Inviting communities to get outside and engage in the arts: how does cultural policy in England recognise the instrumental value of the outdoor arts?

A paper written in relation to the Practice, Policy and Markets unit for MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise. I have no affiliation with any of the organisations mentioned.

The ‘outdoor arts’ in England is a varied sector encompassing street arts, festivals and carnivals. Arts Council England (ACE), the distributor for DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) and Lottery funding to arts and cultural projects within England, categorise it as ‘Combined Arts’ within their strategies: “Combined arts is where different artforms interact and create something new and exciting across outdoor arts, carnival, festivals, spectacle, interdisciplinary work, live art and participatory and social art practice. It takes place in a diverse range of venues…pop-up spaces and outdoor sites” (Arts Council England, 2017, p.2).

Instrumental value of arts refers to using the arts as a means to attain goals in non-cultural areas including the economy, society, political diplomacy, urban regeneration and health (Bonham-Carter, 2018). Typically, within cultural policy, these values are economic and social considerations, with an instrumental value beyond the arts themselves (McGuigan, 2004). The UK Government recognise that art makes a valuable contribution to delivering key outcomes including “lower long-term unemployment, less crime, better health and better qualifications…help to develop the individual pride, community spirit and capacity for responsibility that enable communities to run regeneration programmes themselves” as discussed within the DCMS Policy Action Team Report (Holden, 2004, p.15). Arts Council England also reflect this within their policies “the arts are also instrumental in meeting public policy objectives” (Holden, 2004, p.25) and continue to advocate for the arts on both a national and local authority level.

Accessibility of the outdoor arts sector could be the reason that its instrumental value has such an impact on policy, with this sector being where people often become involved with the arts for the first time (Arts Council England, 2017). However, within the annual Taking Part Survey in 2016/17, 9% of respondents attended a ‘Street Arts’ (defined as art in everyday surroundings like parks, streets or shopping centres) event and additional 9.9% attended ‘Carnival’. This is significantly lower than 31.1% for ‘Other live music event’ and 21.4% for ‘Play/Drama’ (DCMS, April 2018), but as many outdoor arts events are free, a true reflection on attendance may be hard to capture, especially if audiences encounter the work without knowing they are engaging in an arts event.

By examining national investment in outdoor arts and then exploring place-based cultural strategy in Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Plymouth, it is evident that the instrumental value of outdoor arts is reflected in cultural policy and vision for these cities specifically. Investment in outdoor arts in England is increasing. ACE have recently increased their investment in Combined Arts from £52.7 million per annum (14% of their National Portfolio) in 2015-18, to £66.7 million (16% of the portfolio) in 2018-22 (however, it is worth noting that this may include some elements of the portfolio within the Combined Arts category that aren’t outdoor arts such as live art or social art practice). The investment aims to create growth in the outdoor arts and festival ecology, bringing high quality art to larger and more diverse audiences through funding organisations such as Without Walls, Seachange Arts, ISAN and SIRF (Arts Council England, 2017).

Other national policy doesn’t specifically reference outdoor arts but implies the value of this within wider programmes. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport departmental plan in 2018 cites the proportion of people engaging in the arts through UK City of Culture1, Great Exhibition of the North and Northern Cultural Legacy Fund as a performance measure for maximising cultural participation (DCMS, January 2018).

The Culture White Paper published in 2016 defines the benefit of culture within three values: the intrinsic value of culture itself; the social value of improving educational attainment, health and community cohesion; and the economic value of creating jobs, growing the economy and securing strong tourism (DCMS, 2016). The document continually addresses the instrumental value of arts with the policy aiming to use culture to benefit communities across the country, increase international standing and give everyone the best start in life, recognising that culture is an important part of our economy and society (DCMS, 2016).

However, similarly to the Single Departmental Plan, the White Paper mentions examples of outdoor arts in an indirect way “…culture that is rejuvenating our society and our national and local economies. We are seeing this wherever culture is an integral part of thinking…in Hull and in rural areas like East Lindsey2” (DCMS, 2016, p.6).

