Richard Russell

Director of Policy and

Research

Arts Council England

Toby Dennett

Strategic Development, Arts

Council of Ireland

Cultural Creative Spillovers

Presentation to the European Creative

Industries Summit 2015

11th May 2015

Findings of the preliminary evidence

review into spillover effects in Europe

We seek to build our collective knowledge and deepen our

understanding of the impact of arts and culture. It helps us to map

out and reinforce the changing and complex role it plays in our

experience as individuals and on the fabric of our society.

We work in partnership with artists, arts organisations, public policy

makers and others to build a central place for the arts in Irish life.

The national

agency for

funding,

developing and

promoting the

arts in Ireland

• Arts Council Norway

• Arts Council Malta

• British Council

• Dr. Annick Schramme (Antwerp Management School, Belgium)

• Edna dos Santos-Duisenberg

• Elizabete Tomaz/INTELI – Intelligence in Innovation, Innovation Centre

• Jonathan Vickery (University of Warwick)

• Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé (Aalto University)

• Lyudmila Petrova (Erasmus University)

• Michael Söndermann

• Multiplicities

• University of Duesto

A European research alliance

Why spillovers?

We understand spillover(s) to be the process by which an

activity in one area has a subsequent broader impact on

places, society or the economy through the overflow of

concepts, ideas, skills, knowledge and different types of

capital.

• varying time-fames

• intentional or unintentional, planned or unplanned, direct or

indirect

• negative as well as positive

The process by which activity in the arts, culture and

creative industries has a subsequent broader impact

on places, society or the economy through the

overflow of concepts, ideas, skills, knowledge and

different types of capital.

What is a spillover effect?

1. To better understand what evidence exists on a

European-wide level on spillover effects of public

investment in arts and culture

2. To develop an interdisciplinary and shared understanding

of the methods of gathering evidence around spillovers

3. To recommend suitable methodologies for measuring

spillover effects

4. To promote consistent and credible research methods to

enable sector and public authorities to improve effective

policy making and resource allocation

5. To understand spillover effects that arise as a

consequence of investment by public or private

stakeholders in the arts, culture and creative industries.

Research aims

• Over 100 items consisting of a mixture of academic

studies, evaluations, literature reviews, case studies, abstracts of

proposed studies and reports by government committees and

government departments.

• A systematic review of additional literature

The evidence library

1. Delivery of 100 pieces of evidence, contributed by research

partners

2. Secondary evidence review

3. High level quality and relevance assessment of the evidence

Conceptual framing

Transparency

Appropriateness

Cultural sensitivity

Validity

Reliability

Cogency

4. Classification according to an existing framework for mapping

spillover effects:

• Knowledge spillovers

• Industry spillovers

• Network spillovers

5. Individual and whole library analysis to reveal gaps and key

findings through an iterative approach that sees strength in

repetition of themes

Methodology

1. Stimulating creativity and encouraging potential

2. Increasing visibility, tolerance and cultural exchange between

communities

3. Changing attitudes in participation and openness toward the

arts

4. New forms of organisation

5. Knowledge exchange and culture-led innovation

6. Strengthening cross-border and cross-sector collaborations

7. Increase in employability and skills development in society e.g. “Creative professionals such as designers, advertisers, software developers,

but also professionals in film and television industries may be employed outside

the creative industries, bringing with them new techniques, ideas and ways of

working. Or, they may start spin-off companies in a different sector” Tallinn

University Estonian Institute for Futures Studies 2011

KnowledgeNetworkIndustry

KnowledgeNetworkIndustry

1. Improved business culture and entrepreneurship

2. Changes to the property market

3. Encouraging private and foreign investment

4. Impacts on productivity, profitability and competitiveness

5. Innovation and digital technology e.g. “Creative industries highlight not just the economic value of creativity and

origination, for example entrepreneurial artistry and vice versa, but also the

significant economic value created from the re-use of ideas in general and

copyrighted material in particular” ESSnet-Culture 2012

KnowledgeNetworkIndustry

1. Social cohesion and community development and

integration

2. Health and wellbeing

3. Ecosystem and creative milieu, city branding and place

making

4. Economic impact from clusters and regions

5. Urban development, regeneration and infrastructure e.g. “Creative entrepreneurs – often in their start-up phase – are looking for

low-cost working spaces. Perhaps these cultural entrepreneurs do not

make much money. Yet they create interesting activities, organize events,

exhibitions, they attract people to an area, build social networks, exchange

new and innovative ideas. And they do not mind adopting ‘bohemian

lifestyles’. They treasure places that are ‘different’, with a specific cultural

identity” CURE 2014

There are three strong areas of evidence:

1. Innovation

2. Health and well-being

3. City milieu and place-making

We’ve noticed the following:

• Spillover effects cluster around economic outcomes – with

a noticeable lack around education, social outcomes and

cultural outcomes

• Qualitative methods are lacking as a result

• The evidence library is ‘Anglo-heavy’ – even partners

outside of the UK or Ireland submitted evidence from

outside the region

Preliminary findings

• There is less compelling evidence of the effect of culture on

innovation, because each impact is at one further degree of

separation.

• Evidence investigating the ‘ecology’ – i.e. the flow back of

spillover effects back into the arts and culture and creative

industries

• Health and well-being studies are compelling evidence but

would benefit from counter-factuals and longitudinal research

• The interdependencies of public funding of the arts and

culture and creative industries

The nearest any of the reports get to proving causality in

creative and cultural spillovers is in the field of creative

industries and innovation.

Gaps and causality

1. Majority of projects do not set out to directly capture

spillovers

2. Reluctance to engage with other, non-economic impact

3. Limited credible causal impact

4. Difficult to develop a fresh narrative out of existing

approaches

Challenges and limitations

Potential methodologies to explore

• Experimental research using impact evaluation techniques

• Longitudinal studies for health and wellbeing

• Cluster analysis

Future research

• European research agenda going forward

• How we can co-create the next research stage with the

arts and culture and creative industries sectors

What next?

Join the debate from 11th June 2015

https://ccspillovers.wikispaces.com/

Join the debate from 11th June at

https://ccspillovers.wikispaces.com/