If the arts are to earn more space in the public eye then academia needs to be courted, argues Deborah Bull.
I’ve been an avid listener to BBC radio news for most of my adult life but it was only when I joined King’s College London after 30 years in the performing arts that I noticed how much of its content is, in fact, the findings of academic research.
As my ears became attuned to a different set of reference points, I realised that, between the news summaries and the bouts of politician-grilling, stories that began “researchers have found” and “new evidence shows” were all, by and large, a journalist’s take on academic publications.
Of the £3bn the UK invests each year in its seven research councils, the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) receives about £100m – a fraction of the funds that science, engineering or medicine have to spend on the generation of new knowledge. If research outcomes really do make up so much of the news agenda, perhaps it’s not surprising that arts and culture so rarely make the headlines... Keep reading on The Financial Times
I’ve been an avid listener to BBC radio news for most of my adult life but it was only when I joined King’s College London after 30 years in the performing arts that I noticed how much of its content is, in fact, the findings of academic research.
As my ears became attuned to a different set of reference points, I realised that, between the news summaries and the bouts of politician-grilling, stories that began “researchers have found” and “new evidence shows” were all, by and large, a journalist’s take on academic publications.
Of the £3bn the UK invests each year in its seven research councils, the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) receives about £100m – a fraction of the funds that science, engineering or medicine have to spend on the generation of new knowledge. If research outcomes really do make up so much of the news agenda, perhaps it’s not surprising that arts and culture so rarely make the headlines... Keep reading on The Financial Times