those identifying goals are best
placed to ascertain when they
have been met
• additional time and resources for
the evaluation allowed
• a project may not be the most
appropriate means of achieving a
given goal
• basic ground-rules set
• evaluation process should be as
enjoyable and imaginative as
possible
Source: Matarasso, 1997; Moriarty, 1997
A number of key requirements have been identified in the literature for
effective impact evaluation frameworks, these include:
Clear, comprehensive and comprehensible frameworks and measures
Kelly and Kelly (2000) in their essay on the valuation and assessment of the
arts argued that measurements used to evaluate arts activity must be
understandable and meaningful to a range of stakeholders – artists, arts
organisations, as well as funders. While Hill and Moriarty (2001) suggest that
a clear, comprehensive and comprehensible monitoring system for all artscultural
work with an evaluation review structure in place will result in higher
quality, more accurately targeted work and greater development momentum.
Promoting meaningful and rigorous analysis combined with autonomy and
flexibility The HDA (2000) recommended the establishment of a mechanism
for evaluating the health benefits of an arts project that both allows for
meaningful and rigorous analysis and allows freedom for projects to set their
own evaluation frameworks with regard to aims and objectives, and to local
targets and needs. Kelly and Kelly (2000) also suggest that flexibility and
compromise on the sides of both those wishing to have measurement and arts
organisations is essential so that impact measures that are used are relevant
and can be delivered efficiently and effectively.
47
Multi-level approach Lingayah et al (1996) identify four levels at which
approaches to measuring the social impact of the arts might usefully focus.
These are national, organisational, local and project or programme levels. For
each of these levels, they suggest that there is a need to go beyond
conventional approaches to the measurement of inputs and outputs, with a
focus on outcomes.
Balance between form, function, values and perspectives
Matarasso (1997) highlighted the importance of balancing form and function:
by devising arts programmes which combine high aesthetic standards with
lasting social value. He also argues for the need for a more balanced
understanding of the arts and their worth in society, one which simultaneously
embraces their aesthetic, cultural, economic and social values, and allows for
the different judgements inevitable in a pluralistic society.
Indicators which capture the complex, holistic, dynamic and long-term nature
of potential arts impacts Matarasso (1996), highlighted the responsibility of the
arts world to be engaged and involved in developing indicators which are able
to measure subtle, creative and qualitative changes in society, and which will
also help the sector to prove its own value. While, Moriarty (1997) suggested
that one of the most important reasons for monitoring, measuring, assessing,
evaluating and documenting creative work is 'to help to make the complex and
intriguing web of creative exchange more visible, to articulate actual and
potential achievement, to help us all move forward.' Gillies (1998), whose
work underpinned the HDA's (2000) review of arts and health projects, also
highlighted the need for broader indicators which take account the dynamic
nature of social interaction for assessing the effects of health promotion.
Further, in their recommendations for monitoring and evaluation frameworks
for regeneration initiatives, Blake Stevenson Ltd, (2000) highlighted the need
for 'soft' measurement as well as 'hard' indicators, so that the two become
more closely linked and are seen as complementary, and for the development
of new ways to gather qualitative baseline information which can be measured
over time.
48
Broader role for evaluation Some commentators have called for an embracing
of a wider role for evaluation. They suggest that it should be a means, not
only, of ensuring accountability, demonstrating their value and contribution,
but of enabling arts organisations to reflect on, and improve their own
planning, management, programme design and practice, and allocation of
resources to achieve desired outcomes (Matarasso, 1996, Coalter, 2001).
49
Section Five
5 Approaches to impact assessment in the arts
5.1 Introduction
This section reviews some of the approaches and frameworks which have
been used to assess the economic and social impacts of the arts which are
likely to be relevant to the work of the Arts Council, its partners, arts and nonarts
practitioners. The section first considers approaches which have been
used to measure the economic impact of the arts and creative industries in a
number of key research studies. These approaches are presented within a
provisional typology to give a sense of the commonalities between, and
differences in, the methodologies. This is followed by a more detailed
examination of the process used to calculate the economic contribution of arts
and creative industries and/or develop a profile of the strengths and
characteristics of the sector or sub-sectors, using research study examples of
each method identified.
The section then considers social impact assessment methods and highlights
some of the issues which the literature suggests require further exploration. It
attempts to draw out the distinctive features of different approaches through
the development of a second provisional typology. Details of the analytical
frameworks and outcome measures adopted in a selection of research study
examples of each method are also presented.
The methodologies outlined below have been included because they may
provide useful and practical insights which are of interest to those who are
concerned with developing future research and policy work in this area. They
should not be regarded as an exhaustive review of all the impact assessment
methods which are available for use in this area of research.
50
5.2 Approaches to economic impact assessment in the arts
Although the history of economic impact analyses in the UK is relatively short
compared to that of the US, there has been a growing body of research and
commissioned studies since the late 1980s. This section of the paper outlines
some of the approaches which have been applied to economic impact
assessments in the arts, but notes that there is currently a lack of consistency
in the use of such methodologies across the sector.
Most methodologies for measuring the economic impact of the arts and
creative industries have generally focused on outputs relating to:
• employment
• turnover (with some attempts to quantify the public subsidy component of
such earnings)
• sector and/or audience/consumer spend in the local economy.
However, other studies have attempted variously to quantify export earnings,
number and size of enterprises, audience numbers, tax revenues generated,
inward investment and, for example, arts-project participants acquiring skills
leading to work.
The commentary below outlines the different methods of economic impact
assessment used across the sector. It does not cover the full range of
methodologies available, but presents those that have been used in some of
the key research studies. Some research studies have combined a number of
quantitative and qualitative approaches.
51
Descriptive research method (quantitative analysis)
Method Features
Produces data which enables
measurement of different
characteristics of the sector, eg.
employment levels
Examples include:
O' Brien and Feist, Employment in the
arts and cultural industries: an
analysis of the 1991 Census, 1995
Casey et al, Culture as Commodity?
The Economics of the Arts and Built
Heritage in the UK, 1996
Selwood, S (ed), The UK Cultural
Sector, Profile and policy issues,
2001
• not strictly economic impact
assessment
• present overview and description
of key economic characteristics of
the sector
• use of primary and/or secondary
data sources
• important for highlighting the
extent of cultural sector
employment, or the economic
value of sector revenues, for
example, and for highlighting
issues to be resolved
Examples of the Descriptive research method (quantitative analysis)
O' Brien and Feist (1995) used specially commissioned tabulations from the
former Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) from the 1991
Census of Population to describe employment characteristics and measure
employment in cultural occupations and in the 'core cultural sector'. The
tabulations covered primarily occupational and industrial data, coded and
gathered from the 10% sample of Census respondents. O' Brien and Feist
identified 26 occupational titles (corresponding to 12 occupational unit groups)
as 'cultural occupations' for the purposes of their analysis. These occupations
were cross-analysed alongside nine industrial divisions, identified as making
up core 'cultural industries' to provide more precise estimates of the number of
people in particular occupations in particular industrial groups.
52
Table 7 Cultural occupations and industries
'Cultural Occupation' Unit groups Industrial Divisions representing
core 'cultural industries'
176 Entertainment and sports
managers
Gramophone records and prerecorded
tapes
260 Architects Printing and publishing of books
270 Librarians Printing and publishing of periodicals
271 Archivists and curators Printing and publishing of
newspapers
380 Authors, writers, journalists Musical instruments
381 Artists, commercial artists,
graphic designers
Film production, distribution and
exhibition
382 Industrial designers Radio and Television services,
theatres etc.
383 Clothing designers Authors, music composers and other
own account artists not elsewhere
specified
384 Actors, entertainers, stage
managers, producers and directors
Libraries, museums, art galleries, etc
385 Musicians
386 Photographers, camera, sound
and video equipment operators
593 Musical instrument makers,
piano tuners
Source: O'Brien and Feist, 1995
The authors note that in applying the terms 'cultural occupations' and 'cultural
industries' they are constrained by the groupings adopted by the Standard
Occupational Classification, and the limited categorisation of the Standard
Industrial Classification, which are somewhat outdated.
53
Pratt's investigation, on the other hand, focused on output and employment in
the cultural industries sector. He used existing secondary sources: trade and
employment data, to provide the first stage of a comprehensive analysis of the
cultural industries. (Pratt, 1997)
Financial survey model
Examples include:
Arts Business Ltd, Assessment of the
Economic Impact of Battersea Arts
Centre, 1998
Cambridge Arts Theatre Economic
Impact Study 1998–2000, 2000
A small number of studies have
attempted a more sophisticated
analysis through the incorporation of
further analyses: proportional
multiplier analysis (Myerscough,
1988), or some form of Input-output
analysis.
Relevant studies include:
Myerscough, J, The Economic
Importance of the Arts in Britain, 1988
Travers et al, The Wyndham Report:
The Economic Impact of London's
West End Theatre, 1998
Chichester Festival Theatre,
Economic Impact Assessment, 2000
Norfolk Arts Marketing, Making
Creative Capital, An economic study
of the cultural industries in Norfolk,
2000
• provide a broad sweep of internal
and external financial activity of a
venue, facility, sub-sector cluster
or the sector as a whole
• typically based on quantitative
analysis of financial accounts, box
office data, attender or local
business surveys etc. and market
assessment.
54
Example of the Financial survey model
In a study of the economic impact of West End Theatre, Travers (1998), used
box office data, data on theatre and audience spend, respectively, as the
starting point for calculating the economic impact of the theatre cluster,
estimated at £1,075 million. He explains the rationale behind the 'ripple effect'
of direct expenditure:
'Direct spending on theatre box-office and on ancillary items will lead to those
sectors making purchases from other industries within the economy….in order
to produce its output….This process….continues. As income levels rise
throughout the economy, part of this extra income will be spent on goods and
services in the economy, producing a further 'induced' effect on the economy’.
(Travers, 1998)
Estimates of employment generated by the theatre cluster were calculated by
taking the direct economic impact figures and making estimates of the likely
range of such expenditure directly related to employment. The resulting total
spending on employment was then divided by average earnings in the
relevant sectors. A multiplier was then applied to direct expenditure data to
estimate indirectly-induced employment. (Travers, 1998)
Input-output model
Examples include:
WERU and DCA (Cardiff) Limited,
The Economic Impact of the Arts and
Cultural Industries in Wales, 1998
• provides more comprehensive
way of estimating money flows
between sectors/sub-sectors,
businesses, organisations and
consumers and tracing the various
multiplier effects through an
economy
• often used either to analyse the
effects of macro economic
changes to the local economy, or
55
examine the contribution of
particular sectors/establishments
in the local economy
• Input-output models can also be
tailored to specific local conditions
and economies
• problems in addressing
economies of scale associated
with changes of output.
