Professor Crossick will argue that there is too much focus on what the cultural sector believes that funders of the day wish to hear and too little on the broader difference that engagement with arts and culture makes. Only by moving away from evaluation for advocacy towards evaluation for understanding can we improve how we talk about these issues, which means avoiding claims that we cannot sustain while also drawing on a much wider range of methods and forms of evidence.
His talk is built ... view more »
Professor Crossick will argue that there is too much focus on what the cultural sector believes that funders of the day wish to hear and too little on the broader difference that engagement with arts and culture makes. Only by moving away from evaluation for advocacy towards evaluation for understanding can we improve how we talk about these issues, which means avoiding claims that we cannot sustain while also drawing on a much wider range of methods and forms of evidence.
His talk is built around the four key questions he feels need to be addressed if we’re to be better understand and talk about the value of arts and culture. Who wants to know and why? What is the phenomenon whose value we’re trying to understand? Are we looking in the right places in our search for value? And by what methods should we find and evidence that value?
This talk draws on the work he carried out for the Cultural Value Project, an initiative he directed for the UK’s Arts & Humanities Research Council. He will set out the broad arguments of that report, including a new emphasis on personal experience of arts and culture and its implications for helping shape reflective individuals and engaged citizens.
Bio
Professor Geoffrey Crossick is a Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. He was previously Vice-Chancellor of the University of London (2010-12); Warden of Goldsmiths, University of London (2005-10); and Chief Executive of the Arts and Humanities Research Board (2002-05) which he led through its transformation into a full research council.
He was Director of the AHRC’s Cultural Value Project, which was established to explore the benefits of arts and cultural engagement to individuals and society, and the methods by which those can be understood and evidenced. The project’s substantial report was published in 2016, and he has been invited to speak about it extensively around the world as well as in the UK.
He writes and speaks on higher education and research strategy, on the importance of the arts and humanities, and on the creative and cultural sectors. He is the author of a major report for the Higher Education Funding for England on ‘Monographs and Open Access’ (2015). He is Chair of the Crafts Council, the UK development agency for contemporary craft, and amongst other roles is also a member of the governing Boards of the National Film & Television School, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Horniman Museum. He is a member of the Science Advisory Council for the UK’s Department of Culture, Media & Sport.
Professor Crossick is by academic discipline a historian, and his main area of research has been the urban social history of 19th and 20th century Britain and continental Europe, including work on the petite bourgeoisie of shopkeepers and master artisans. His academic career involved appointments at the Universities of Cambridge, Hull and Essex He has written or edited 7 books and published over 40 articles in learned journals and other collections. He is an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Goldsmiths, University of London; and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
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