arts & business council

MetLife National Arts Forums Series

Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston
Boston, Massachusetts

Reframing the Case for Arts and Culture: Good for the Soul or Economic Driver?
06/06/2005

Moderator: Dan Hunter, Executive Director of Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities

Panelists:

• Arthur Brooks, professor of economics, Syracuse University and co-author of the RAND publication, Gifts of the Muse
• Rob Austin, professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work
• Meri Jenkins, program manager of Cultural Economic Development Program at the Mass Cultural Council and former principle manager of the Business in the Arts South in the UK

In Massachusetts, where the state budget for the arts was slashed 62 percent just two years ago, and where individual philanthropy occurs at one of the lowest rates in the country, the case for funding the arts is a prominent concern. The debate about the intrinsic versus instrumental values of arts and culture opened with Dan Hunter asking the panelists to consider, “How do we tell the story of the value of the arts to the general population?”

Arthur Brooks, co-author of the RAND study, argued the importance of intrinsic values because the instrumental benefits extend from the intrinsic. He recommends introducing people to the intrinsic benefits of the arts by bringing  together the often incomplete studies to create a more complete argument in support of the arts.
 
Rob Austin confirmed the connection between instrumental benefits (e.g., improved test scores or community improvement) and intrinsic benefits (e.g., captivation or creation of social bonds) with his view that the ability to engage in artistic thinking and creative processes—which are inherent to art—are key “to creat[ing] value in novel and appropriate forms in the economy of the future. The fundamental way in which the arts can move our economy forward begs for more ambitious arguments from the arts community on the value of the arts.” 

Meri Jenkins stressed the significance of playing to the relationship between the arts and economic and community development as a more likely way to gain funding for the arts. She believes that we are not in a place right now where we can talk about intrinsic values without alienating those who don’t understand it. 

The question of how to approach the public demand for quantifiable results was raised. Brooks responded that we need to target businesses with business language and responses rather than presenting the reasons art is important to us; why is it important to businesses? And in order to gain more support, is it better to expose people to the intrinsic value of art or to place artists in policy-making positions? Perhaps by exposing people to the intrinsic value of art at an early age, it would be more likely to hook people and gain “beneficial addicts” who would continue to support the arts throughout their lifetime.