Example of the Input-output model
The Welsh Economy Research Unit and DCA (Cardiff) Limited (1998) in their
investigation of the economic impact of the arts and cultural industries in
Wales identified six broad sectors of activity as constitutive of the arts and
cultural industries. These were:
• performing arts
• visual arts, craft and design
• literature and publishing
• media
• libraries, museums and heritage
• general cultural.
The authors adopted a narrow definition of economic impact covering cash
flow, incomes and jobs. Quantitative data collected through questionnaires
and interviews with a representative sample of individuals and organisations
in the arts and cultural industries in Wales were then used to build a
comprehensive quantitative picture of the sector, and of the qualitative issues
and context surrounding it. This involved identifying the economic strengths
and weaknesses of the sector, opportunities for (and threats to) growth and
suggesting policy changes to maximise the economic impact of the sector. An
Input-output table for Wales was also used to enable measures of impact to
be produced.
56
A number of key information areas were identified within the survey
questionnaire covering:
• activity
• employment characteristics
• total earnings by source
• purchases and estimates of the proportion of purchases brought within
Wales
• revenue and grants (turnover)
• overseas earnings.
Data gathered in these areas, together with interview questions (grouped into
six broad areas: organisational structure, history and location; finance, capital
and general resources; human resources; business networks; products and
markets; future opportunities), formed the common framework of inquiry.
Production chain model
This is a model used to describe the process of developing creative products.
It focuses on the different stages of development from ideas generation,
research through to distribution and presentation of products.
57
Examples include:
O'Connor, J, The Cultural
Production Sector in Manchester,
1998
This model has also been used in
combination with an Input-output
Table in the study, WERU and
DCA (Cardiff) Limited, The
Economic Impact of the Arts and
Cultural Industries in Wales,
1998
• concerned with examining dynamics,
interdependencies and linkage within
and between sub-sectors
• focus on parts of the production chain
responsible for the generation of
'creative content'
• typically includes: analysis of SIC/SOC
codes, primary data collection from
sector players to gather information on
work and trade patterns, business
capacity and operations, information
and networks, markets, sub-sectoral
issues, needs and potential.
• often used to identify/influence
strategic interventions to grow
sector/creative industries
• often includes advocacy strategy to
influence policy debate and
development.
Example of the Production chain model
The definition of the cultural production sector used by O'Connor, J (1998) in
his comprehensive study of the sector in the former Manchester TEC Ltd
area included:
• craft/design • performance
• music • visual arts
• photography • heritage
• multimedia • film/media
• advertising • architecture
• authorship • education
Source: O'Connor, 1998
58
The sub-sectoral model included sole practitioners and businesses concerned
with the production of cultural goods and services as well as education
institutions, intermediaries and 'soft infrastructure' such as business support
agencies, training providers, sector-specific development agencies, etc. as
representative of the wider relationships between and across the sector. The
research team created a comprehensive database of cultural sector
practitioners and enterprises as a means of auditing the sector and providing
a tool which would allow the tracking of sector change over time. The audit
used a combination of secondary data analysis, survey work, industry
intelligence, telephone interviews and key informant discussion groups to
collect data on employment and enterprise size, at sector and sub-sector
levels, and undertake a SWOT analysis of the sector. Five broad areas of
inquiry formed the framework for key informant questionnaires and discussion
of the characteristics and dynamics of the different cultural sub-sectors. These
were: strengths and weaknesses; key development needs; growth potential;
comments on the research; potential future strategic interventions.
Research data were subjected to modelling and interpretation using two
Comedia models as useful first steps for developing a cultural industries audit
and strategy. The first aims to understand the different aspects of the cultural
industries through a form of value-chain. It involves five distinct levels or
spheres:
• beginnings: ideas generation capacity – creativity/training
• production: people, resources and productive capacity to transform ideas
into marketable products – producers, editors, engineers as well as
equipment
• circulation: impresarios, managers, agents and agencies, distributors and
wholesalers, packagers and assemblers of product – also catalogues,
directories, archives, stock inventories, medial outlets
• delivery mechanisms: platforms to allow cultural product to be consumed –
theatres, cinemas, book shops, concert halls, TV channels, magazines,
museums, record shops
59
• audience and reception: the extent to which local publics are aware of this
curative activity through word of mouth, publications and media in general.
(Landry, cited in O, Connor, 1998)
O'Connor concedes that the limitations of the model lie in its essentially
descriptive nature and the impression it gives of cultural production as a
sequential process. He suggests that these features constrain its usefulness
as a tool for strategic intervention.
The second analytical model, The Creative City Development Scale has been
developed as a device to assess the relative strengths in terms of creativity of
a city, and to provide a basic timeline to guide strategic intervention.
Table 8 The Creative City Development Scale
Scale Characteristics of Local Cultural
Economy
1 Basic activity, minimal support
service. No public visibility of cultural
form. Submerged activity, amateur
and part-time. No public sector
encouragement
2/3 Beginnings of local industry and selfconsciousness
by those that
constitute the sector. Some visibility,
some public sector encouragement,
no strategy. Some local
entrepreneurs with low level central
contacts. No division of labour. Some
production and exhibition facilities.
Local aspirations. High leakage of
talent.
60
4 More press for recognition. Higher
quality facilities. Bigger market for
local services. More venues and
entrepreneurial activity. 'Take-off'
level. Leakage of talent balanced and
beginning to reverse.
5/6 A level of autonomy has been
achieved, aspirations can be met
locally. Support infrastructures within
city. Connections to Europe and USA
gaining credibility. Evidence of
success attracting inward movers.
Coordinated public activity. Leakage
of talent reversed.
7/8 Recognition of importance of industry
locally. Creatives can meet most
aspirations locally. Support structures
across 5 spheres:
City can make credible foreign links
without going through London.
Creatives live and work in the area.
Wealth retained in the area through
production, post-production,
management and administrative
services. Location attractive to talent,
but still lacks a few high level
resources to fulfil its potential.
9 Known nationally and internationally
for its cultural activity. Attractor of
talent and skill. Nearly all facilities,
nearly self-sufficient. Headquarters of
important media/cultural companies
and has most value-added services.
61
10 Virtually self-sufficient place for
cultural industry – attractor of leaked
talent and location for self reinforcing
creation of value-added. Has highlevel
facilities and international
flagships. Is a centre for strategic
decision-making. Competes on an
international level.
Source: Landry, cited in O'Connor, 1998
While considered useful for allowing towns and cities to assess their
comparative position and strength, O'Connor highlights problems stemming
from: a tendency to see the local area as self-contained, where 'retention of
talent' often means 'home grown talent'; a suggestion of controlled,
incremental development, which fails to take into account the very real
constraints which towns and cities may have in attempting to move up the
scale within a strongly competitive environment; the limits placed on selfsufficiency
by global tendencies and decisions; extremely competitive and
exponential growth from level 7 upwards, which raises questions about
whether it is realistic to talk of Level 10.
O'Connor further argues that 'the strategies that would have to be in place to
deliver such a competitive strategy do not register on the Comedia scale. It
would demand a higher level of corporate involvement and delivery than a
simple 'cultural industries' strategy - it is about a rethink of the city and what it
should be.' (O'Connor, 1998)
An advocacy strategy was also employed to ensure that key research findings
were fed back to stakeholders and the industry itself, and allowed
opportunities for the receipt of further comments and additions to refine the
model. The resultant report suggested that some 18,058 direct jobs and
14,446 indirect jobs were attributable to the cultural sector, which had an
estimated turnover from direct jobs of £627 million.
62
Sector mapping model
Examples include:
York Consulting, The Impact of
Creative Industries on the Yorkshire
and Humber Economy, 1998
Bretton Hall, Cultural Industries: Key
Data, The Cultural Industries in
Yorkshire and the Humber, 2000
• while not economic impact
studies, incorporate elements of
the Descriptive Research Method
and the Input-output Model in
terms using primary and/or
secondary data to map and
analyse the cultural sector or
creative industries.
• combined with case study or subsectoral
analysis to identify
strategic issues associated with
the potential economic
contribution of the sector as a
whole and the sub-sectors within
it.
Example of the Sector mapping model
In 2000, Bretton Hall published Cultural Industries: Key data to provide
baseline data and a snapshot of the industry in the Yorkshire and Humber
region. It was based on an analysis of existing secondary data and new
primary data gathered from a representative sample of cultural enterprises,
entered onto a database. A postal questionnaire was employed to gather
relevant data on: workforce patterns, sub-sector description, organisational
profile, longevity of enterprise, geography and markets, turnover and
resources, and investment and training needs.
The second phase of the research is intended to focus on particular areas to
facilitate a more detailed examination of the sub-regional elements of the
sector, while the third phase and ongoing phase will continue to gather data to
create a continuing narrative for analysis to identify the success, failure, and
63
sustainability of different elements of the sector, and the effectiveness of
public and private sector investment decisions.
There are a number of other models and methodologies for the evaluation of
economic impact. Kelly and Kelly (2000) present an outline for a questionnaire
for assessing economic, social and cultural impact in a holistic way. They
suggest that information can be gathered, depending on the needs of the
user, in 13 areas:
Table 9 Template for assessing economic, social and cultural impact
1 Organisation: art form and
activities, amenities provision and
opening hours
7 Current and Future Plans and
Challenges: facilities development
2 Income: contributed income–
grants, lottery awards, donations,
sponsorship, earned income–
admissions, sales, fees, membership,
room hire, café/bar, bookshop,
interest
8 Cultural Benefits and Impact:
work which took place which
otherwise wouldn't have reached the
area, new work created, role of
organisation in promotion of a positive
image for city/town, contribution to
tourism
3 Outgoing: staff costs – wages,
travel, training, running costs,
marketing, fund-raising, VAT,
National Insurance and PAYE, local
trade as percentage of turnover
9 Social Capital: contribution to the
communication of ideas, information
and values, helping improve
participant's skills in planning and
organising, improving understanding
of different cultures and lifestyles,
improving the understanding of the
role of arts and culture in the
community, partnership building,
active membership of staff/board in
other organisations and artistic
collaboration with others.
