Economic and Social Impact Study - 2009
In April 2009, a report on the Economic and Social Benefit of the arts in Worcestershire was published. Worcestershire County Council agreed to the Foundation's suggestion to commission such a study, and co-funded the cost. The result was the discovery that for every £1 contributed from local authority sources in the county, an astonishing £32 was returned by way of economic value. The study covered all six authorities and conducted case studies of six leading institutions - Malvern Theatres, Worcester Live, the Shindig small-scale touring programme, the Palace Theatre, Redditch, Number 8, Pershore and the Worcester Three Choirs Festival. The hope is that the evidence that this empirical study revealed would help to underpin the case for continued local authority funding of the arts in the future.A vital component of the exercise was the devising by the researchers ERS of a toolkit whereby arts organisations could uniformly collect date on their economic and social benefits in the format increasingly required by local authorities who follow the indicators set out in the County's Local Area Agreement. The County Arts Officer is introducing usage of the toolkit through the new Worcestershire Arts Partnership which was a direct result of the study.
To read the final report click on the following link - 'Like Living and Breathing - The Arts Matter'
