The rings of value
- 18 Feb 2015
It’s hard to imagine an investor these days who doesn’t want some kind of evidence of the value created for funding provided. At minimum they are seeking economic or financial return on investment, some evidence of sectoral or industry impact or third party endorsement of artistic excellence. There is a lot of discussion about value creation and returns on investment as well as instrumental and intrinsic benefits and there is a lot of data out there. It can be hard to see how the data a funded individual or organisation collects has meaning beyond justifying the last grant or investment.
The arts and culture value story is like an onion with rings of data that evidence value creation. The outer ring is the ‘big picture’ – what the general population thinks about arts and culture, what they say they do when asked about whether they attend, participate and what they spend on arts and culture in Australia. This big picture data is quantitative data, representative of the entire population, even if it is about subjective values such as perceived benefits or attitudes to the arts. This is collected by the Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and by others, such the Australia Council for the Arts and Arts Queensland in publications like the recent, Arts in Daily Life: Queenslanders and the Arts 2013. The big picture also includes data about how the cultural and creative industries perform, how many people they employ directly and indirectly and how the industry as a whole is connected to other industries such as tourism and how the whole contributes to GDP. The Centre for Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation also published annual report cards for the creative industries.
The second ring is industry specific data like that commissioned and collected by the Australia Council in reports like David Throsby and Anita Zednik’s 2010 Do you really expect to get paid? or Live Performance Australia 2013 Annual Ticket Revenue and Attendance Survey 2013 or Tourism Research Australia’s 2010 Cultural and Heritage Tourism in Australia Snapshot. The ABS also publishes industry profiles.
The third ring is private and public investment data at the aggregate level. This is about what is returned financially, socially and from and arts and cultural perspective from investment. This is the stuff funding bodies use to argue for the value of arts and culture in the authorising environment of government. However, any government or private contribution can support only a fraction of the artistic and cultural activity that occurs in society, which is why the big picture data is still important. Though the Queensland Government spent $534.8 million directly on culture in 2012-13, this direct investment contributes to the big picture value story, but only in part.
The fourth ring represents what organisations or individual practitioners collect and provide to investors or funders. This typically takes the form of an outcome report or acquittal of funding. Collecting quality data at this level is crucial to the overall value story. It’s crucial because, like an onion, cultural value grows from the centre with its roots embedded in practice and in the direct relationship of art with its public. Funders use both qualitative case studies to tell the value story and quantitative data (in aggregate form) to argue the return on public investment, the overall value created and the difference this makes to society as a whole. Over time this allows the case to be made for more investment, provides greater public profile for arts and culture and more opportunities for people to engage with the arts. This is then reflected in the general population/big picture data.
It’s important to keep a line of sight from what you do, to your immediate colleagues and industry, to the national and even global picture. You need to do this, if for no other reason than to contextualise your work so you can argue compellingly with the evidence on your side.
Arts Queensland will be publishing a series of posts this year on data and data trends including open data and big data as well as publishing raw data and data analysis in easy-to-use formats for the sector to use. Let us know if you have a particular topic you would like covered.