64
4 Capital Improvements: income
and expenditure
10 Building and developing
Communities: contribution to
developing sense of community
identity, social cohesion, recreational
opportunities, development of local
enterprise, improvement of public
facilities and amenities, and help to
convey history and heritage of an
area
5 Attendances and performances:
total number of audience
opportunities (for example,
performances, cinema screenings) in
city/town, region, nationally and
internationally, number of
admissions/attendees (paid full,
concessions, free, website and hits
11 Social Change and Public
Awareness: contribution made to
stimulating and developing public
awareness of important issues and
changing people's attitudes on
political, ethnical, religious or moral
issues
6 Staffing: paid, full- and part-time
staff and volunteers, mix of artistic,
marketing and technical staff, board
12 Human Capital: contribution to
improving participant's human and
communication skills, analytical and
problem-solving skills, creative
talents, and social awareness.
Source: Kelly and Kelly, 2000
They also identify four other models for assessment. These include:
• Best Value and performance indicators
• the 'balanced scorecard'
• benchmarking
• gap analysis and other measures.
Under the Best Value Initiative, local authorities in England are required to
report on their performance to their local communities. It is considered to offer
65
a good basis for assessment, since it enshrines the principle of working with
communities locally, promote strategic planning, ensures a continuous
improvement and offers a degree of flexibility. Seven Best Value Performance
Indicators (BVPIs) have been established for Culture and Related Services in
relation to regeneration activity for 2001/2002. These are:
Table 10 Best value performance indicators
Best Value Performance
Indicator, 2001/2
Description
BVPI 113 • Number of pupils visiting museums
and galleries in organised school
groups
BVPI 114 • The adoption by the authority of a local
cultural strategy
BVPI 115 • The cost per physical visit to public
libraries
BVPI 116 • Spending per head of population on
cultural and recreational facilities and
activities
BVPI 117 • The number of physical visits per 1000
population to public library premises
BVPI 169a
BVPI 169b
• The number of museums operated by
the local authority
• The percentage of that figure which
are registered under the museums
registration scheme administered by
Resource
BVPI 170a
BVPI 170b
• The number of visits to/usage's of
museums per 1,000 population
• The number of those visits that were in
person per 1,000 population
Source: DTLR, The Beacon Council Scheme
66
There is currently debate within the arts sector about the establishment of a
BVPI focusing on levels of attendance and participation in the arts. In addition,
the Arts Council has commissioned research to collate and analyse evidence
about the use and effectiveness of different local level performance indicators
to inform the development of a library of recommended local performance
indicators to assist local authorities in their implementation of Best Value.
Kelly and Kelly (2000) also highlight Gilhespy's policy matrix of performance
indicators, designed to monitor: economy, efficiency, effectiveness and equity.
His matrix, encompassing areas of performance, covers: access
maximisation, attendance maximisation, diversity/multiculturalism, economy
maximisation, education, excellence, innovation, revenue maximisation,
service quality maximisation, and social cohesion. These strategic choices are
weighted and linked with objectives and performance indicators.
The ‘balanced scorecard’ provides a means of measuring and analysing four
categories of performance: financial performance, customer knowledge,
internal business processes and organisational learning and growth. Another
method identified is gap analysis, which has been used to assess and
improve service quality. Gaps analysis provides a means of assessing the
extent to which customer expectations and experiences of service concur with
organisation's perceptions. A lack of congruence suggests the need to
improve customer loyalty and development.
5.3 Current position of social impact research methods
There has been a growing policy and research interest in methodologies for
measuring the social impact of the arts. More recently, this has focused on
evaluative frameworks for assessing the contribution of the arts to
neighbourhood renewal and social inclusion, but there is widespread
consensus across the sector of the pressing need to develop comprehensive,
robust and comparable methodologies for evaluating arts effectiveness, and
toolkits for promoting and sharing best practice.
67
The development of evaluation frameworks for assessing the social impact of
the arts are still at a relatively early stage, and the literature suggests that
there are still a number of theoretical and methodological issues to be
explored. These include:
• the relationship between social and economic development and arts
impacts
• the transfer of effects into other situations
• development of more rigorous methods for assessing such attributes as
human capital, personal confidence and esteem, outcomes associated
with social capital
• education, and regeneration
• the relative performance of different cultural services
• factors and processes underpinning the effectiveness of arts activity.
(Jermyn, 2001; Coalter, 2001)
Policymakers, practitioners and researchers have also suggested that there is
a need for longitudinal research and monitoring to evaluate the contribution of
the arts to neighbourhood renewal, health improvement, crime reduction, etc;
to provide supporting evidence of the long-term effects of arts participation
and the work of arts organisations and projects in combating social exclusion;
and to explore the sustainability of arts interventions and outcomes, and the
relationship between intermediate and strategic outcomes.(Shaw, 1999;
DCMS, 1999; ACE, 1999, Coalter 2001)
Five broad methods or approaches to social impact assessment of arts
activity have been identified in this Review. Most of these approaches have
adopted composite methodologies. These typically combine the development
of quantitative and qualitative measures and analysis of quantitative and
qualitative data gathered from: project visits, interviews, questionnaires, case
studies, focus group discussion, participant observation and stakeholder
research/observation or reference groups or other methods for gathering
wider stakeholder testimony and opinion. In some cases assessment of
finished artwork is also undertaken. Researchers have sought to balance
68
different types of data and a range of competing factors, not least practicability
in implementing methods within varied project settings.
The majority of social impact assessments have examined individuals and
their behaviour (micro-level); projects, organisations, communities, networks,
or sectors/sector-wide initiatives, (meso-level) rather than focusing on national
or international social structures (macro-level).
Social-impact research often uses evidence collected from a project or
projects to carry out formative and/or summative evaluation. Formative
evaluation refers to evaluation which takes place during a project to inform its
development. It often takes the form of review meetings. Summative
evaluation happens at the end of a project, summing up what has happened
and its effects (Dust, 2001).
5.4 Towards a typology of methods of social impact assessment of
the arts
Multiple-method approach
Method Features
The characteristics and outcomes of
a set of cases or projects are
described. Can also be used to
understand the causes of social
phenomena by comparing cases
Examples include:
Matarasso, F, Use or Ornament?:
The Social Impact of Participation in
the Arts, 1997
Matarasso, F, Poverty and Oysters,
The Social impact of local arts
development in Portsmouth, 1998
• structured and systematic
collection and analysis of
information about key variables
(e.g. attributes, behaviour,
attitudes, beliefs) from a set of at
least two cases or projects
• frequently involves self-selecting
sample
• typically employs a range of
techniques: analysis of monitoring
or baseline data, questionnaires,
interviews, observation, site visits,
project documentation, wider
69
Hill, R; Moriarty, G, as broadcast in
Beijing, 2001
Arts Council of England's Social
Inclusion Research Programme
testing three models of arts and social
inclusion work.
stakeholder/community testimony
• analytical framework developed,
identifying outcomes areas and
indicators, against which to
assess project outcomes
• questionnaires often based on
participant self-reports, but later
studies attempt to gather
corroborative evidence
• used for summative evaluation or
combined summative and
formative evaluation, where the
latter often involves supporting
arts/community organisations to
develop their own self-evaluation
best practice
Examples of the Multi-method approach
For his study of participation in community-based arts projects, Matarasso
(1997) used a research framework to assess the outcomes of projects based
on six broad themes:
• personal development
• social cohesion
• community empowerment and self-determination
• local image and identity
• imagination and vision
• health and well-being.
In addition, a list of key questions was drawn up to form a common framework
of inquiry in each case study. These were:
70
1. What social impacts are the programme intending to achieve, and how
have these been identified in relation to local needs?
2. By what process has the arts initiative been designed to achieve them?
3. Are project participants aware of the social impacts which have been
identified?
4. Are they able to participate in this process, from setting objectives and
indicators to evaluating and explaining results?
5. What indicators and standards of performance are to be used and why?
6. What systems and processes will be used to evaluate the programme’s
impact?
7. How does it integrate and compare with other social programmes (whether
arts-based or not) being sponsored by the same agency?
8. How does the return on investment compare with that delivered by other
social programmes?
Matarasso (1997) identified a list of 50 social impacts from the research.
These are reproduced in Appendix 2.
An example of where both formative and summative evaluation are
incorporated into the research enquiry is provided by the Arts Council of
England's Social Inclusion Research Programme testing three 'ideal types' of
arts and social inclusion work.
In this case, a literature review (Jermyn, 2001a) and consultation with
participating organisations provided the basis for Jermyn (2001b) to develop
an independent evaluation framework against which to assess the outcomes
of 18 arts and community projects and four arts partnerships involved in the
programme.
The framework is based on a number of best-practice themes and outcome
areas. A range of indicators has also been identified against each theme or
outcome area, consisting of core indicators which will be applied to all
projects, and supplementary indicators which will to be applied to projects as
appropriate. These indicators are designed to allow comparison across
71
projects and to build evidence of the contribution of projects to combating
social exclusion.
Best-practice themes identified, are:
• sufficient time, planning, resources, equitable partnerships
• embedded local control, responding to community needs
• clear objectives and evaluation
• flexibility
• issues around ownership, control of agenda, artist as collaborator
• values and principles
• importance of quality and/or pride in achievement
• sustainability and legacy.
Outcomes are grouped into four categories:
• ‘hard’ outcomes: improvements in health, educational attainment, crime
reduction, increased employment levels
• personal impacts/human capital: increased self-confidence, enhanced self
esteem, enjoyment, arts inclusion, skills acquisition, prospects and future
outlook
• collective/group impacts: increased social contact, increased
understanding and tolerance of other people, group identity and pride,
skills such as teamwork, interpersonal skills, etc
• civic/community impacts: community involvement, community identity and
pride, active community, local democracy.
(Jermyn, 2001b)
Evaluation of the programme will also involve interviews and discussion
groups with participants, observation, interviews with artists, project
coordinators and stakeholders, data collected from project records, alongside
other project-specific methods eg. creative feedback. For those projects with
the explicit aim of achieving the hard outcomes which correspond to the
72
DCMS's strategic social inclusion outcomes, other indicators and specific data
collection strategies will also be employed.
