Impact Update 11, August 2007

This newsletter reviews the content that has been added to the Impact Database since the end of May 2007. As always, many of the studies are recently published but we also include earlier research that is relevant to the themes of the database. Full bibliographical details of the references highlighted below can, of course, be obtained from the database.

We encourage users and their networks to use the facility to submit their own research, which will then be considered for inclusion. Research should relate to the main themes of the database (listed in the Advanced Search section) and should have stated aims/objectives, methodological approach and findings/conclusions.

Arts, Culture and Society

Taking part: The national survey of culture, leisure and sport. Annual report 2005/2006 (edited by Aust and Vine, 2007), reports on the findings of a nation-wide survey carried out by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). A similar survey was carried out by Hibernian Consulting to provide data on the behaviour and attitudes of Irish people towards the arts, as well as the extent to which Irish people attend or participate in arts events and activities. This study, commissioned by The Arts Council/An Chomairle Ealaion, has been published as The public and the arts 2006.

Cultural indicators for New Zealand, a study by Statistics New Zealand (2006) for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, aims to establish a set of robust cultural indicators to monitor the contribution of the cultural sector to the social, environmental and economic well-being of New Zealanders, as well as to provide high level measures of the effectiveness of government policy interventions in the cultural sector.

Arts, Culture and Inclusion

A report by the Irish National Economic Social Forum (2007) The arts, cultural inclusion and social cohesion, examines how the arts contribute to social cohesiveness, and discusses the main barriers to cultural inclusion through participation in the arts in Ireland, in order to examine possibilities to stimulate more people to take part in culture.

In “The conservation of English cultural built heritage: a force for social inclusion?” (International journal of heritage studies 10(1): 11-31), Pendlebury, Townshend and Gilroy (2004) propose a framework for considering how cultural built heritage might contribute to social inclusion.

Arts, Culture and Health

Three publications examine the therapeutic effects of dance. In “Dance/movement therapy as an alternative treatment for young boys diagnosed as ADHD: a pilot study” (American Journal of Dance Therapy 27(2): 63-85), Groenlund, Renck and Wiebull (2005) describe the findings of a pilot study investigating the effect and value of a dance/movement therapy as an alternative treatment for aggressive and destructive young boys with symptoms related to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Quin, Redding and Frazer (2007) report on the effects of a creative dance programme on the physiological and psychological health and fitness characteristics of 11-14 years old school children (in: Dance science research report. The effects of an eight-week creative dance programme on the physiological and psychological status of 11-14 year old adolescents: an experimental study). Finally, Koch and Braeuninger’s “International Dance/Movement Therapy Research: Recent Findings and Perspectives” (in: American Journal of Dance Therapy 28(2): 127-136) (2006) provides an overview of the results of the 2nd International Research Colloquium in Dance Therapy, held in Pforzheim (Germany), on 10-11 February 2006.

“Researching the benefits of arts in health” (Health education 105(5): 332-339), a think piece by Macnaughton, White and Stacy (2005), looks at the challenges to research in the fields of arts in health activities.

Smeijsters and Cleven (2006), in “The treatment of aggression using arts therapies in forensic psychiatry: Results of a qualitative inquiry” (The Arts in Psychotherapy (33): 37-58) discuss the use of arts therapies in forensic psychiatry, specifically in the problem area of destructive aggression.

Arts, Culture and the Economy

Three new reports focus on the economic impact of specific cultural sectors. The value of jazz in Britain, by Riley and Laing (2006), addresses the economic importance of the jazz sector in the UK, in the context of a wider mapping exercise of the sector as a whole. Oxford Economics’ study The Economic Impact of the UK Film Industry (2007) provides a follow-up to a similar study published in 2005. Economic impact of classical music in the West Midlands. Research report, by Audiences Central (2006), offers an evaluation of the economic impact of classical music within the West Midlands region.

In Culture and creative industries in Germany, a publication by the German Commission for UNESCO, Fesel and Soendermann (2007) report on the economic importance of the German culture industries in relation to European and international developments, and provide a definition of the concept of "culture industries" as it is understood in the German language area.

Arts & Economic Prosperity III: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts and Culture Organizations and Their Audiences, by Americans for the Arts (2007), documents the key role played by the non-profit arts and culture industry in strengthening the economy of the US.

A number of studies specifically examine the economic impact of festivals. Sussex Arts Marketing is currently carrying out its “Festivals Mean Business” survey, in order to assess the contribution made by arts festivals to cultural, social and economic life in the UK. This is a follow-up to two earlier studies, published in 2000 and 2002 (final report to be published in October 2007). In Good times. The economic impact of Cheltenham’s festivals (2002) Brookes and Landry examine the impact of Cheltenham’s year-long festival programme on the local economy. Finally, Maughan and Bianchini’s The economic and social impact of cultural festivals in the East Midlands of England. Final report (2004) assesses the economic and social impact of 11 festivals in the East Midlands region during 2002-03 (a summarised version of this report was published earlier as Festivals and the creative region).

Major Cultural Events

“Host population perceptions of the impact of mega-events” (Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research 11(4): 407-421), by Lim and Lee (2006), examines the perceptions held by local community members towards the socio-economic impact of the Gyeongju Expo and the Daejeon Expo (South Korea).