Dear Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Congratulations.
It’s generally acknowledged that the start of the National Lottery heralded what has been a ‘Golden Age’ in investment in culture and sport. What is less often acknowledged (and perhaps simply less well known) is how much more we understand now about participation in sport and engagement in cultural activity. It is vital that we maintain and build on this knowledge in the challenging times ahead.
We have really good, robust evidence as to why people do and don’t take part in cultural activity. We know why people value the arts and there is a strong picture emerging on the social impact of engagement in all areas of sport and culture.
We have a clear picture of how much children and young people are still engaging in traditional cultural activity, despite being born into a digital age. And we’re rapidly learning about how older people are using new technology to enhance their cultural life.
We understand that all people are not the same but that we can usefully segment the population to better and more cost-effectively plan and market services.
We know in which Local Authorities in England more people are engaging than we would expect so we can learn from them, and we know where the focus should be for improvement. We know where investment has led to satisfied adults and we know where the public think there needs to be new investment.
What’s more, we can see how the world is changing and understand emerging trends at a local, regional and national level. And we need to keep tracking these changes because the world is moving so fast.
We’re not doing as much as we can and should be with this data. Audiences UK is here to help cultural and sporting organisations, Local Authorities and funders and policy makers make the most intelligent use of all the data and research that is out there. There’s a clear appetite for this in the sector.
Thanks to comparatively tiny amounts of investment from DCMS, the cultural and sporting Non Departmental Public Bodies, we have not simply been through a ‘Golden Age of Investment’ but we are entering an ‘Age of Enlightenment’.
Cutting these small sums directly and indirectly invested by DCMS on research, data collection and analysis may seem like one of the less difficult options facing you in the coming months. Please don’t do it. In tough times, decision makers need to have as many of the facts as possible to make the right choices so that every penny is invested wisely. And Culture and Sport needs robust evidence to be able to make its case both nationally and locally.
The ‘Golden Age’ of funding may be over, but to retreat to the ‘Dark Ages’ of making decisions without a robust evidence base would be a disaster.
Good luck
David Brownlee, Chief Executive, Audiences UK
Comments
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I know lots of fascinating things Mark, but sadly none of them concern the future governance of this country - David
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