Social auditing
Method Features
The social impact of an activity or
organisation is measured in relation
to its aims and those of its
stakeholders
Examples include:
Matarasso, F; Pilling, A, Belgrade
Theatre social audit 1998-99, 1999
• addresses non-commercial
objectives of organisations
• holistic and multi-perspective
• value-driven process
• stakeholders determine
assessment criteria
• identification and collection of key
benchmarks of performance
• externally validated through audit
by those without a vested interest
• offers a means of comparing
performance with other
organisations or projects
• feedback to stakeholders and
public on achievements
Example of Social auditing
The Arts Council in conjunction with West Midlands Arts supported the first
social audit of the Belgrade Theatre, conducted with Comedia and the New
Economics Foundation. The social audit involved clarifying and agreeing the
Theatre's objectives with its various stakeholders, and a structured review of
how it was achieving them through a series of questionnaires, interviews,
discussion groups and data analysis (Matarasso & Pilling, 1999). The
Theatre’s identified objectives, relating to five broad themes, provided the
framework for the social audit and the goals against which a list of potential
indicators could be set. These were:
73
• the Theatre and the arts
• the Theatre and the community
• the Theatre's partnerships
• the Theatre and the city
• the Theatre's standards
Examples of the indicator profile, reflecting the five objectives, are reproduced
below:
Belgrade Theatre social audit indicator profile
The Theatre and the arts
• number of performances, workshops and other events
• assessment of audiences (rating scale)
• assessment of the professional arts community
• number of partnerships with local theatre companies
The Theatre and the community
• impact on personal development of participants in projects
• number of schools and community projects
• audience profile
• physical access improvements
The Theatre's partnerships
• percentage of partners feeling actively involved in the activities of Belgrade
• average length of partnership with community based organisations, private
companies and other types of organisation
• recognition rate of activities at the Belgrade apart from traditional theatre
The Theatre and the city
• assessment by audiences of the theatre's welcome
• number of local arts development initiatives involving the Theatre
• number of local trading partners
74
The Theatre's standards
• staff assessment of the theatre as an employer
• average length of cooperation with partner
(Matarasso and Pilling, 1999)
The study made four important observations about the value of the social
auditing process for arts organisations. These were that it:
• is feasible and rewarding
• produces useful information for tracking performance and impact year on
year
• creates a framework for dialogue with their communities
• renews their relationships with the rest of society.
(Matarasso and Pilling, 1999)
Longitudinal research method
Method Features
Data collected from the same case(s)
at two or more points of time
Examples include: Moriarty, G
Breightmet Arts Impact Assessment,
Set-up year 1999–2000, undated;
Harland et al., Arts in Secondary
Schools: effects and effectiveness,
2000
• structured collection and analysis
of data of characteristics and
outcomes from a single case or a
set of cases over an extended
period of time
• can involve self selecting or
representative sample
• useful for understanding
processes
Examples of Longitudinal research method
Some commentators may question whether the examples presented are truly
longitudinal studies since they only cover timescales of 3 years, however they
75
are included to provide an illustration of research where there has been an
attempt to track the outcomes of interventions over a more extended period.
Moriarty (1999–2000) reported on the evaluation of the first year of a 3 year
study of the Greenroyd Art House art project in Breightmet, Bolton. A full
report of the 3 year study will be published in Summer 2002.
The project was led by Breightmet Arts and involved local children. She used
a questionnaire to assess perceptions of the Art House by parents whose
children attended activities at the project, and members of the Greenroyd
Action Group. Their satisfaction levels were measured using a 12-point scale.
The questionnaire was based on two sets of five questions: the first
addressing perceptions of the role of the Art House and its effect on
participating children, and a second set testing perceptions of the effect of the
Art House on them, and the area where they lived.
Table 11 Greenroyd Art House project questionnaire
1 The Art House has given my
children something positive to do
rather than just an activity.
6 The Art House offers a safe place
for my child(ren)
2 The Art House has helped to
improve the confidence of my children
7 Do you think the Art House could
help to reduce crime and trouble
making among children?
3 The adults at the Art House are
friendly and approachable
8 Over the past 6 months, the Art
House has increasingly become part
of the area where I live
4 If the Art House were to close,
would you miss its activities?
9 Do you think the Art House will help
to make Breightmet a better place?
5 Overall, how satisfied are you with
the Art House?
10 The Art House has become part of
this community and reflects the value
of this area
Source: Extract from Moriarty, undated
76
Early work on the project also identified a list of 35 social indicators, based on
three categories: environmental indicators; indicators of changes in attitude
and behaviour; and indicators for key agencies and local people, to provide a
framework for future assessment. Examples are reproduced below:
Table 12 Greenroyd Art House project social indicators
Environmental
indicators
Attitude and behaviour
change indicators
Key agency and local
people indicators
less litter decrease in bullying cheaper access to
leisure facilities
more trees and flowers less complaints about
nuisance
fewer empty properties
(especially shops)
less vandalism in parks
and play areas
a better image and
profile for the area changing
outside
perceptions
better venue, funding,
resources, equipment,
volunteers within
Withins Youth Club
Streets quieter at night
time
more extended longterm
tenancies
more music through
Breightmet Arts for 13–
15 year olds
Bus shelters either
broken less often or
designed differently to
discourage vandalism
less kids hanging about
on the streets
more thought given and
action taken to offer
employment safety nets
Source: Extract from Moriarty, undated
Impacts derived from Breightmet Arts included: plans to expand the Art
House; positive local media coverage of the Art House which was seen as
bringing people together and offering a feel-good factor; the inclusion of
Breightmet Arts as a strategic partner in Bolton Metropolitan Borough's SRB 6
bid. The bid aims to use the arts and creative industries to build a sustainable
community, and together with the Local Cultural Strategy, to change the
image of the area.
77
In the field of arts education, Harland et al (2000) undertook a 3 year study of
arts education in English and Welsh secondary schools. The research
involved:
• case studies of five secondary schools – including annual interviews with
two cohorts of pupils (approximately 79 in total each year), interviews with
school managers, art teachers, observation of art lessons, analysis of
information on a total of 27,607 pupils from 152 schools in three cohorts of
Year 11 pupils taking GCSE’s compiled through NFER's QUASE5
project
• individual questionnaires to 2,269 Year 11 pupils in 22 schools, alongside
a school questionnaire, and interviews with employers and employees.
Based on their interim report (Harland et al, 1998), Harland et al, (2000)
proposed a provisional typology of ten possible effects of school-based arts
education, as seen by teachers and heads of department of arts-oriented
subjects, and members of senior management. The typology had been
constructed based on analysis of 52 staff interviews in the five case study
schools of claims about the effects, desirable outcomes and achievable aims
associated with arts subjects. The provisional typology was developed and
revised in the light of pupil's accounts of the learning outcomes to accrue from
their experiences of arts-related provision. It provides a model of arts
education outcomes.
The model identified two broad types of outcomes: effects on pupils and
effects on others. The effects on pupils comprised seven main sets of
outcomes:
• intrinsic and immediate effects
• arts knowledge and skills
5
The QUASE (Quantitative Analysis for Self-Evaluation) service provides information to schools
about their own performance, relative to what might be expected in the light of their pupil's prior
attainment and their social context.
78
• knowledge in the social and cultural domains
• creativity and thinking skills
• communication and expressive skills
• personal and social development
• extrinsic transfer effects.
Each of these seven types of outcomes contained further subcategories.
Broad outcomes for the effects on others included three main sets of
outcomes:
• on the school
• on the community
• art itself as an outcome.
Within the model, the effects on pupils are presented to signify a progression
from the most immediate and direct outcome categories ie. intrinsic
enjoyment, through categories that entail a slight degree of transferability, ie.
knowledge of the social and cultural domains, to categories that represent a
significant degree of transferability ie. personal and social development.
However it is not suggested that in progressing from intrinsic to extrinsic
outcomes, pupils advance in a mechanistic or linear manner. Rather,
evidence suggested that learning proceeds as a result of a complex series of
cyclical interactions between the various categories depending on the type of
provision experienced. (Harland et al, 2000)
Community based multi-method approach
Method Features
The relationship between art and the
well-being of individuals and/or
communities is explored through a
focus on factors such as self-esteem
and social connectedness
• Adapted from HDA's (2000)
typology of evaluation strategies
• offers ways of theorising and
understanding the role of arts
initiatives in the context of building
social capital
79
Examples include:
HDA, A review of good practice in
community-based arts and health
projects and initiatives which impact
on health and wellbeing, 2000
Walker et al, Prove it! Measuring the
effect of neighbourhood renewal on
local people, 2000
Examples of the Community based multi-method approach
Working in partnership with Groundwork, Barclays plc. and local communities
for the Barclays SiteSavers Programme, the New Economics Foundation
developed a framework to measuring the impact of neighbourhood renewal on
local people. Premised on Putnam's conceptualisations of social capital which
identify social capital as 'features of social life….which enable participants to
act to together more effectively to pursue shared objectives.', the framework
(and indicators chosen) highlighted key components of human and social
capital:
• skills
• local connections and trust.
80
Table 13 Part of framework for evaluating the impact of the Barclays
SiteSavers programme in Groundwork
PART OF FRAMEWORK
HUMAN CAPITAL
Self-confidence
• Self-esteem/self-respect/self-confidence
• Attitudes towards place eg, sense of belonging
• Attitudes towards getting involved
• Skills and knowledge
• Behaviour eg, trying new things
SOCIAL CAPITAL
Trusting each other
• Standards of behaviour
• Reciprocity eg, people looking out for each other
• Networks and connections: places to meet
• Networks and connections: friends
• Networks and connections: participation, eg, in community organisations
and events
• Networks and connections: diversity, eg, learning about other people's
cultures
Trusting them
Community and voluntary organisations and agencies
• Number
• Services provided
• Effectiveness
• Community involvement: knowledge, eg, of what organisations there are
• Community involvement: participation in these groups
• Community involvement: democracy and accountability, eg, are there
organisations controlled by local residents?
• Community involvement: equal opportunities
• Networks and partnerships between organisations
Source: Extract from Walker et al, 2000
81
Another study which adopted a community-based approach is the HDA's
(2000) review of community-based arts projects and initiatives which impact
on health and well-being. In adopting an analytical framework conceptualised
around social capital, the authors suggested that social capital 'serves as one
coherent construct which will allow us to progress the debate and discussion
about the general importance of social approaches to public health and health
promotion.' See Appendix 2 for HDA’s analytical framework.
Survey method
Method Features
Quantitative data collected through a
survey instrument
Examples include:
Annabel Jackson Associates, Social
Impact Study of the Millennium
Awards, The Millennium Commission,
2000
• systematic collection of
quantitative data and opinion from
a number of individuals or projects
• allows aggregate analysis and
comparisons across individuals
and projects
Example of the Survey method
Annabel Jackson Associates in their social impact study of Millennium Awards
(2000) used a questionnaire to inform telephone interviews with award
recipients to gather data on the impact of award projects which had taken
place prior to 1 July 1999. This data together with project baseline and output
data and perceptions of award recipients of the future effects of the project,
was used to assess the effectiveness of Millennium Commission funding of
the scheme and synthesise lessons of good practice. Project impacts were
divided into four areas: personal skills, personal knowledge, personal practical
experience and community impacts.
