The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published its 2007 autumn performance report, showing progress against its public service agreement targets.
Source: Autumn Performance Report 2007, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Dec
An article examined the use of cultural action to promote community development. It looked at the processes by which arts-based community projects could lead to the development of both informal and formal collective organization, and their potential for promoting empowerment.
Source: Fran?ois Matarasso, 'Common ground: cultural action as a route to community development', Community Development Journal, Volume 42 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Oct
A report set out baseline levels of engagement among children aged 11-15 in cultural, leisure, and sporting activities. Virtually all children had engaged in at least one form of activity during the previous 12 months. Of those, 94 per cent had both engaged in a cultural activity and participated in a sports activity.
Source: Taking Part: The national survey of culture, leisure and sport – Headline findings from the child survey, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Oct
A report by a committee of MPs said that creativity – in the form of the arts, music, and thinking more imaginatively about subjects – was a 'second-order priority' in England's schools. It said that creativity should be a fundamental part of learning, and should receive adequate funding.
Source: Creative Partnerships and the Curriculum, Eleventh Report (Session 2006-07), HC 1034, House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2007-Oct
A think-tank report said that the very things that give the creative and cultural industries their vitality – their speed, fluidity, and turnover of people, organizations and ideas – also worked to exclude people from non-traditional backgrounds.
Source: Simon Parker, Charlie Tims and Shelagh Wright, Inclusion, Innovation and Democracy: Growing talent for the creative and cultural industries, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Date: 2007-Sep
A report evaluated the cultural pathfinders programme. It looked at how cultural services could have an impact on the priority needs of local communities, deliver shared outcomes, and drive service improvements. It said that the pathfinders imaginatively combined culture with services such as social work and education, and could provide local authorities with scope for innovation in meeting community needs.
Source: Changing Lives and Places: Lessons from the cultural pathfinders, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report | Case studies | Summary
Date: 2007-Sep
A think-tank report examined the economic performance of the creative industries.
Source: Staying Ahead: The economic performance of the UK?s creative industries, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Aug
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the new media and creative industries. It said that the creative, knowledge economy was a key global driver for economic prosperity; and it was important for government and industry to work together to create the right economic framework in which creative businesses could thrive.
Source: Government Response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Report into New Media and the Creative Industries, Cm 7186, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2007-Jul
The government announced an independent review of how it could support excellence in the arts and culture in a non-bureaucratic way that did not stifle with unnecessary targets.
Source: Speech by James Purnell MP (Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport), 6 July 2007
Links: Text of speech | DCMS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Jul
A report examined the available evidence around the drivers of demand for culture among the priority audiences defined in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport?s public service agreement target (black and minority ethnic communities, disabled people, and lower socio-economic groups).
Source: FreshMinds, Culture on Demand: Ways to engage a broader audience, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Date: 2007-Jul
A think-tank report examined the relationships between publicly funded culture and the creative industries. The creative industries were poorly understood in policy, partly because they often did not conform to traditional expectations about how businesses worked, and partly because their scale made them hard to measure and hard to engage with.
Source: John Holden, Publicly-funded Culture and the Creative Industries, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Date: 2007-Jul
A think-tank report said that as creativity became central to both the workplace and social life, young people would need the skills to navigate between different expectations of their creative work. Creative education should give young people the essential reflective and editorial skills to combine the multiple perspectives on value that they would encounter.
Source: Samuel Jones and Shelagh Wright, Making Good Work: Realising the values of young people?s creative production, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Date: 2007-Jun
A think-tank report examined the role of public policy in supporting the creative economy. It said that existing initiatives had resulted in confusion, indifference, and, in some cases, irritation.
Source: Charlie Tims and Shelagh Wright, So, What Do You Do? A new question for policy in the creative age, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Date: 2007-Jun
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published its annual report for 2006-07, showing its performance against public service agreement targets.
Source: Departmental Report 2007, Cm 7104, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-May
A report said that more than 9 out of 10 adults in England had engaged in at least one form of cultural or sporting activity during the previous twelve months.
Source: Rebbecca Aust and Lisa Vine (eds.), Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, Annual Report 2005/2006, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report | DCMS press release | MLA press release | Arts Council press release
Date: 2007-May
A report examined attempts to encourage greater participation by 'priority' groups (disabled, socially excluded, black/ethnic minority) in cultural activities. There was no evidence of any statistically significant change since the baseline in participation or attendance by any of the groups concerned.
Source: Final Report on PSA Target 2 on the Take-up of Cultural Opportunities by People Aged 20 and over from Priority Groups, Arts Council England (020 7973 6458)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-May
A report by a committee of MPs welcomed the agreements that had been reached between producers and broadcasters over the ownership and duration of rights to distribute content through new media applications. This was preferable to a solution imposed by the industry regulator.
Source: New Media and the Creative Industries, Fifth Report (Session 2006-07), HC 509, House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-May
A report evaluated the government's 'Urban Cultural Programme' (2004-2006), designed to promote cultural events in large cities. It said that the programme had been successful in its objectives, and had been good value for money.
Source: Sandy Craig, The Urban Cultural Programme: Final evaluation report, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-May
A think-tank report examined the opportunities for expanding cultural participation provided by the internet.
Source: John Holden, Logging On: Culture, participation and the web, Demos, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Date: 2007-May
A departmental capability review said that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport had had a number of successes - including the BBC charter review, winning the bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and beating its school sports target. The DCMS published an action plan based on the review findings.
Source: Capability Review of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Cabinet Office (020 7261 8527) | Transforming DCMS, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Report | Plan | DCMS press release | BBC report
Date: 2007-Mar
A report said that participation should be the principal indicator of the success of art, cultural, and sporting services.
Source: Taking Part Counts: The contribution of art, culture and sport to national outcomes, Local Government Association (020 7664 3000)
Links: Report | LGA press release
Date: 2007-Mar
A paper examined the social stratification of cultural consumption: cultural consumption was determined primarily by economic and cultural resources, and status was viewed as a key source of motivation.
Source: Tak Wing Chan and John Goldthorpe, Social Stratification of Cultural Consumption Across Three Domains: Music, theatre, dance and cinema, and the visual arts, Working Paper 2007-02, Department of Sociology/University of Oxford (01865 86170)
Links: Paper
Date: 2007-Jan