What is the issue?

The direct and indirect impacts of culture on local development are largely achieved through cultural participation and access of diverse groups of population to cultural amenities and activities. Cultural participation is linked to a number of areas of social and economic impact: social inclusion, education and life-long learning, well-being and health. High levels of cultural participation might be conducive to a favourable social environment for cultural and creative entrepreneurship, thereby enhancing the impact of cultural and creative production on job creation. In many cities and regions, cultural participation and specialisations in the cultural and creative sectors are evolving, and being used to tackle and societal challenges (e.g. climate change) from new angles, favouring resilience, skills creation and prosocial behavioural changes. High levels of cultural participation also create the premises for a stronger support of cultural spending and cultural policies from the public opinion, thus contributing to the financial and social sustainability of cultural and creative sectors.

The OECD-EC Policy Webinar

There is however still a lack of capacity at subnational levels to measure cultural participation and design instruments that can effectively increase it. This policy webinar will provide an opportunity to learn from latest academic evidence on the economic and social impacts of cultural participation, approaches to better capture it at regional level and instruments to increase it. The event shall also showcase a number of interesting European and non-European cases in this regard.