82
Table 14 Millennium Awards social impact study
Impact areas Indicators
Develop personal skills • confidence
• motivation
• team working
• leadership
• communication and public
speaking
• negotiation skills
• literacy/numeracy
• other skills
Develop personal knowledge • environment
• health
• social issues
• community
• other
Develop personal practical
experience
• making something
• how to engage the community
• research
• arts and sport
• teaching or training others
• caring, therapy
• computing
• managing projects
• business planning
• fund raising
• media and publicity
Community impacts • raised awareness of an issue
• provided new service or facility
• improved the quality of life
• improved the environment
• reduced isolation/enabled
83
networking
• increased local pride
• strengthened links within the
community
• increased understanding of local
history
• other
Source: Annabel Jackson Associates, 2000
The study reported that 90% of award recipients interviewed said that their
project had been a success in terms of its effects on them, and 81% said it
had been a success in terms of its effects on their community. Further,
projects showed a high degree of additionality with 62% of recipients saying
that the effects on them would not have happened if it had not taken place
and 70% of projects planned to continue or extend their project in the future.
Based on the average time spent on a Millennium Award project, Annabel
Jackson Associates calculated that the total hours of work spent on projects
funded by the 40,000 grants planned could add up to some 40 million hours
(AJA, 2000).
Other methods of social impact assessment identified by commentators,
include before and after models (especially appropriate to new projects) and
assessment of additionality: the difference which projects made. (Kelly and
Kelly, 2000)
84
Section Six
6 The Contribution of the Arts
6.1 The literature
This section presents examples of studies and research concerned with the
impact of the arts which have used the different research methodologies or
frameworks outlined in the previous section. The purpose of this section is to
provide a broad overview of the findings and conclusions identified by a
selection of existing research and it should not be regarded as a
comprehensive review of all research in this area. While there is a now a
wealth of arts impact research, there is also a recognition that the robustness
of research methods and the quality of evidence gathered across the literature
is variable. This section therefore attempts to include a brief commentary on
each research study to draw out particular strengths which can be used to
inform the development of methods and techniques which others can build on
and adapt for their own use for future research. The commentary also
endeavours to highlight gaps in information and aspects of methodology
where greater clarity or explanation would have helped the reader to gain a
better understanding of how the methodology was carried out, and any
attendant limitations of the findings.
The literature is presented in tabular form and is divided into two main areas:
research which aims to add to our knowledge base about the economic
characteristics and contribution of the arts and creative industries and studies
exploring the social impact of the arts.
85
6.2 Table 15 Selection of research exploring the economic impact of the arts
Study and methodology Impacts
Title: Myerscough, J, The Economic Importance of the Arts
in Britain, Policy Studies Institute, London, 1988
Purpose: To provide an assessment of the economic
contribution of the arts to the British economy.
Country/area: Merseyside (former Merseyside Arts region);
Glasgow (Glasgow travel-to-work area); Ipswich (covering four
district councils)
Method: Financial Survey Model
23 surveys undertaken in total, including census of arts
organisations and enterprises in the three regions to establish
business information and identify geographical and sectoral
spending patterns; surveys of particular cultural industries, arts
customers, ancillary businesses, resident population in the three
study areas, and of middle managers; interviews with senior
business executives; enquiries to individuals in the arts,
business, tourism sectors, public agencies and local authorities,
Main findings: The arts:
• form a significant economic sector in their own right, with
annual turnover of £10 billion
• give direct employment to 496,000 people or 2.1% of total
employed population
• are an expanding, high value-added sector of the economy,
which also generate growth in ancillary industries
• are a catalyst of urban renewal, improving the image of a
region and making it a better place to live and work
Conclusions: Increasing the economic contribution of the arts to
national life is a task for many partners. Understanding the
economic value of the arts is central to grasping the opportunity.
Assessment: A milestone Report for the sector, establishing for
the first time the sector's economic contribution. Clear
86
small postal surveys, survey of the arts trade.
For national overview Report, the following additional surveys
carried out: a survey of overseas tourists at arts
events/attractions; a survey of visitors at temporary loan
exhibitions; and a small survey of non-overseas customers at
London arts events/attractions.
General empirical approach involved collation of quantitative
data and description of the arts sector, covering organisational
structure, turnover and value-added, employment, markets and
overseas earnings, assessment of the economic prospects for
the sector, sub-sector interactions assessed by placing
independent provisions alongside subsidised activities.
Economic impact analysis also applied to the three regional
case studies focusing on the indirect effects of the arts sector on
income and jobs in other sectors, and their differential effects on
other parts of the arts sector. Achieved using a proportional
multiplier analysis: arts multipliers developed for the three
regions: Merseyside (2.8); Glasgow (2.7); Ipswich (1.8).
Research also included a public expenditure analysis of the cost
description of research objectives and methods. Good
discussion of limitations of secondary data sources used,
methodology and strategies employed to address limitations.
Good analysis of market, organisational structure and
characteristics of the arts sector, and policy implications for
increasing the contribution of the arts to the national economy
and quality of life. The use of almost identical methodologies in
the three case studies allows comparisons between the regions.
Limitations: Customer effects based on surveys of attenders
requiring recall and prediction which may have introduced some
inaccuracies.
Economic impact analysis based on proportional multiplier
analysis and assumes a constant relationship between jobs and
spending. This may not take into account the costs of extra jobs
under particular labour market conditions eg, excess labour
supply, etc.
87
of generating extra jobs through the arts attempts to take
account of substitution, potential inflationary and displacement
effects. Analysis of benefits arising from public expenditure on
alternative projects to provide comparative context of economic
benefits of the arts. Exploration of external benefits such as
impact of arts on location decisions, the image and selfconfidence
of the city or region also undertaken.
Title: O' Brien, J and Feist, A, Employment in the arts and
cultural industries: an analysis of the 1991 Census, ACE
Research Report No. 2, Policy Research and Planning
Department, Arts Council of England, London, 1995
Purpose: To fill gaps in knowledge about the extent, distribution
and characteristics of employment in cultural occupations and
industries through an analysis of the 1991 Census of Population.
Country/area: Great Britain
Sample: Data on 12 Standard Occupational unit groups and 9
'cultural industries' divisions of the 1980 Standard Industrial
Classifications from 10% Census Sample.
Among the noted findings were:
• Approximately 649,000 individuals in the cultural sector in
1991, or 2.4% of the total economically active population,
rising to 664,400 if self-employed craftspeople included
• number of individuals with cultural occupations and number
employed in cultural industries increased by 34% and 16%
respectively, between 1981 and 1991
• cultural sector employment concentrated in London. 31% of
individuals with cultural occupations and 29% of individuals
in the cultural industries resided in this area
• around half (51%) of those with cultural occupations
employed full-time. Compared with the total economically
88
Method: Descriptive Research Method (Quantitative
Analysis) Statistical data from specially commissioned
tabulations from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys,
on individuals within 12 cultural occupational unit groups and 9
cultural industries from the 1991 Census was grossed up by a
factor of around 10 – 11, refined and analysed. Authors note that
grossing up has negligible effect on the margin of error when
considering the whole population.
active population, a very high proportion of those with a
cultural occupation were self-employed (34% compared with
11% in the total economically active population).
Conclusions: A mixture of factors reflecting increased demand
for, and supply of, individuals in cultural occupations have
brought about changes in employment in the cultural sector
between 1981 and 1991, including growth in media and related
industries, technological/legislative changes, changes in public
sector spending, occupational flexibilisation and flexible work
patterns, demographic changes. Changes in wider economy and
structural change in the cultural industries have influenced
cultural sector employment.
Assessment: An important reference work for the sector, notable
for its comprehensiveness and high quality, despite dated
statistics. Robust and reliable methodology outlined in detail in
report. Authors acknowledge limitations imposed on data
analysis by OPCS data. Presents data down to Regional Arts
Board region level. Overall balanced analysis of the arts and
89
cultural industries sector.
DCMS, Creative Industries Mapping Document 2001,
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, London, 2001
Purpose: To provide an understanding of the current state of the
creative industries, its contribution to the UK economy, growth
potential, issues affecting, and opportunities for, growth.
Country/area: United Kingdom
Method: Descriptive Research Model (Quantitative Analysis)
Collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from
secondary data sources. Initial data collection and analysis led
by the City University London's Department of Arts Policy and
Management with contributions from other researchers and
government contacts.
Key findings include:
• UK creative industries generate £112.5 billion in revenues
and employ 1.3 million people
• exports contribute £10.3 billion to the balance of trade;
industries account for over 5% of GDP
• in 1997– 98, output grew by 16%, compared to under 6% for
the economy as a whole
• creative industries concentrated in London and South East,
but increasing recognition across the UK
Conclusion: Exploiting the growth potential of the creative
industries depends on addressing issues such as: stimulating
creativity and innovation; facilitating greater creative and
business skills; responding to global opportunities and promoting
UK creativity abroad. At regional level, there is a need for:
further mapping to enhance sector activity and inform policy
development; and to encourage retention of creative talent in
their regions.
90
Assessment: Provides a broad overview of the creative
industries sector, looking at seven key indicators: industry
revenues, market size, balance of trade, employment, industry
structure, regional dimensions, international critical acclaim, as
well as secondary economic impact. Highlights policy
implications of sector/sub-sector profiles for national and
regional economies.
Limitations: Robustness of definition of the creative industries
contested within the sector. Some lack of comparability with
other data sets and studies. Methodology requires greater
attention and more rigorous analysis.
91
Travers Tony, The Greater London Group at The London
School of Economics, MORI, The Wyndham Report, The
Economic Impact of London's West End Theatre, The
Society of London Theatre, London, 1998
Purpose: To provide a detailed and impartial estimate of the
impact West End theatre makes on the London and UK
economies.
Country/area: Central London
Sample: Based on data from 50 plus theatres owned by and in
use by members of the Society of London Theatre (SOLT).
