Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Mapping Cultural Assets: assessing significance 4 th June 2008 David Lee (BOP Consulting)

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Context of research  Region-wide ‘mapping and gapping’ study in West Midlands for RSS  Identify internationally, nationally, regionally and sub-regionally significant cultural asset  Not been done before in this context – we needed to invent a new methodology at BOP  Study of cultural provision: not demand

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Defining “cultural assets”  Has to be relevant for the purposes of the research  West Midlands – for the RSS Phase 3 Review of Culture and Sport  Needs to be tangible, spatial, material  Starting point - DCMS definition of culture contained within guidelines for developing Cultural Strategies (2000) and then integrating this with Community Strategies (2005) DCMS (2005) Guidance on Integrating Cultural and Community Strategies: Creating Opportunities

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd (Aggregated) DCMS definition

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Collating information  Iterative process  Commissioned data from Experian Business Database  Most comprehensive database of UK businesses across all domains  Produced list of over 2000 assets  However, unreliable source at times

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Collating information (ii)

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Collating information (iii)  Interviews with regional cultural stakeholders  ACE, MLA, English Heritage, Natural England, Sport England, Screen West Midlands, Advantage West Midlands, Play England, Audiences Central, MADE  Refined Experian list, identified gaps and rated significance where possible  We also used other datasets on culture in the region (e.g. Active Places)

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Assessing significance of assets: ‘ideal-typical’ approach (i) CriteriaDescriptionIndicators/evidence Capacity /scaleIndication of the level at which the asset exists, or houses and/or produces collections and activities  Venue capacity  Volume of programming and producing output  Geographical area size  Size of archive and collection Attendance /participation /usage profile Snapshot demographics of audience/users  Volume of visitors  Residents  Tourists (domestic vs. international)  Catchments area Quality/ distinctiveness/ uniqueness Cultural value and importance of the asset  Quality standards (e.g. designated collections, RFO status, accommodation accreditation, UNESCO status)  Programming and producing reach (e.g. international touring and hosting)  Reputation (e.g. awards, expert and critical opinion, media coverage, peer review)  Relative frequency of provision in region

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Assessing significance of assets (ii) The measures that were used fall into four categories.  quantitative benchmarks – statistics that relate directly to specific elements of the experience of the asset (e.g. venue capacity, collection size, number of visitors)  qualitative benchmarks – thresholds attained or prizes won courtesy of a recognised industry-awarding body that relate to the quality of particular assets (e.g. UNESCO World Heritage Site, National Park designation, RIBA Awards)  quantitative proxies – statistics that can be interpreted to relate to the significance of the asset (e.g. counts of news coverage)  qualitative proxies – both regional and external subjective judgements on the overall quality and significance of assets obtained (e.g. expert stakeholder opinion, inclusion in Birmingham’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2008, inclusion in leading domain-specific publications)

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd West Midlands: Assessing significance

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd West Midlands: Assessing significance

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Lessons learned: methodology  Many indicators, and much evidence, does not exist in readily available form  Qualitative judgement from regional stakeholders on level of significance becomes important – it’s a proxy  However there are problems – they tend to not see the private sector assets; and are unable to reliably judge where their portfolio of assets sit internationally, and nationally  External perceptions also vital: e.g. news archive, inclusion in benchmark books, etc. because regional stakeholders rate assets too highly

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Lessons learned (ii)  Certain domains were more difficult than others  E.g. Natural Environment  Natural England saw culturally significant assets through the lens of environmental significance  Our brief was to measure on basis of cultural significance (e.g. accessibility, perceptions)  Can be controversial: important that regional policymakers and stakeholders have ownership of the process and eventual outcome

Burns Owens Partnership Ltd Policy Lessons Learned  Cultural mapping gets you so far…  Use what you have and focus on future offer - asset mapping gives ‘intelligence’ to do this  Crucial for promoting identity of place, image and attractiveness of sub-region through cultural offer  But planning for new cultural facilities is not straightforward – successful new cultural assets (Eden Project, Guggenheim, the Falkirk Wheel) typically occur at nexus between evidence, aspirations and vision.  Supply often leads demand in cultural provision  Leadership matters  Limitations of study: not able to look into demand for culture