Making the Case for the Arts beyond the Economic

Making the case:Fitrovia's flyer for Edinburgh Art Festival www.fitzrovianoir.com

The Edinburgh Festivals Impact Study published this week charts new territory in articulating, evidencing and advocating for the value of the Edinburgh Festivals. Moving well beyond bednights, a measure essential for Failte Ireland’s  Festivals and Events Strategy, the study looks at social, environmental annd sustainability measures as well as the economic.

The study resonates with several of the conference sessions:

Food for thought for our cultural tourism session, looking at the impacts of the Festivals in terms of the overnight visitors and the local.

Julie’s Bicycle have measured the environmental impacts

and the study’s search for a meaningful way of measuring the non-economic is grist to the mill of John Knell and his session on Revaluing the Arts

More on the Study

Cultural and civic leaders first began articulation and evidencing the impact of major investment in culture with John Mysercough’s pioneering study on the economic impact of Glasgow’s 1990 City of Culture programme. Until that point, the arts were largely funded because they were the arts but an increased recognition of their role in delivering other social and economic objectives led to new investment in return for impacts in these areas. Over the last 30 years most of the Western world has largely valued financial growth above all so its not surprising that we have created a highly developed niche service industry which weighs and measures economic impact  with increasing refinement.

But the Edinburgh Festivals Forum has recognised the limitations of measuring only the economics.  After the collapse of the banks, society has moved beyond financial monotheism and returned to valuing our non-material journeys and actions as individuals and communities.  In that context, a contemporary cultural impact study should, as this one does, involve looking for impacts of positive individual learning, enlightenment and learning, and social development. And, in the context of the twin challenges of climate change and shrinking public expenditure, the study identifies that impact will need to be evidenced through the lenses of environmental impacts and financial sustainability, a concept the authors BOP link closely with the Festivals’ diversity of income streams.

MORE.. (link to my blog)