Method: Financial Survey Model
Box-office data drawn from Box Office Data Report; MORI
survey of West End Theatre audiences; tax estimates based on
box-office data; sales data of hotels, restaurants and other
outlets; estimates of the numbers of people working as a direct
result of the West End theatre-related expenditure, both in
theatres and in other sectors; government employment data,
and basic rates of income tax and National Insurance, 'Other
Main findings include:
• economic impact of West End Theatre on the UK economy in
1997 estimated at £1,075 million
• West End theatregoers spent £433 million on restaurants,
hotels, transport and merchandise
• West End theatre produced tax revenues of more than £200
million contributed a £225 million surplus to the UK's balance
of payments
• 41,000 jobs depend on West End theatre, 27,000 directly
and 14,000 indirectly
• the West End is one of the UK's biggest tourist and leisure
attractions, with more theatres, shows and larger audiences
than Broadway
Conclusions: Theatre in London's West End is a major economic
activity, generating private-sector expenditure and jobs in
London and indirectly, elsewhere in the UK economy. Clustering
of theatres within a small area of London is essential to its
economic success. The steady growth of the industry has failed
92
taxes' calculations were subjective estimates of such taxes as
corporation tax, customs and excise duties, business rates, fuel
tax and other levies. Employment estimates calculated by taking
direct economic impact figures and making estimates of likely
range of such expenditure directly related to employment
(generally in the range 55– 75% ). The mean of these extremes
used. Resulting total spending on employment divided by
average wages in the relevant sectors taken from the New
Earnings Survey. Indirectly – created employment estimated by
applying a multiplier of 1.5 to the direct expenditure data and
assuming consequent impacts on employment.
to keep pace with tourism growth. There is a need for greater
promotion to raise the profile of the West End. Considerable
further growth possible with appropriate encouragement.
Assessment: High-quality, astute research with appropriate and
robust methodology. Overall factually accurate conclusions
based on evidence.
Limitations: Lack of sampling information and details of
response-rates for MORI and London Tourism Board Studies
present difficulties in assessing representativeness and
therefore accuracy of derived estimates. Fuller explanations of
grossing up procedures for ancillary spend, total visitor spend
and tax revenues required. Lack of detail of how overseas
earning from productions and 'other taxes' calculated.
Comparison between world-wide box-office takings of
blockbuster films and West End musicals fails to acknowledge
that the musicals are much older than the films and therefore
films are unlikely to have reaped the financial returns which
could be expected at a comparable stage of their product life.
93
Centre for Local and Regional Economic Analysis (CLREA)
at the University of Portsmouth, The Chichester Festival
Theatre Economic Impact Study, Chichester District
Council, University of Portsmouth, Chichester, 2000
Purpose: To determine the economic impact of the Festival
Theatre on the Chichester District economy.
Country/area: The district of Chichester
Sample: Employers survey: 475 local firms; Theatre attender
survey: 500 people drawn from 46,000 box-office records of
audience for the Festival and Minerva Theatres.
Method: Financial Survey Model
First phase: interviews with theatre management, other on-site
associated activities, and statutory bodies; review of relevant
theatre literature e.g. business plans and published balance
sheets; desk research. Phase two: statistical analysis of
theatres' accounts to determine value of direct inputs made by
the theatre and its activities to the local economy; survey of
sample of local businesses within Chichester District to estimate
Main findings include:
• Chichester festival directly provides 200 FTE jobs in the local
economy
• in 1998/99, over 350,000 attendances, with 75% coming
from outside the district in Winter and 80% in the Summer
season. 65% of audience drawn from catchment area within
45 minutes drive time
• estimated income from all on-site activities between
November 1998 and 31 October 1999 approximately £7.5
million, with the bulk of income derived from box office
receipts
• estimated 'induced' additional expenditure into Chichester
£9.5 million. Of which approximately £5 million estimated
total direct expenditure into the district local economy
generated by 'out-of-district' theatregoers on local retail
outlets, hotels and catering sectors
• total impact of theatre on the Chichester economy (output
and jobs) estimated at between £7.8 and £26.6 million.
Between 1.1% and 2.5% of all FTE jobs are supported in the
94
direct expenditures by theatregoers in local businesses outside
the theatre complex. Phase three: construction of a bespoke
input-output model of the local economy, which was run to
determine the overall effect of the theatre on the local economy,
allowing multiplier effect of the theatre's activities to be
calculated.
wider economy for every one at the theatre
Conclusions: The theatre is a significant direct contributors of
expenditure to the local economy, which provides incentives for
more than 200,000 theatre visits to Chichester from people
residing outside the district. The benefits from the theatre are
concentrated in hotel and catering, social welfare and recreation
sectors.
Assessment: Clear research objectives.
Limitations: Poor-quality survey used at a critical point in the
methodology has implications for the end results. Considerable
lack of transparency on methodology, sampling, and
assumptions informing weightings, grossing up, calculation of
percentage of wages artists and crew's, etc., associated with
touring shows, and longer Summer season productions. The
majority of the out-of-district theatregoers spend figure of £2.62
million in the district last year (ie, £1.87 million in hotel and
catering) is based on the subjective estimates of replies from 20
businesses, with no cross-verification. These estimates have
95
been grossed up. Evidence base therefore questionable.
The Report does not state whether businesses are locallyowned
business so the benefits and profits of economic
transactions resulting from theatre do not necessarily stay in the
local economy but go back to business headquarters.
Welsh Economy Research Unit and DCA (Cardiff), The
Economic Impact of the Arts and Cultural Industries in
Wales, Arts Council of Wales, The Welsh Development
Agency, the Development Board for Rural Wales and S4C,
Cardiff, 1998
Purpose: To measure and analyse the economic impact of the
arts and cultural industries in Wales.
Country/area: Wales
Sample: Representative sample of 986 individuals,
organisations and firms in the arts and cultural industries.
Sample frame to reflect relative importance of sub-sector
(outputs and jobs), significance of output and spatial distribution.
Main findings: Arts and cultural industries in Wales:
• employ 28,600 people (2% of working population)
• account for approximately 16,000 FTEs
• have estimated total turnover of £836 million and spend
approximately £546 million in Wales
• account for approximately 23,000 FTEs and £1.1 billion
turnover, through direct and indirect impacts
Conclusions: Arts and cultural industries have a significant
impact on the economy of Wales. Policy shifts to enhance this
impact could increase sector prosperity and the contribution of
arts and culture to economic development in Wales.
96
Methods: Input-output Model
Questionnaires to individuals and organisations gathering data
on trading relationships. Questionnaires allocated to different
sub-sectors and regions to reflect shares of employment
(189/986 responses); sub-sectoral analysis of questionnaires,
interviews with sample of 72 individuals and organisations in
each sub-sector, multi-sectoral input-output table.
Assessment: Clear research objectives, appropriate
methodology, balanced conclusions. Fair assessment of subsector
interventions
Authors acknowledge limitations:
• in interpreting the economic multipliers used predicated on
the assumption that Welsh economy is not subject to supply
side constraints
• in comparing the analysis with other art sector studies within
and outside Wales due to different methodologies and
modelling framework
• of 'static' input-output table which does not take into account
the changing dynamics within the sector
• in comparing level of economic activity and direct impact of
the sector with GDP because GDP defined differently
Limitations: Low response rate to questionnaires. No
information on how input-output table is used to estimate
economic significance of arts and cultural industries on other
industrial sectors.
97
O' Connor, J, The Cultural Production Sector in Manchester,
Research and Strategy, Manchester City Council, North
West Arts Board in association with Manchester TEC and
Manchester Investment and Development Agency (MIDAS),
Manchester, 1998
Purpose: To identify, quantify and map the cultural production
sector in Manchester and the City Pride Area, and develop a
strategic approach to guide future interventions.
Country/area: Areas covered by former Manchester TEC Ltd
(cities of Manchester and Salford, metropolitan boroughs of
Tameside & Trafford)
Sample: 3,734 enterprises (sole practitioners and businesses)
across 12 cultural industry sub-sectors.
Method: Production Chain Model
Creation of cultural sector database; information search and
survey work to access secondary data; written questionnaire to
key industry players; postal survey of sample of enterprises on
database, followed up with telephone and personal enquiries; 10
Main findings:
• known cultural sector enterprises in Manchester TEC area
generate 18,058 direct jobs (3.56% of working population).
• direct and indirect cultural sector employment responsible for
32,505 jobs in Manchester TEC area (6.41% of working
population).
• sector accounts for 28,241 direct employments, and 50,833
indirect and direct jobs in Greater Manchester.
• estimated sector turnover from direct jobs in Greater
Manchester is £627 million per annum
• sub-sector employment strengths in film/media, authorship
and architecture
• large enterprises (> 50 workers) dominate the sector,
followed by sole practitioners and SMEs
Conclusion: Manchester has potential to be England's second
cultural city, with relevant infrastructure and cultural capital in
place, but a number of specific weaknesses. A broad coalition of
industry producers, education and policymakers should be built
98
sub-sector based discussion groups (some broken down to
facilitate discussion); quantitative and qualitative analysis of
extent and distribution of sector/sub-sector employment,
enterprise size, sub-sector characteristics and dynamics;
industry needs analysis; model building to review research/
theoretical material and set in strategic context; small key player
session and one-day seminar involving workshop discussion to
outline findings and gain sector feedback.
around a strategic orientation to the sector.
Assessment: Presents model for understanding sector
dynamics and informing strategic interventions, guided by the
experience and practice of the sector and grounded in
contemporary cultural theory debates. Use of innovative
methodology which attempts to address limitations of SIC/SOC
codes. Generally good transparency of research methods.
Limitations: Lack of information on: process and value of subsector
weightings and margin of associated error, multipliers
used and basis of usage. Precise details of the process for
extrapolating employment estimates from Manchester TEC area
to Greater Manchester, not provided.
Lack of employment and enterprise data from other sources to
contextualise decisions informing weightings/extrapolations from
sample to sub-sectors.
Lack of details of process for calculating sector turnover.
Bretton Hall, Cultural Industries Key Data, The Cultural
Industries in Yorkshire and the Humber, Leeds, 2000
Among the key findings are:
• total workforce is 100,530, of which 58,200 are full-time,
99
Purpose: To analyse the cultural industries sector in Yorkshire
and the Humber to assist those working in the field.
Country/area: Yorkshire and the Humber
Sample: Representative sample of 25% of total cultural
industries database (3,075 enterprises).
Methods: Sector Mapping Model
Construction of database of 12,300 cultural industry enterprises
from secondary data sources and personal contacts, postal
survey questionnaire piloted to ensure it met sector needs and
sent to a representative sample of 3075 enterprises on
database. Response rate represented 4.1% of original eligible
database (Total database minus 5% of enterprises for which a
sub-sector ascription was not possible). Survey analysed using
Snap-4 software.
19,400 part-time, 14,330 freelance and self-employed, 8,600
voluntary workers
• music and combined arts are the largest sub-sectors, each
comprising 10.4% of total number of enterprises
• 9.4% of enterprises have less than 50 employees
• majority of enterprises were formed in the 1990s
• biggest concentrations of enterprises are in Leeds (16.1%)
and Sheffield (19.6%).
