AEA Consulting’s 2021 Cultural Infrastructure Index

Across the globe, the transformative powers of cultural districts have been widely noted, particularly with respect to how they add value to the lives of individuals and to society as a whole. Yet the ways in which cultural districts deliver and evaluate their social impact have yet to be fully explored. Importantly, there is a stark absence of rigorous methodologies and assessment frameworks to assist cultural districts in articulating, planning, delivering, and evaluating their social value proposition. Based on findings from a follow-up study to our 2019 report on Social Impact, untimely terminated due to Covid-19, this publication highlights there is much to be learned about the social impact of cultural districts.

Authored by Rosie Dow for GCDN, Culture for health: implications and opportunities for cultural districts, explores how cultural districts can promote health and wellbeing through arts activations; the challenges they face in doing this work, and potential ways forward for new partnerships, policy reform and shifts in ways of working to better serve communities. This report, developed in partnership with the Social Biobehavioural Research Group, University College London (UCL SBB), provides leaders, artists, scholars, and policymakers with the strategies and considerations to promote public health outcomes in cultural districts, including ensuring sustainable and equitable access through arts activations, community-centred events and more.