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ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT - CREATIVE INDUSTRY
Performing arts and the city :
Dutch municipal cultural policy in the brave new world of evidence-based policy
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In these days in which art and culture have to prove their economic value to
be taken serious by policy makers, the thesis of Quirijn Lennart van den Hoogen
can be very helpful. Below a summery of the dissertation and it is possible to
read more or to order the publication:
Performing arts and
the city.
Performing arts and the city : Dutch municipal cultural policy in the brave
new world of evidence-based policy
(2010) Hoogen, Quirijn Lennert van den
This research aims to ameliorate the evaluation of Dutch municipal cultural
policies. It is prompted by the rise of evidence-based policy, a tendency to
provide (scientific) proof of the effects of public policies. In the first part
of the research, the goals of public performing arts policies are researched by
studying Dutch cultural policy documents published between 1992 and 2005.
Intrinsic and extrinsic goals are distinguished. The second – theoretical – part
of the research confronts these goals with views on the functioning of the arts
in society from arts philosophy and sociology of the arts. The policy
legitimizations are broken down to the values of the experience of performing
arts and the subsequent functions they can give rise to on personal and societal
level. This part closes by presenting a model to describe the functioning of the
performing arts in urban society. The model describes how participation in the
performing arts generates intrinsic and extrinsic values and functions in urban
societies. In the third part of the research, the model is used to analyze the
current evaluation efforts of eight Dutch municipalities. Current evaluation
practices can be ameliorated by researching the values of the performing arts
for the attendees and the subsequent values these can give rise to on societal
level. In this thesis, proposals are formulated to develop current evaluation
practices in stages. A combination of quantitative and qualitative audience
research and general-population research is necessary. However, Dutch
municipalities currently focus on developing intricate instruments to follow the
performing of subsidized performing-arts organizations, which from the
perspective taken in this research should be qualified as a secondary form of
policy evaluation.
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