April 2023

April 2023

This month's policy brief includes:

• How craft values are shaping the Internet of Things
• The positive impact of arts and culture on health and wellbeing
• New directions for arts learning
• Creative industries’ challenges following Brexit
• Pressures as audiences slowly return

Craft values shaping the Internet of Things

hiCraft: Exploring the Internet of Things through a Craft lens is a three-year AHRC funded research project in partnership with Crafts Council exploring how craft approaches can generate healthier online experiences. Based at Northumbria University the research is using craft ethos and practices to generate and test new visions of a networked Internet of Things (IoT). Crafts Council is advising on the project and helping to disseminate findings.

As everyday objects increasingly become internet connected, issues such as trust, transparency, and ownership of data continue to be of concern and have been highlighted by Mozilla’s Internet Health report, one of the inspirations for this project. As a counterpoint to these concerns, the study is using characteristics of craft to inform and inspire the work, including notions of: bespokeness, localism, embodiment, provenance, authenticity, trust and care. The researchers are proposing that applying a craft lens provides a valuable new strategy for exploring nuanced ways to imagine differing relationships with, and through, connected things.

Investigating the IoT through craft in the first stage of the project, established craftspeople were commissioned to create speculative crafted artefacts that explore this space in an open way. As the project moves into its second phase in spring 2023, the team are collaborating with community groups to generate a set of craft ethos inspired IoT products that seek to add value to their lives. They are keen to hear from people in the crafts sector and beyond who are working and thinking in similar ways, or just interested in what is happening, so do contact them at ad.hicraft@northumbria.ac.uk

Evidence of the positive impact of arts and culture on health and wellbeing

UCL’s The Impact of Arts and Cultural Engagement on Population Health summarises findings from major cohort studies in the UK and USA that examined the relationship between arts and cultural engagement and health and wellbeing outcomes. Alongside epidemiological research, the researchers led by Dr Daisy Fancourt used a behavioural science approach to understand more about barriers and facilitators to engagement in the arts, particularly for people with mental health conditions. The longitudinal research demonstrates the influence of arts and cultural engagement on health outcomes over time.

The health benefits of the arts begin in childhood and are associated with physical and mental health behaviours in early and late adolescence. The researchers found links with a range of behaviours and perceptions including hyperactivity and inattention, prosocial behaviour, maladjustment, likelihood of criminality, self-control, perceived social support, likelihood of substance use, physical activity, and others.

Among adults, arts and cultural engagement can be used to support emotional regulation, enhance wellbeing and enhance mental health, including reducing the risk of developing mental health problems.

Among older adults, in addition to psychological benefits, the arts have protective associations against cognitive decline, dementia incidence, and multiple aspects of physical health and functioning including frailty, chronic pain, and disability, as well as better perceptions of ageing. Even lifespan is associated; those who are culturally engaged having a lower mortality risk.

A new study is to invite diverse young people aged 16-24 to co-create an online arts and culture intervention aimed at reducing anxiety and depression. The project, known as ORIGIN (Optimising cultural expeRIences for mental health in underrepresented younG people onlINe) is a joint venture between Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and researchers from Oxford University. ORIGIN builds on preliminary research in which an online cultural experience called Ways of Being was co-designed and tested for mental health in young people.

New directions for arts learning

The Wallace Foundation’s The Connected Arts Learning Framework: An Expanded View of the Purposes and Possibilities for Arts Learning offers a framework for arts learning that connects the arts to children’s community, civic, and future professional life. In the connected learning framework educators seek to create meaningful learning experiences based on young people’s interests and then connect these experiences to real-world issues and communities.

The Arts in Schools: Foundations for the Future report offers an evidence-based analysis of the current state of arts education in England’s schools and a vision for how it can be transformed for the better. The report from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and A New Direction shows that there is still a lack of value ascribed to the arts within the state education system in England. Recommendations include:

• Creating an arts entitlement within the school day and extra-curricular arts as additional
• The production of a refreshed, coherent, evidence base to support the growth of arts education.

Creative industries’ challenges following Brexit

The Creative Policy and Evidence has published two papers that point to worrying trends and a growing skills shortage for the UK’s Creative Industries since the Brexit vote. Deputy Director Eliza Easton says:

“The UK’s Creative Industries remain globally leading, but the backbone of policy which has supported this international standing - whether immigration policy, trade policy or diplomacy - seems to have crumbled, leaving the sector exposed to skills shortages, less able to sell its goods and services and under-estimated as a soft power asset.”

The researchers make ten recommendations including changes to the current visa system for those industries recruiting from abroad (less common in craft) to better support for freelancers (this includes sole traders) and more support for early career professionals.

Pressures as audiences slowly return

New findings from The Audience Agency’s Cultural Participation Monitor look at the pressures facing cultural organisations, as audiences' already slow return is further stalled by mounting cost-of-living concerns. The findings show that:

• Overall engagement is still down -1/3 people still report attending arts, culture and heritage less than they did pre-pandemic
• Covid-19 fears continue to abate - Fewer than 1/4 are put off attending cultural events now because of Covid related concerns
• Cost-of-living is the biggest barrier - Over 60% say that the cost-of-living is already slashing their ability to attend culture events
• Late booking trends are emerging - Over 40% say they now tend to book tickets more last-minute than they did pre-pandemic
• Followers focus on the bigger picture - 60% of organisations' social media followers are most interested in broad artform topics
• Volunteering is set to bounce back - 80% of volunteers who lapsed during Covid times plan on returning to these activities
• People expect to keep donating less - 1/2 people who previously donated to arts and culture plan to less in the next 2 years.

New toolkits to increase inclusion

Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN) England has launched a second toolkit aiming to help organisations nurture the leadership and talent development of artists and arts workers from underrepresented and marginalised communities. It includes prompts about the progression pipeline, creating development opportunities, workplace dynamics, inclusion and care.

A New Direction have shared a toolkit designed to help arts organisations promote accessibility and inclusivity in their practices and to improve progression routes into the arts for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent young people.

Lastly…

A report from the Higher Education Policy Institute shows that in 2020 UK arts and humanities research activity was 49% higher than the global average and outperformed all other disciplinary areas in the UK.

The Chancellor has announced that the Museums and Galleries Exhibitions Tax Relief Budget 2023 will remain at a higher rate until 2026. The relief was set to expire in 2024 but has been extended for two years until 31 March 2026