Review by Phyllida Shaw, freelance researcher and writer specialising in arts policy
(Arts Council England, 2002, ISBN 0-7287-0873-6, £10.00* or free at http://www.artscouncil.org.uk)
Whether you are an advocate or a sceptic on the subject of the social and economic importance of the arts, this report from Arts Council England makes a significant contribution to the debate. Its author, Michelle Reeves, surveys and provides an incisive commentary on the methods used by different researchers to assess the impact of the arts and on their conclusions. As a result, this is more than a historical record. It could also be used to inform the design of methodologies for the conduct of future studies.
Reeves? starting point is 1988 ? the year the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) published a series of reports by John Myerscough on the economic importance of the arts. The PSI reports set the impact studies ball rolling in Britain. A decade later, a change in government shifted the focus to social impacts and then to social inclusion and introduced a new vocabulary to describe what can happen as a result of participating in the arts. Reeves provides definitions and dozens of illustrations of different methodologies (often in easily accessible, tabular form) and concludes (in an appendix) with a collection of indicators and outcomes drawn from different sources.
These include Matarasso?s social impacts from ?Use or Ornament??; the Institute for Employment Studies? guide to ?soft outcomes and distance travelled? as a result of projects supported by the European Social Fund; and indicators produced by the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions, QUEST and the Health Development Agency.
Reeves acknowledges the disagreements about the feasibility of producing meaningful measurements of the impact of arts activity, but she also draws out points of agreement and is hopeful that the lessons learned might eventually result in the development of a nationally accepted methodological framework for impact studies in the arts.
*For further information and invoicing, contact SAM?s Books, see Directory p4.