Centre for Cultural Value

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The UK's arts & cultural sector is thriving: it contributes 674,000 jobs and £11.8bn per annum to the economy and remains one of its fastest growing sectors (DCMS, 2018). Yet despite this strong economic performance and its world-leading reputation for quality, the sector consistently fails to comprehend, capture and convey its values in a compelling way. This is partly because it suffers from structural problems including a lack of diversity, skills gaps (especially in data analysis & digital engagement), poor research & evaluation skills, and significant under-investment in training and R&D. These issues hinder its innovation and resilience and compromise its ability to make a coherent and compelling case for investment to key stakeholders, including private donors, corporate sponsors and HM Treasury, and to cognate sectors such as health & education. So we will dedicate resources to training/developing sector practitioners and students (FE/HE/PGR) in key areas of need including data analysis, audience/participant research, research-driven evaluation and storytelling.This proposal has been conceived by a genuinely national consortium comprising world-leading universities & sector partners. These partnerships will enable the Centre to quickly tap into existing networks and gain ready access to different types & sizes of arts/cultural organisations from all over the UK. The Centre will be delivered in a collaborative way that draws on the complementary expertise of its core & affiliate members and harnesses this in a strategic way to maximise the potential of its activities. Based partly on the findings of the Cultural Value Project, the Centre's priority themes will comprise: diversity & inequality, public impact, health & wellbeing, place-making, culture-led regeneration, civic engagement, cultural democracy, co-creation & participation. These themes will be prioritized in our calls for £200k seed funding and reflected in our events. The aim of the events is to stimulate fresh thinking on key themes related to cultural value & engagement and communicate this beyond the sector. The Centre will deliver the following 20 knowledge exchange events over 5 years:1. Scoping Event 1 (Creative workshop, Opera North/DARE, Leeds)2. Scoping Event 2 (Open Space event, British Library, London)3. Launch (Leeds Town Hall)4. Arts impact evaluation (Creative workshop, U. of Liverpool)5. Cultural & economic value (Symposium, Cardiff University)6. Arts, wellbeing & health policy (Colloquium, U. of Leeds)7. Cultures of participation & co-production (Creative workshop, QMU, Edinburgh)8. Diversity Forum (Coventry 2021)9. Audience research & empirical aesthetics (Participatory Action Research event, UCL)10. Cultures of fandom (Symposium, U. of Bristol)11. Creative industries, innovation & the creative economy (Symposium, U. of York)12. Place-making, culture-led regeneration & evaluation (Symposium, U. of Hull)13. Barriers to cultural engagement (Open Space event, U. of Sheffield)14. Arts & education policy (Creative workshop, National Theatre/British Library, London)15. Processes of cultural value (Creative workshop, Eden Court/U. of Highlands & Islands, Inverness)16. Cultural taste & class (Symposium, U. of Warwick)17. Arts and conflict resolution (Symposium, Queens University Belfast)18. Festival & storytelling symposium (Opera North/Leeds 2023, Leeds) 19. Conference on Cultural Value and Engagement (UoL)20. Evaluation & legacy planning roundtable (UoL)These events will be supported by our website, which will encourage and facilitate engagement & debate between and beyond the events. Outcomes will be captured via regular research digests & blogs. In order to remain open to stakeholders' input and responsive to emerging issues, the Centre will earmark additional funding to support & partner fringe events that arise during the scoping events and over the lifecycle of the Centre.