In his speech at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry on the Value of Culture, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Wright said:
The exciting growth of digital culture means that our traditional creative institutions have been able to reach new global audiences, for example through live streams of theatre productions.
But they bring huge benefits to our tourism and heritage sectors as well, when people decide that they want to come here and see it for themselves.
One Ed Sheeran track is thought to be responsible for 100,000 extra visitors to Framlingham Castle. And Downton Abbey has helped Highclere Castle, Sherlock Baker Street, and Emily Bronte the moors of West Yorkshire. Our culture and our heritage reinforce each other.
As we equip our country for the future, a strong arts, heritage and cultural strategy isn’t just an afterthought, but rather central to our plans. In a modern and interconnected world, the places that will be successful are those which can attract and retain highly skilled and talented people. And places will not attract those people without a strong cultural and heritage offer.
We all see so many examples of culture proving its worth. But we need to make sure that we keep shouting about it…
Some of you may know there is a Spending Review coming up and so it is more important than ever that we all give the most robust possible evidence about the impact of what we do.
And I don’t just mean evidence of economic impact. But demonstrating that the superb experiences that you provide are benefiting all parts of the United Kingdom.
In terms of geographical spread, but also race, gender and social backgrounds.
Proving the social and cultural impact of our work will be an important part of our argument and I know it is an argument that we can make with real force.
The UK is already leading the world in our work to understand and properly measure the impact that culture can have.
I have asked my department to build on this, and DCMS will bring together academia and policy makers at a forthcoming summit on the measurement of cultural value. So that we will be better placed to make fully rounded arguments about culture’s true value to society.
Last year, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, announced new funding for the creation of a collaborative Centre for Cultural Value, the first of its kind in the UK. That took the term ‘cultural value’ to include all the societal benefits that arts and culture can bring including impact on the economy, on communities and cities, and impact on health and wellbeing.
In November 2013, the University of Warwick launched a one-year Commission, chaired by Vikki Heywood CBE, to undertake a comprehensive and holistic investigation into the future of cultural value.