Measuring the Immeasurable : Articulating the Value of Culture
- Submitting institution
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The University of Huddersfield
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 34
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.18848/2326-9960/CGP/v11i04/39-47
- Title of journal
- The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 39
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 2326-9960
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- August
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Produced for The Arts in Society series, The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts, published by Common Ground, this article addresses what is meant by effective ‘public engagement’, how this might be measured and evaluated across different theoretical perspectives on developing cultural infrastructures. Set in the context of the series of government led initiatives across the UK at the time of publication, which sought to measure and document the value of culture in relation to social, economic, and health infrastructures, it asks how the challenges of doing so might be regarded as fundamental to much of the cultural sector both within and outside of academia.
The article explores these ideas in relation to the notion of the "civic university" and builds on previous research into the challenges to the cultural sector in and outside of academia. With reference to the ‘ROTOR’ partnership exhibitions, a programme between the University of Huddersfield and Huddersfield Art Gallery, an example of a possible model for actively addressing some of these challenges is presented. A key question this article asks is whether the radical avant-garde art student of the 1960/70s has now been replaced by the community orientated relationalist, whose impact upon society is continually subjected to arguably unrepresentative or even inappropriate methods of quantification. It suggests that both positions adopt aesthetic and conceptual subjectivities which have the capacity to make a contribution towards civil society by engaging the public in critiques of institutionalisation, and by making transparent the complex realms of value and judgement in the arts. The main insight of this article is its argument that art and design education still has the ability to make a distinct contribution towards the civic university and, in turn, towards culture—whether or not its resulting impact can (or should) be measured.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -