European inventory of
societal values of culture

Belfiore - Art as a means of alleviating social exclusion

Belfiore, E. (2002) Art as a means of alleviating social exclusion: Does it really work? A critique of instrumental cultural policies and social impact studies in the UK. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 8(1): 91-106.  

One of the recent developments of British cultural policy is that debates on possible ways to tackle social exclusion and debates on the role of the subsidized arts in society have intertwined, so that the contribution that the arts can make towards alleviating the symptoms of exclusion is today highly emphasised by the government and the major public arts funding bodies.

Britain has witnessed the widespread adoption of the philosophy of social inclusion within both the cultural policy arena and the debate among professionals in the arts sector. Young people and the socially excluded seem to be now – in the rhetoric of the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) – at the top of the funding agenda.

The arts are therefore officially recognised to have a positive contribution to make to social inclusion and neighbourhood renewal by improving communities’ ‘performance’ in the four key indicators identified by the government: health, crime, employment, and education. Moreover their very contribution to tackling social problems is identified as a justification for public ‘investment’ in the arts.

This is hardly a phenomenon limited to the UK. The shift towards an instrumental cultural policy, which justifies public expenditure in the arts on the grounds of the advantages that they bring to the nation (be them economic, social, related to urban regeneration, employment, etc.) is indeed a European trend.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the policy implications of this new stress on the subsidised arts and arts organisations as agents of social change. Indeed, if the funding bodies’ emphasis on the social impact of the arts and the activities of cultural organisations is genuine, it should not be long before evidence of activities to include the socially excluded will be required on all funding applications.

This paper thus aim s to look critically at the consequences that would derive by the adoption of the social impacts of the arts as a new policy rationale for future arts funding.