Great thoughts and comments in Carol Coletta’s ”Smart City” radio program, as she interviews Jennie Winhall of the UK’s Design Council and Williams College economist Stephen Sheppard (you can hear the program here).
Winhall works for a special division of the Design Council called RED, which strives to apply design and process analysis to complex social issues — like energy use, civic engagement, and public health. The civic engagement analysis is particularly interesting for cultural managers, who could certainly benefit from applying a designer’s eye to their own organizations. Says the intro to the report:
This project explores three important encounters between our State and its citizens: voting, jury service and the new citizenship ceremony. These encounters are often designed, it appears, by default, and in ways which are increasingly out of step with experiences in other areas of life. We used design research techniques, following a small group of citizens to document their experiences of ‘Touching the State’. Looking at the role of design in mediating and defining the relationship between the State and citizens, we ask: can these encounters be designed differently to increase engagement and a sense of citizenship?
In a separate interview, Stephen Sheppard discusses the impact of cultural organizations on their surrounding communities — but with more nuance and depth than most such conversations. Sheppard has been tracking the specific impacts of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA) on the struggling community and economy of North Adams, Massachusetts. Rather than following the usual cheerleading and faulty framing of most economic impact studies, Sheppard seeks ”carefully done, defensible, quantitative measures” on the economic and social dynamics behind the interaction.
His measures and analysis have suggested that the economic impact of the arts in communities comes through three important pathways:
- Their ”direct and important employment and income generation” that happens through the arts (they employ people, they attract people, they encourage related industries to relocate and grow).
- Their impact on the desirability of the community as a place to live. People love to live in communities where there is a vibrancy and vitality — often available through the arts. This desirability can eventually directly effect the price of housing.
- The way the arts bring different types of people together. Says Sheppard: ”The arts and cultural organizations serve as a sort of crucible within which people come together, and within which social capital is formed.”
As part of the exploration, Sheppard, Williams College, and Mass MoCA have founded the Center for Creative Community Development to share and expand the findings of their work.
