This report was commissioned by the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN) to understand better the ways cultural districts generate social impacts and to explore how those social impacts are evaluated for both cultural districts and their stakeholders. The social impact of arts and cultural engagement is now getting more attention. This includes what are sometimes seen as instrumental social objectives, such as health and social inclusion, but also embrace social impacts fundamentally linked to the character of cultural experience, such as reflectiveness, understanding people from other backgrounds, imagination and innovation. The author of this report was Professor Geoffrey Crossick, Director of the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council’s four-year Cultural Value Project whose substantial report appeared in 2016 and has attracted considerable international interest. Some of the thinking in that report lies behind the analysis here.
Source: Executive Summary