• turnover of cultural industries (exc. education and training) is
£3.8 billion – 3.3% of the combined turnover of all enterprises
in the region.
Conclusions: Report makes available for the first time
consistent, systematic and verifiable information to help realise
effective regional policy through direct action and advocacy.
Assessment: High-quality Report based on transparent and
robust methodology. Presents detailed picture of cultural
industries, their strengths, characteristics, key training needs
and barriers to training.
100
Robust sample for sector-wide analysis.
Limitations: Possible sample weaknesses when disaggregated
to sub-sectoral level. Does not provide explanations for some of
its assumptions and analytical processes eg, work patterns of
voluntary workers, ascription of enterprises to sub-sector
descriptors.
101
Section Seven
7 Conclusion
7.1 Supporting social and economic development
The Review has shown how interest in, and recognition of, the impact and
value of arts and cultural activity has grown since the early 1980s. Its impetus
has come from a number of factors: efforts on the part of local authorities and
regeneration agencies to find solutions to economic restructuring and the
decline of traditional manufacturing industries, from a recognition of the
creative and knowledge industries as rapidly expanding sectors of the
economy, from the government's commitment to exploring innovative
solutions for neighbourhood renewal and addressing social exclusion, and the
imperatives of its modernising agenda, demanding greater efficiency and
accountability in public services. The sector itself has embraced economic
and more recently, social rationales for its activity, alongside aesthetic and
cultural rationale, in order to argue for increased recognition of the
contribution of arts and creativity to wider social and economic well-being, and
for increased public investment in the face of competing public policy
priorities.
7.2 Building the evidence base
There has been a growing body of research and studies which have claimed
to demonstrate the positive economic and social benefits of arts interventions,
alongside a wealth of anecdotal evidence. There have also been vigorous
debates about the feasibility and efficacy of measuring the impact of arts
activity. There is currently a lack of consensus across the sector about the
priorities for a future arts impact research agenda, but a number of consistent
themes have emerged from the literature and such debate, including:
102
• agreement around the need for common definitions and concepts to
underpin measurement of arts outcomes and consistency in their use
• the need for systematic evaluation and more robust methodologies and
evidence
• to embrace a multi-value approach to impact/outcome measurement which
recognises both quantitative data, qualitative description and narrative
• the need to establish the relationship between intermediate and strategic
outcomes accruing from projects
• some degree of standardisation of methodologies to enable comparison
between different levels of intervention, and between different scales of
organisations and initiatives, but which allows flexibility to address specific
contexts, sector/sub-sector needs and priorities, and target groups
• the need for more in-depth evaluations, case studies and documentation
to increase understanding about project processes, factors influencing
successful outcomes and best practice
• and the need for longitudinal research to assess both the sustainability of
interventions and of outcomes.
Although work in this field is still in its infancy, existing research indicates that
the foundations and tools for a more robust analysis are available, and that
there is scope for the development of a national framework for arts impact
research which builds on the methodological strengths and practical
experiences of the best of these studies.
7.3 Research needs and future arts impact agenda
The Review highlights the range of approaches and methods that have been
used and criticisms which can be levelled at existing studies. These include:
lack of conceptual clarity and narrow conceptualisations of social and
economic impact, the use of small samples, the reliance on self-reports with
little corroborating evidence of impacts, over reliance on official statistics
which presents a partial picture of the arts and creative industries, lack of
methodological transparency, especially with regard to sampling frames and
methods, sample representativeness, survey response-rates, procedures for
103
applying weightings, multipliers and extrapolating findings, lack of a common
framework of research principles, assessment processes and standards for
evaluation and impact assessment; simplistic and naïve explanations for
attributing positive outcomes to arts projects, which fail to acknowledge the
often complex issues associated with changing the perceptions and behaviour
of individuals and communities, their skills, social networks, economic status
and quality of life; and overclaiming in conclusions and recommendations
through unfair comparisons of the impacts of products at different stages of
their product life cycle, or cultural economies at different stages of maturation.
In some cases, there is a lack of baseline data which makes it difficult to
assess the extent to which outcomes are accrued from projects or
interventions. There is also some evidence from the Review that where
composite methodologies are used, the strengths of some methods have
been undermined by the weakness of others, with a detrimental impact on the
overall quality of evidence. While it has been of great value to test out a range
of different methodologies during this early period of arts impact research,
there is a need now to focus greater attention on perhaps a more limited
range of methods which appear to offer the best opportunities for gaining
meaningful and robust data. This is not to suggest a mode of 'one-size-fits-all',
but rather to argue for a more critical appraisal of research methods and
scoping to develop high-quality research strategies and evaluation
frameworks.
Further work is also required to develop and test methods which can more
accurately reflect the characteristics of production and assess the impact of
key drivers such as skills, technology, etc. ,which may change and affect
productivity within the creative industries sector, and to develop local
multipliers for the sector.
In devising research methods for evaluating the impacts and outcomes of
projects or initiatives, research tools and instruments must be engaging and
designed with a clear idea of the proposed end user in mind. They must be
able to be practically implemented and appropriate to the individuals or
104
groups concerned, otherwise there is a risk that the tools themselves will
undermine the process of evidence gathering.
Use of clear language, understandable terms and concepts, and ensuring that
the level of information required is appropriate to the time and level of support
available to respondents, will greatly enhance the quality of resultant data.
Further, there is some evidence of sample inflation due to higher estimates
being quoted without clear indications being given that this is the case. Even
where samples appear to be representative at sectoral level, there is a
tendency for research data to break down when disaggregated to the level of
sub-sectors.
Although there have been initial explorations into longitudinal research, there
is a real need for further work in this area. There are further issues concerning
to what extent the impacts of short-term arts and cultural interventions are
sustained over a longer period, and how can conceptualisations of social
impact recognise the different rates of maturation of impacts, within different
projects? Establishing additionality and the relative effectiveness of different
interventions and services are also areas warranting further exploration. The
main body of studies of social impact have focused on community-based arts
practice and participative activities and there has been no research to date
comparing the outcomes of community-arts projects against other arts
interventions, or which has attempted, through the use of control groups) to
explore social outcomes where there are no arts interventions. It is also
significant that there have been no attempts to test the impacts produced by
arts projects or programmes against other types of interventions, both in or
outside the sector. At the same time, there is policy interest in exploring ways
of establishing the cost-effectiveness of projects in relation to their objectives.
Many of these issues are acknowledged within the sector. Work is underway
to address ways of improving the quality and responsiveness of data vital to
the assessment of the impact of the art and creative industries and to
strengthen impact methodologies and evaluation practice, through case-study
105
pilots, dissemination of research findings and sharing of knowledge and best
practice across the sector. It is hoped that this Review will make a useful
contribution towards ongoing debates and research in the sector, which will
lead to the development of a more robust evidence-base and research
methodologies which are fit for purpose and therefore widely accepted and
owned.
106
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107
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Websites
Americans for the Art, Arts Programs for At-Risk Youth
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Centre for Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine (CAHMM)
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Comedia
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Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions
www.detlr.gov.uk
Forum on Creative Industries
www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/sis/foci/welcome1.html
Health Development Agency (HDA)
www.hda-online.org.uk
Local Government Association
www.lga.gov.uk
National Network for the Arts in Health
www.nnah.org.uk
The Quality, Efficiency and Standards Team (QUEST)
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The Arts Council of England
www.artscouncil.org.uk
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
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World Bank
www.worldbank.org.htm
117
Notes to Appendices
A selection of existing frameworks and indicators for measuring performance
and impact are reproduced in Appendix 2. They are offered to assist
individuals and organisations working in this field in developing their own
evaluation and impact assessment frameworks and measures. This list should
not be seen as definitive.
118
Appendix 1 Quality assessment criteria for research design and
methodology
ACE draft standards NFER guidelines
Quantitative research Quantitative
research
Qualitative
research
Information standards Information
standards
Information
standards
• research methodology:
– research objectives
– questions asked
– sample size (intended and
achieved)
– response rate (intended and
achieved)
– time-scale
– geographical location
– use of incentives
– interviewers and researchers used
• sampling information: whether
random/non-random, describe
research population
• confidence levels and confidence
intervals (where appropriate)
• how totals are calculated such as
cumulative percentages or other
statistical reporting techniques if
used
• standardisation of classifications:
ensure comparability of data
• procedures to present disclosure
of confidential information
• adequacy of
information:
– design
– sample
– programme/ini
tiative
– research
method
– analysis
– response-rate
– size of sub-
samples
– number of
drop outs over
time
– total on which
% are based
• sources of
information:
eg, self-
reported
behaviour,
observation,
second-hand
accounts, etc.
– how and from
whom info.
