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the capacities to realise cultural value, though in Throsby’s framework the capital
is stored in the cultural goods whereas the capital is invested in the consumers in
Klamer’s view.
Valorisation
‘Valorisation’ is a term used by Arjo Klamer to describe the social process of
debate and argumentation which gives rise to the value of any good. According
to Klamer, understanding why people value cultural goods is just as important as
understanding (and is indeed an important factor in determining) how much they
value that good. This suggests that qualitative understanding of the valorisation
processes is necessary in order to complement numerical assessments of value.
Summary
As has been seen, there is currently little consensus about how best to describe the
many ways in which arts and culture enrich our lives. This overview is intended
to help readers select an appropriate language for a given purpose and guide them
towards the literature that will help them ground their work in an established
framework. When used in the context of evaluation and assessment, the language
of impact should facilitate the accurate characterisation of how people actually experience
art and culture.
Considering the language and frameworks reviewed here, we use the term ‘individual
impacts’ to describe the totality of ways in which individuals are affected
or changed (at least temporarily) by a cultural programme or activity. This may
include pleasure, emotional engagement, learning, therapeutic restoration,
creative stimulation, a heightened sense of belonging to a larger community,
stronger social ties to fellow attendees, increased social status and a greater
sense of well-being. Our focus is on the individuals who experience the cultural
work. We do not include impacts received by individuals who did not experience
the programme or activity, such as a spouse who is indirectly affected by their
partner’s cultural experience, or members of a minority group who take pride in
the fact that a museum exhibition allows their collective voice to be heard – even
if they do not see the exhibition.
In using the term ‘impacts’ we do not intend to imply that cultural experiences
are passively received by those in attendance. In fact, audiences are co-creators of
impact. Moreover, the literature suggests that an individual’s response to an arts
or cultural programme or activity is idiosyncratic and unpredictable (Selwood
Framing the Conversation 57
UNDERSTANDING the value and impacts of cultural experiences