Understanding the Value of Arts and Culture. Grand Gestures feature in new report

The individual experience at the heart of cultural value

This is claimed to be 'the most in-depth attempt yet to understand the difference made by arts and culture and  I am delighted that Grand Gestures are a  part of it with lots of references to our somatic ethnography with Dr. Trish Winter.

This new report  -Understanding the value of arts and culture by Professor Geoffrey Crossick and Dr Patrycja Kaszynska presents how we think about the value of the arts and culture to individuals and society, and the methodologies we can use for capturing cultural value.

Professor Crossick states: “In recent years debate about cultural value has not grasped the range of the ways in which people engage with arts and culture. The Project broadens the scope of the discussion on cultural value to include alongside the subsidised cultural sectors the commercial sector, and amateur and participatory arts and culture, which are how most people engage. It also emphasises the way they are part of a single ecology.”

What emerges from the project is the need to make first-hand, individual experience of arts and culture central to our understanding of their value. To fully appreciate the impact of culture on the economy, on cities or on health we must start with understanding the individual experience, whether this is in helping people to become more reflective about themselves and others or more imaginative and innovative as members of society. So many other benefits flow from that.

Read more on the Arts Humanities Research Council website.