City of Culture creates extra £1bn investment in local economies of winners
The UK City of Culture (UK CoC) initiative has resulted in more than £1bn of additional investment in the local economies of winn…
Posts
New research highlights economic and ‘spillover’ impact of subsidised arts
The wider arts and culture sector contributed £19.1 billion of Gross Value Added (GVA) to the economy in 2023, with £1.35 billio…
Strategic funding partnerships: Imagining different futures
At a time of overlapping crises, the need for bold, imaginative responses has never been greater. Here Patrick Fox from Heart of G…
WNO programme ‘helps manage persistent pain’
A Welsh National Opera (WNO) wellness programme has been successful in helping people manage persistent pain symptoms, a study has…
Heritage-led regeneration ‘can revitalise high streets’
A government-backed initiative to regenerate high streets through community engagement and cultural events provided an economic bo…
RSC to train teachers in ‘rehearsal room’ techniques to boost pupil outcomes
A new research programme led by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) wi…
Music in curriculum leading to pupil benefits
A musician-in-residence scheme in a Nottinghamshire primary school has improved pupils’ concentration and behaviour, and crea…
Money makes the world go around but art gives life shape
It’s time the Knowledge Exchange Framework gave credit where credit is due and admitted that art is doing its part, says Dr Mich…
Don’t underestimate culture in suburban towns
As a report published this week shows, the cultural sector is not a financial drain, it’s a driver of growth and opportunity, wr…
Heritage sector’s economic impact ‘difficult to quantify’
A DCMS-commissioned report has recommended a new methodology for assessing the economic value of the heritage sector after a curre…
Illuminate audience data reporting suspended for a further year
Arts Council England (ACE) says it wants to make improvements to the Illuminate software platform to make it 'straightforward&…
Data used to measure degree value is ‘unfair’ to arts graduates
A report examining the value of creative graduates has called for the government to overhaul the metrics it uses to analyse higher…
Croydon: ‘Culture is now firmly on the agenda’
Stephanie Wilson and Honey Gabriel reflect on Croydon's year as London Borough of Culture 2023 and look ahead to the borough&r…
Fail, fail again, fail better
Failure is part of life. We all know this, creative folk perhaps better than most, says Katie Villa. But how can we learn to…
Creating space for collective learning
Evaluation reports in the cultural sector can be packed full of learning. Emma McDowell explores how we might unearth this existin…
Joining the dots for better cultural policy
As Anna Kime begins working with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, she explores how integrated data and evaluation can aid decisi…
ACE: Sharing concerns won’t harm NPO funding chances
In last week’s edition of Arts Professional, a group of Chief Executives of National Portfolio Organisations expressed their…
Has beauty become a dirty word?
Artist Sarah Hunter, physicist Rox Middleton and philosopher Lucy Tomlinson spotlight what they learnt from spending a year explor…
Sector support charities merge after loss of ACE funding
The Audience Agency and Culture24, who were both part of ACE's National Portfolio until they lost funding in April this year,…
What’s the value of digital arts and culture?
If we can find a shared language and inclusive approach to evaluating digital arts and culture, we can tell a better story about t…
EXCLUSIVE: ACE drops reporting requirements over data platform glitches
Amid sector concerns about new data platform Illuminate, Arts Council England says NPOs will not need to provide box office or aud…
Making evaluation valuable
As the Centre for Cultural Value launches a free online evaluation course, Dawn Cameron explains how evaluation can help organisat…
Projects receive £3.1m to measure value of culture
Six projects that aim to evaluate the value of culture and heritage to society have been announced as part of the Department for C…
Cultural encounters of the empathic kind
Driven by funder requirements and sector expectations, evaluation can feel top-down. Stephen Welsh argues for a more people-centre…
