The economic benefits of culture
The Arts Council is developing a programme of research to explore how publicly funded cultural provision relates to the creative economy and the wider economy. Current projects within this theme are:
- developing guidance for measuring the economic footprint of cultural organisations and events
- research into career paths between the subsidised arts and culture sector and commercial creative industries
Future projects within this theme will consider the economic contribution of cultural organisations at the local level, including links between publicly funded organisations and the wider creative economy, and will aim to assess how public money can be invested in different ways to maximise this contribution.
If you have any questions about any of our work relating to the economic benefit of culture please contact Rachel Smithies: Senior Officer, Research and Knowledge.
Economic contribution
This project builds upon previous Arts Council research to investigate the most useful and appropriate ways to measure and understand the economic contribution of the arts, museums and libraries, in particular to:
- understand what are the most relevant and effective ways of measuring the economic contribution of these sectors
- use this intelligence to help organisations to measure their economic contribution more effectively
We are currently reviewing existing literature on the benefits and challenges of various measurement approaches, with the intention of producing guidance for the sectors on the available methodologies and their appropriate use.
Career paths between the subsidised arts and cultural sectors and commercial creative industries
This project is a research partnership with Creative and Cultural Skills and NESTA. It seeks to explore one potential way in which the subsidised cultural sector is of NESTA value to the commercial creative industries: through the flow of talent between these sectors.