It seems to be common for national policy to not directly refer to outdoor arts, as highlighted by the Plymouth Public Art Plan “Within national and regional policy there are few specific references to public art” (Doherty, 2016, p.6) but it is evident that these national policies recognise the instrumental value of outdoor arts programmes through case studies.

Regardless of the strong recognition for the instrumental value of arts, it can be difficult to measure with responses to culture often being personal with evidence of subjective effect gets dismissed as anecdotal (Holden, 2004). This could especially be true during outdoor arts events that are free and non-ticketed, when capturing audience response is challenging, and other factors in addition to the outdoor arts programming may be directly affecting the economic and social outcomes for the locality.

Local cultural policy can be examined to explore its reflection on outdoor arts and links to instrumental value. Three cities in England have been chosen for the purpose of this study: Birmingham, as one of the largest cities in the UK with a very diverse population; Milton Keynes, a new town with unique green spaces available; and Plymouth, as interestingly their Public Art Policy that hasn’t been written by the local authority.

In 2010, Birmingham developed a cultural strategy with instrumental value as its central focus: “Participation in culture is inherently a good thing – it challenges perceptions…enables people to understand the world they live in, its possibilities and the cultures of others more profoundly. Cultural activities can also deliver a range of other outcomes including health and wellbeing, social and community cohesion, civic engagement, economic impact, development of transferable skills and improved environment” (Birmingham City Council, 2010, p.3). This recognition for the importance of arts and culture in Birmingham has shaped its ongoing vision and was initially developed in partnership with communities for the City of Culture 2010 bid (Birchall, 2018).

Birmingham’s current Public Art Strategy3 defines public art as place-based creative practice and includes temporary participatory and event-based activities, which happen in the public realm. On justifying reasons for investing in public art, Birmingham states “The strategy celebrates public art for its intrinsic arts value, as well as its links to other council policies where culture-led innovation can make a huge difference to non-arts agendas” (Birmingham City Council, 2015, p.17) recognising the instrumental value of outdoor arts on the economy and wellbeing.

In addition, Birmingham’s Festival Strategy notes the demonstrable role on increasing cultural tourism, and economic growth, as festivals make a strong contribution to the city’s reputation as a vibrant place to live and visit (Birmingham City Council, 2013). The strategy also recognises that free outdoor events support priorities for social inclusion and cultural participation by improving accessibility. In such a diverse place such as Birmingham, culture is an essential tool to enable social cohesion, and religious festivals that naturally come with this diversity can further enable culture to be embedded across communities.

These strategies all recognise the transformative nature of arts and culture to challenge perceptions and enable people to better understand the world they live In this policy, Milton Keynes recognise that in order to grow the sector they want to continue to make use of spaces outdoors due to the unique expanse of parks, large boulevards and designated public realm (Milton Keynes Council, 2018). This infrastructure of outdoor sites is also complimented by the cultural infrastructure of Milton Keynes International Festival and well-established arts organisations based in the city, resulting in “Outdoor Arts and Public Art are intrinsic components of the city’s cultural USP” (Milton Keynes Council, 2018, p.9).

Their approach to success for delivering culture in Milton Keynes strongly links to the instrumental value of culture. Firstly, Milton Keynes want to create a European destination that is known for high quality outdoor arts, collaborating with European Cities to create outdoor arts school (Milton Keynes Council, 2018) and boosting cultural tourism, and in turn, grow the economy. Secondly, they are prioritising culture to build social mobility and opportunities, in addition to contributing to the health and wellbeing of residents. Lastly, they want to use culture as a tool to be recognised and prioritised within all Council strategies and policies for place-making, which can activate change and benefit the economy and the wellbeing of citizens, through a strong political mandate (Milton Keynes Council, 2018). The latter is interesting in relation to ‘soft power’ which Professor Joseph Nye said is “The ability to persuade through culture, values and ideas, as opposed to ‘hard power’, which conquers or coerces through military might” (Bonham-Carter, 2018) and is also reflected in reflection of national policy within The Culture White Paper (DCMS, 2016). Local politicians may not only embed culture across their decision making, but use it as a tool to promote Milton Keynes standing nationally, and their individual political goals.

