Big Ideas: The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Cultural Value Project

The Arts and Humanities Research Council's Cultural Value Project
was set up late in 2012 to address the dissatisfaction with the
ways in which we understand and articulate the benefits of arts
and culture. These tended to concentrate on the publicly-funded
arts and, for that reason, were shaped by the demands of
advocacy.


For the same reason they increasingly came to focus on the
economic benefits because it was believed that that was what
governments wished to hear. Professor Geoffrey Crossick presents
an overview of the project. His talk indicates the range of
research that it has funded and, in doing so, identifies the
projects that have focused on archives, heritage and history.


Professor Geoffrey Crossick is Director of the AHRC's Cultural
Value Project and Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the
School of Advanced Study at the University of London. He is a
historian and his main area of research has been the urban social
history of 19th and 20th century Britain and continental Europe.