Bottom Line Up Front: Development Professionals (myself included!) need to reconsider the role of arts and creative clusters in development.
I have spent a good portion of my professional career in international economic development and much of what I have observed is a tendency for sector specialists to stay close to their domain. Engineers (yours truly) want to build things; environmentalists want to focus environmental issues, gender specialists on women’s issues and so on. At one level this is normal. It also breeds competition for resources – development as a zero sum game.
This is bad.
In an earlier blog I reflected on findings about the Kresge Foundations work and how the include art (culture) as a part of their approach. Since then I have been poking around – this is an initial set of observations:
Why Arts?
If arts are generally under appreciated in development circles it may help to begin with a rationale.
What is art’s function? What does art do for a person, a country?
Jason Farago, NY Times Jan 13, 2021
In that article, the response is that art provides catharsis through which emotions are shared, social integration, and ultimately strength and self-confidence. Effectively arts serve as a channel for renewal and restoration. This sounds a lot like development – the improvement of well-being and the quality of life.
The National Conference of State Legislators argues that “arts and culture can influence an array of policy goals, including economic development, rural development, revenue generation, tourism, accessibility and participation, diversity, education, and youth development.”
National Governor’s Association reports that arts clusters often have a surprisingly large role in state economies and that states are increasingly targeting this sector as part of a broader economic development strategy.
Recent analysis found the creative industry the third-largest cluster in Arkansas, the fifth-largest in Colorado, and among the fastest-growing clusters in Mississippi.
National Governor’s Association
Finally, a study of middling vintage, by Grodach et al “finds that the arts’ role in developing metro economies is as highly underestimated.” The APA also finds that arts improve a community’s competitive edge and help create a sense of place.
Bottom line: there seems to be plenty of gray and formal literature supporting a role for the arts in economic development.
Nonetheless a quick review of USAID and World Bank websites did not turn anything other than a few small handicrafts projects. The World Bank’s Innovation Policy Platform includes a page on IP and Creative Industries but seems to mostly focus on intellectual property issues.
Barriers to Arts?
If we accept as a hypothesis that arts might have a potential role in broad based and equitable economic growth; why does it appear so infrequently in the (international) field?
Lack of Advocates: One possible reason for the near absence of arts in development programs is the lack of advocates: not within development agencies, not among local elites, and the sector as a whole is too fragmented and small scale to be able to competitively advocate for its interests.
My initial guess is that this is a leading factor.
Economies of Scale: A number of studies suggest that there are strong agglomerative economies associated with the arts – or more precisely creative clusters.
The National Governor’s Association notes that rural counties with performing arts groups have higher income and population growth. This MSU article is highly suggestive that Arts and The Arts can serve as tools for transforming economies away from primary production (agriculture) towards higher paying service industries.
To my understanding, the evidence is not decisive on this issue.
Constraints to Growth / Cost Benefit Analysis: In my development institution we use two key tools to judge the “goodness” of projects:
Constraints to Growth which is essentially a (backwards looking) tool to assess those factors that are serving as a brake to economic growth (and in a neoliberal context) poverty reduction. The constraints to growth diagnostic is often compared to a medical exam in which the doctor attempts to diagnose the patient. However, if the doctor is only focused on the physical side of the patient and not considering the social and mental health dimensions the likelihood of a misdiagnoses is higher.
I rather suspect that these tools, as they constructed and applied, will systematically overlook the role of the Arts and The Arts in development.
Some thoughts about next steps.
Art or Art Clusters?
I have not fully thought through this issue, but at least in my initial readings, I have not found a clear distinction made between programs designed to support Art versus programs designed to support The Arts (creative clusters); in all likelihood these things probably are not binary but exist along a continuum.
As a practical matter, it may be a bridge too far to start directly with The Arts and may be better to find ways to include Art in otherwise generally accepted (and very traditional) development projects. Even then some thought will have to be given about how Art contributes to the objectives of the original project – with Cost-Benefit Analysis and Program Logics anything not clearly tied to the ultimate objective is at risk of getting stripped out.
Advocates
In the US, Percent for the Arts, is a model for funding the arts that relies on allocating a small fraction (typically less than 1%) of capital projects’ costs towards commissioning art projects. This is a form of enforced advocacy. Still, if I think of the projects that I am working on; even 1% might attract (negative) attention.
One area that seems ripe with opportunity is in stakeholder engagement. Essentially Art as an element of an overarching communications strategy – and particularly when planners need to engage with a broad range of stakeholders around envisioning their future. In that context art seems like a possible tool for engaging marginalized (voiceless) segments of the population and helping to raise up their voices.
Conclusion: More thinking on how to incorporate art into communications and stakeholder engagement in current and future development projects.