A Research into the Evaluation of Community Art Policy concerning Social, Artistic and Economic Values in the Municipality of Utrecht

Abstract

This thesis answers the question: “What tensions are apparent between social, artistic and economic gains and values in community art policy of the municipality of Utrecht?” To answer this question, explorative research was conducted in the form of a policy analysis, consisting of a structured documentary analysis and an interview with a policy maker of Utrecht’s department of Cultural Affairs. This thesis focuses on the municipalities own evaluation of cultural policy, to understand if policy texts are meeting planned outcomes and to understand the influence the policy documents themselves have on formulating the same problems the policy is attempting to solve. The period 2012-2016 is explored. The tensions in Utrecht’s policy evaluation are mainly linked to tensions in the cultural field itself. Utrecht’s cultural policy is built in responds to developments in the cultural field, and reacts to field. This means that cultural organizations must live up to certain requirements, while at the same time they are able to influence the direction that the policy takes. Thus, one could state that Utrecht’s cultural policy is aimed at creating impact and meeting goals that the field sets itself. In the case of community art, a popular art-form in Utrecht which forms the basis of my inquiry, social and artistic value must be evaluated as part of the impact of the art-from. The artistic value or quality is a subjective aspect of the evaluation of (community) art projects and might cause a tension in itself. Also, the analyzed policy documents do not include objective requirements related to this criterion, only a framework which is open to interpretation. One could state that the artistic, social and economic values of community art go along with the present ideas and discourse that the cultural field - and thus community art organizations - is part of. This thesis exposes the shift in values Utrecht’s cultural policy focuses on: from artistic to social. There is no discourse for the latter yet, which makes it hard to define and formulate concrete goals and results. Organizations and projects cannot be judged according to the domain of social values, which is problematic for community art organizations and projects. Because of this, organizations are forced to focus more on their artistic and economic value, which already have their own discourse. Although the three values (artistic, social and economic) don’t necessarily exclude one another, the economic aspect always asks something from an organization that in some way might influence the artistic or social values. In a way, a form of tension is always present, because of the different choices an organization has to make concerning what values to focus on.