Obtained
– questions
asked
– corroborative
evidence from
other sources
• research
questions
addressed
• data collection
methods
• quality of
methods used
• strategies to
minimise bias
119
Analysis standards Analysis
standards
Analysis
standards
• data capture checks
• base sizes: details of sample
bases on which means, % are
calculated
• statistical significance
• data weighting/grossing up:
method and effect on data quality
• form of average: mean, median or
mode
• non-response: indicate possible
biases and procedures to
minimise non-response
• partial response: method used to
address this and affect on
variables
• appropriatene
ss of
methodology
• adequacy of
analysis
• whether
claims are
based on
evidence
• are
correlations
treated as
evidence of
causation
• consideration
of other
explanations
• quality of
evidence
• interpretations
supported by
evidence
Source: Hutton (2001); Sharp and Benefield (2001)
120
Appendix 2
Performance and impact measurement – indicators and other tools
1 Matarasso (1997) – list of 50 social impacts identified through Comedia's
study of participative arts programmes
• increase people’s confidence and
sense of self-worth
• extend involvement in social
activity
• give people influence over how
they are seen by others
• stimulate interest and confidence
in the arts
• provide a forum to explore
personal rights and responsibilities
• contribute to the educational
development of children
• encourage adults to take up
education and training
opportunities
• help build new skills and work
experience
• contribute to people’s
employability
• help people take up or develop
careers in the arts
• reduce isolation by helping people
to make friends
• develop community networks and
sociability
• promote tolerance and contribute
to conflict resolution
• facilitate the development of
partnership
• build support for community
projects
• strengthen community cooperation
and networking
• develop pride in local traditions
and cultures
• help people feel a sense of
belonging and involvement
• create community traditions in
new towns or neighbourhoods
• involve residents in environmental
improvements
• provide reasons for people to
develop community activities
• improve perceptions of
marginalised groups
• help transform the image of public
bodies
• make people feel better about
where they live
• help people develop their
creativity
• erode the distinction between
consumer and creator
• allow people to explore their
121
• provide a forum for intercultural
understanding and friendship
• help validate the contribution of a
whole community
• promote intercultural contact and
cooperation
• develop contact between the
generations
• help offenders and victims
address issues of crime
• provide a route to rehabilitation
and integration for offenders
• build community organisational
capacity
• encourage local self-reliance and
project management
• help people extend control over
their lives
• be a means of gaining insight into
political and social ideas
• facilitate effective public
consultation and participation
• help involve local people in the
regeneration process
values, meanings and dreams
• enrich the practice of
professionals in the public and
voluntary sectors
• transform the responsiveness of
public service organisations
• encourage people to accept risk
positively
• help community groups raise their
vision beyond the immediate
• challenge conventional service
delivery
• raise expectations about what is
possible and desirable
• have a positive impact on how
people feel
• be an effective means of health
education
• contribute to a more relaxed
atmosphere in health centres
• help improve the quality of life of
people with poor health
• provide a unique and deep source
of enjoyment
Source: Matarasso, 1997
122
2 Williams (1997) – key outcome areas for the arts in community cultural
development
Outcome areas Indicators
Building and developing communities Stronger sense of community identity
A decrease in people experiencing
social isolation
Improved recreational options for
community
Development of local or community
enterprises
Improvements to, and increased use
of, public facilities
Increasing social capital Improved levels of communication in
community
Improved levels of community
planning and organisation
Greater tolerance of different cultures
or lifestyles
Improved standards of consultation
between government and community
Increased appreciation of community
culture
Activating social change Increased community awareness of
an issue
Community action to resolve a social
issue
Greater tolerance of different cultures
or lifestyles
Increased in local or community
employment options
Increased levels of public safety
123
Developing human capital Improved communication skills
Improved ability to plan and organise
Improved problem solving abilities
Improved ability to collect, sort and
analyse information
Improved creative ability
Improving economic performance Cost-savings in public services or
programs (sic)
Increase in local or community
employment options
Improved standards of consultation
between government and community
Development of local or community
enterprises
Increased business investment in
community cultural development
Increased resources attracted into
community and spent locally
Source: Williams (1996), quoted in Williams (1997)
3 Institute for Employment Studies (2000) guidance for recording 'soft'
outcomes and 'distance travelled' by beneficiaries of projects funded under
ESF Objective 3 programmes
Types of 'soft' outcomes Examples of indicators
The acquisition of skills – team
working, problem solving, numeracy
skills, information technology
No. of work placements
The acquisition of language and
communication skills
Completion of work placements
Key work skills
Lower rates of sickness related
absence
124
Increased levels of motivation
Increased levels of confidence
Recognition of prior skills
Increased feelings of responsibility
Increased levels of self-esteem
Attitudinal skills
Higher personal and careers
aspirations
Improved personal
appearance/presentability
Improved levels of attendance
Improved timekeeping
Improved personal hygiene
Greater levels of self-awareness
Better health and fitness
Personal skills
Greater levels of concentration and
/or engagement
Ability to complete forms
Ability to write a CV
Improved ability to manage money
Practical skills
Improved awareness of rights and
responsibilities
Source: IES, reported in Dewson et al (2000), Guide to Measuring Soft
Outcomes and Distance Travelled, IES, DFEE
4 QUEST's (2000) – Key Performance Indicators
Objective Key performance indicator (KPI)
To sustain and develop quality,
innovation and good design; create
an efficient and competitive market
and promote Britain's success in the
fields of culture, media and sport at
home and abroad
• Profile of income sources
(numeric)
125
Broaden access for all to a rich and
varied cultural and sporting life and to
our distinctive built environment; and
encourage conservation of the best of
the past
• Visitors profile (numeric/survey)
• Visitor sense of reward/quality of
experience (numeric/survey)
Develop the educational potential of
all the nation's cultural and sporting
resources; raise standards of cultural
education and training; ensure an
adequate skills supply for the creative
industries and tourism
• Numbers receiving funded
educational programmes
(numeric)
• Schemes reaching stated
outcomes (numeric) all split by
educational audiences
• Quality of academic research
(Following HEFCE guidelines)
• Links with education and training
institutions (narrative)
Ensure that everyone has the
opportunity to develop talent and to
achieve excellence in the areas of
culture, media and sport
• Number of participants by
demographic (numeric/survey)
• Profile of grants showing new
grants, exiting grants and grants
terminated (numeric)
• Performance against external
quality benchmarks (narrative)
Maintain public support for the
National Lottery and ensure that the
money raised for good causes
supports DCMS's and other national
priorities
• N/A
Promote the role of the Department's
sector in urban and rural
regeneration, in pursuing
sustainability and in combating social
exclusion
• DCMS/match funding for
regeneration and social inclusion
(numeric)
• Change in satisfaction with the
physical environment in relation to
specific projects (numeric/survey)
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• Profile of spend on new and
existing facilities (numeric)
• Social inclusion schemes meeting
stated outcomes (numeric)
Source: Quest, 2000
5 DETR (2000) – framework and menu of 29 local indicators of sustainable
development
Characteristics of a sustainable
society
Local quality of life indicators in
the menu
Protect and enhance the
environment
Environment
• Use energy, water and other
natural resources efficiently and
with care
• Minimise waste, then re-use or
recover it through recycling,
composting or energy recovery
and finally dispose of what is left
Prudent use of resources
• Energy use (gas and electricity)
(1)
• Domestic water use (2)
• Household waste arisings (3)
• Recycling of household waste (4)
• Limit pollution to levels which do
not damage natural systems
• Value and protect the diversity of
nature
Protection of the environment
• Number of days of air pollution (5)
• Rivers of good or fair quality (6)
• Net change in natural/semi-natural
habitats (7)
• Changes in population of selected
characteristic species (8)
Meet social needs Social
• Protect human health and
amenity through safe, clean,
pleasant environments
Better health and education for all
• Mortality by cause (9)
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• Emphasise health service
prevention action as well as care
• Maximise everyone's access to
the skills and knowledge needed
to play a full part in society
• Qualifications of young people
(10)
• Adult education (11)
Ensure access to good food, water,
housing and fuel at a reasonable
cost
Encourage necessary access to
facilities, services, goods and other
people in ways which make less use
of the cat and minimise impacts on
the environment
Make opportunities for culture,
leisure and recreation readily
available to all
Meet local needs locally wherever
possible
• Access to local services and
travel
• Homes judged unfit to live in (12)
• Homelessness (13)
• Access to key services (14)
• Travel to work (15)
• How do school children travel to
school? (16)
• Overall traffic volumes (17)
• Creative or enhance places,
spaces and buildings that work
well, wear well and look well
• Make settlements 'human' in
scale and form
• Value and protect diversity and
local distinctiveness and
strengthen local community and
cultural identity
Shaping our surroundings
• New homes built on previously
developed land (18)
• Public concern over noise (19)
• Recorded crime per 1,000
population (20)
• Fear of crime (21)
Empower all sections of the
community to participate in decision
making and consider the social and
Empowerment and participation
• Social participation (22)
• Community well-being (23)
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community impacts of decisions • Tenant satisfaction/participation
(24)
Promote economic success Economic
• Create a vibrant local economy
that gives access to satisfying and
rewarding work without damaging
the local, national or global
environment
• Value unpaid work
Sustainable local economy
• Employment/unemployment (25)
• Benefit recipients (26)
• Business start-ups and closures
(27)
• Companies with environment
management systems (28)
• Social and community enterprises
(29)
Source: DETR Local quality of life counts – in a nutshell, A summary of a
menu of local indicators of sustainable development, available online at
www.detr.gov.uk/environment/sustainable/localind/nutshell/index.htm
6 Health Development Agency (2000) – impact of work identified by arts
projects in survey of community-based arts projects which impact on health
and well-being
A literature review and expert advice from an advisory panel of experienced
practitioners enabled the Health Development Agency to identify the following
criteria:
• Congenial atmosphere:
demonstrating comfort,
congeniality, improved
conversation, etc
• sustainability beyond ‘catalytic
individuals’ or ‘individual
champions’
• organic connection with participants • clear mission
statement/vision/agenda
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• cross-sectoral working • improved education
• improved physical/social
environment
• reflective practice
• ‘valued’, rather than ‘value for
money’ projects
• ongoing aims/aspirations
• high-profile and impact artwork • distinctive contribution
• health economic infrastructure
Health and well-being • support to vulnerable individuals/groups
• health education
• pleasure – quality of life
Social cohesion • promotion of neighbourhood security
• rehabilitation of offenders
• intergenerational contact
• increased friendship
• increased contact with other cultures
Community
empowerment/self-
determination
• building organisational skills/capacity
• transferable organisational skills
• control over lives
• regeneration: partnership between
residents/public agencies
• local democracy
• increased sense of individuals’ rights
• individuals with keen involvement in the future
Local image/identity • development of local identity/sense of belonging
• affirmed pride/image of marginalised groups
• involved community in environmental
improvements
• changed perception of public agencies/local
authorities
• people feeling more positive about where they
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live
• people keen to help on local projects
Changed perspective • participants felt more creative and confident
• participants/professionals tried new
things/changed their ideas
• art impacted on professional work practice
• professionals became more responsive to
community’s views/interests
• professionals became more prepared for risk-
taking
Opinion was also sought from projects about their perceived impact on areas
such as quality of life, local involvement, personal development and creation
of public art. Categories identified are reproduced in the table below:Making
life better • increased take-up of health/social services
• reduced take-up of health/social services
elsewhere
• reduction of visits to GP
• improved dialogue with healthcare practitioners
• reduced waiting lists
• reduction in prescriptions
• reduced area transfers/relocation
• reduced expenditure on vandalism
• pain reduction
• increased individual happiness (friendships, etc)
• lifestyle change (smoking, diet, etc)
• stress reduction
• increased employment
• increased literacy
• increased assertiveness
• improved environments
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Local involvement • numbers involved in planning
• involvement of all sections of community
• people making new friends
• use of play areas/new public space
• reduced crime or fear of crime
Personal development • increased confidence
• involvement with other community activities
• sought new skills
• sought personal development via training
• developed language/creative/social skills
• employment
Creation of public art • increased number of art objects in area
• positive peer assessment response – or just
any response
• reduced vandalism to artwork
• increased number of temporary arts
activities/workshops
• involvement of participants beyond local area
Source: HDA, 2000, reproduced in Jermyn, 2001
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