Letters – Qualifying research

From Professor Chris Bailey, Chair of the Centre for Cultural Policy and Management, Northumbria University
Graeme Evans is, of course, right when he argues that we need a better understanding of what impact culture has, who it affects and for how long (ArtsProfessional, issue 83, October 4). He is wrong, though, to say that there is no longitudinal research into the issues. At the fifth Arts Research Seminar, held at Northumbria University last April, fifty research professionals discussed the demand for longitudinal research and how it is being designed and used. As the subsequent report noted (Arts Research Digest, Summer 2004 issue) research of this sort can be costly and can suffer from the burden of expectation borne by the relatively small number of projects underway in the cultural sector. Commissioning agencies may not always be as disinterested as were Gateshead Council when they first suggested a ten-year longitudinal study of the impact of the new arts buildings (BALTIC and The Sage Gateshead) on their Quayside. Three years in, this project has the backing of a wide range of partners including Newcastle City Council, Culture North East and Arts Council England. Patience is a cardinal virtue when it comes to this sort of research. Even after three rounds of surveys, correlations are suggestive rather than definitive, so results can only be tentative. The real power of longitudinal research in culture will only become clear when we are able to link cultural activity to the massive longitudinal data sets on population, health and education that are already collected as a matter of course.