The Plymouth Public Art Plan was developed by Situations, an independent arts charity with experience of developing public and outdoor arts across the South West of England and beyond, alongside Plymouth Culture who assist with the development of culture in Plymouth. This removal of direct local authority influence over the strategy demonstrates the new role of local authorities (Mangan and Needham, 2014).

Plymouth’s plan positions that justifiable investment in public art is evaluated against its positive contribution to place-making, with successful occurrences having the ability to gather diverse temporary communities. The plan states that it “celebrates public art for its intrinsic arts value, as well as its capacity to address other city council polices and non-art agendas” (Doherty, 2016, p.5) and queries why permanence is valued over cultural impact. The new vision for public art include investing in one-off projects that offer significant impact and commission work that crosses artform boundaries to directly engage audiences. The author questions why local authorities are so risk adverse when the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad4 programme demonstrated that audiences are ready to be challenged in public and outdoor arts (Doherty, 2016), insisting that local authorities change their approach.

This positive recognition for outdoor arts in local policy could be due to the major advocacy work for the value of outdoor arts in the UK. The Without Walls Consortium has advocacy work at its core aiming that “the UK Outdoor Arts sector is visible and well respected nationally and internationally” (Lewis, 2017, p.31). The Independent Street Arts Network (ISAN) are another organisation to recently receive increased funding from Arts Council England, aiming to create growth in the outdoor arts and festival ecology, bringing high quality art to larger and more diverse audiences (Arts Council England, 2017).

The value of outdoor arts, including street arts, festivals and carnivals, is being recognised in cultural policy in England, but mainly on a local level (Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Plymouth among these localities as discussed), where the instrumental value of outdoor arts relates to the social and economic outcomes. The outdoor arts are praised for accessibility, due to often being free and non-ticketed events, resulting in a wide range of demographics accessing this type of work. Therefore, local authorities can use the commissioning and programming of outdoor arts activities as a tool to enable wider agenda including health and wellbeing, community cohesion, place-making and growing the economy. The effect of these activities is becoming more commonly evidenced in recent years due to the success (and effect on non-arts agendas) of outdoor arts programmes within initiatives such as the Cultural Olypiad, Hull City of Culture and SO Festival (in East Lindsey). The coming years with further investment by Arts Council England in the outdoor arts sector, will continue to address whether its value can have a long-lasting impact. As permanent public art has traditionally been valued more highly, the idea of temporary and one-off events is new to many local authorities, but the precedence set by cities like Birmingham and Milton Keynes will challenge policy locally and nationally to take risks.

Notes

  1. Outdoor arts events and festivals at Hull City of Culture 2017 made up a significant proportion of activity, contributing to total audiences with the opening event Made in Hull generating an audience of 342,000 and the annual Freedom Festival attracting over 144,000 visitors. Free and non-ticketed outdoor events close to communities had the biggest impact in terms of reaching audiences in the most deprived areas of the city who may not usually attend arts events. The evaluation of Hull City of Culture 2017 values the significant contributions of these activities to place making, economy, society and wellbeing (University of Hull, 2018) and the award of UK City of Culture 2017 is estimated to be worth £60 million to the economy in Hull (DCMS, 2016).
  2. East Lindsey is referenced here due to the successful So Festival, an outdoor arts festival in Skegness and surrounding market towns. In 2014, the festival bought an additional 27,228 visitors to the area and additional visitor spend of £671,964 (East Lindsey District Council, 2016).
  3. As an action to support the outdoor arts in Birmingham, an outcome of the Public Art Strategy is to create Street Art Guidance in partnership with relevant organisations to assist artists and commissioners, identifying appropriate sites, health and safety considerations and permits (Birmingham City Council, 2015) but this does not yet appear to be published.
  4. The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme had a dominance of ‘combined arts’ events (24.5% of total activity) involving many outdoor arts. Programming took place across many of the most iconic outdoor tourist attractions in the UK, in addition to unusual places where art was programmed for the first time, meeting its objective to bring art into unusual places and animate public spaces, with 38.5 million free public engagement experiences. This had major impact on reaching new audiences, developing tourism and putting “culture at the heart of the games” (Garcia, 2013).

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