Museum policy  

Debate on the balance of funding to national and regional organizations by the Arts Council England has been continuing through 2014.  The authors of the report Rebalancing our Cultural Capital produced a further report focusing on Arts Lottery funding in the UK: Policy for the Lottery, Arts and Community in England, which examined the approach of the Arts Council to allocating lottery-derived funding.  Further evidence is set out on the RoCC and PLACE websites.

Most recently, the UK parliament's House of Commons Culture Media and Sport Committee has published the report of an inquiry on the Work of Arts Council England. The report emphasises the importance of the Arts Council's funding, but recommends a need to change the balance of funding to favour regional arts, culture and (non-national) museums provision outside Greater London.  Concerns are raised on falling central government funding and there is seen to be a need for development of thinking on philanthropy and the role of local councils.

The Arts Council (ACE) published a report in July 2014 on Understanding the value and impacts of cultural experiences, commissioned from WolfBrown.  This report is a broad international literature review that deals with language and concepts; measuring individual impacts; valuing arts and culture from the marketing perspective; and creative capacity of an organization.  Value is discussed in terms of economic, social and public value, with a primary emphasis on the arts - the broader interest of the humanities and sciences don't seem to be part of scope.

This follows the ACE review earlier in 2014 of The value of arts and culture to people and society.  This was an evidence review, looking at economy; health and wellbeing; society; and education, together with gaps in evidence and needs for future research.

Also interesting is the current work of the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value which has developed discussion and evidence to ask "what kinds of investment do we need to ensure the future of culture and how can we work to ensure that all forms of culture are inclusive and accessible for all?"

The UK is seeing ongoing active debate on regional/national funding allocations for arts and culture, mentioned in a previous post.  Rebalancing our Cultural Capital - a 2013 analysis of inequalities in public funding - has now been joined by A Simple Proposition from the same authors (Stark, Gordon and Powell) and a Response from Arts Council England (ACE) annotated by the authors.  Also from 2013 was Where is Private Investment in the Arts Going? from Arts & Business. 

These issues of geographical inequities and transparency were explored at the UK Museums Association Conference in 2013 with a presentation by David Anderson (video, summary and commentary from Maurice Davis of the MA).

A more general think tank view of economic rebalancing is found in Transforming the Market: Towards a New Political Economy (Patrick Diamond, 2013, published by Civitas).  This perspective argues for the rebalancing of the UK economy in both sectoral and geographical terms, with an emphasis on economic issues, but including creative industry, some aspects of education and the idea of moral balance in political terms.

The UK parliament's House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee has announced an inquiry (likely to hear evidence in March 2014) to look at the Work of Arts Council England - a general investigation but including economic and artistic criteria that underpin funding decisions, and seeking views on "whether the geographical distribution of funding is fair and the justification for the current weighting of this towards London".  A short debate (skip to 2.30 p.m. in the link) on Regional Arts and Culture took place in parliament on 4 February 2014 in Westminster Hall in which parliamentarians explored the issues and heard the response of the minister responsible for culture.

A strong emphasis in these discussions is funding for performing arts and fine arts, with some attention to museums as part of the arts and creative sectors. There is not yet a lot of inclusion of broader cultural capital in terms of public experience and engagement of the humanities, social sciences or natural sciences, or the work of libraries, heritage organisations and others.

Dr Claire Donovan, Brunel University, has written a report for the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport on A Holistic Approach to Valuing Our Culture.  Recommendations on contextual validity of economic and non-economic approaches, the need for DCMS guidance, better tools (with reference to the AHRC Cultural Value Project) and access to studies.

Following a conference at the British Museum early in 2013, the UK Association of Independent Museums has produced a Success Guide to Successfully Working Internationally.  Other Success Guides on volunteers, fundraising, retail, caf és and visitors are available