Art pays off. Not only financially, but also in terms of quality of life, development and new communities in the municipalities where the visual arts are intended with local politics in mind. This is apparent from a new report prepared by the consulting firm cphfacilitation for the Association of Visual Artists.
The visual arts have very different conditions in the country's 98 municipalities: some municipalities have formulated art policies, established visual arts councils or introduced percentage schemes that include art in municipal construction. The vast majority have not.
But now municipal politicians, civil servants and locally committed artists have a new tool to use in their work so that more citizens throughout the country can benefit and enjoy all that the visual arts have to contribute.
It happens with the new report,'The visual arts in the municipalities – potential and recommendations', prepared by the consultancy cphfacilitation for the Association of Visual Artists. The report maps the most important, new cultural policy research and conveys many of the good examples of how a good framework is created for the professional visual arts locally.
In addition, the researchers present a wide range of recommendations for how art can best be incorporated into the municipality's policies and development work. The recommendations are aimed both at municipal politicians, administration and artists who want to work in local politics to promote the arts in their municipality.
The many bottom lines of art
The researchers' mapping shows how art contributes positively to creating new communities, strengthens the education of children and young people and provides a better quality of life in the municipalities. In addition, the report zooms in on what the municipalities can gain economically from investing in an active artistic life at a high professional level.
To that end, Viborg Municipality's expenses in the field of visual arts are analysed. The researchers conclude that out of the municipality's investment in the visual arts area of DKK 4,7 million. and subsidies from the state of DKK 1,7 million. DKK, runs approx. 4,1 million DKK back to public coffers.
This means that visual arts and the work of visual artists create public revenue corresponding to 64 percent of the public expenditure on visual arts in Viborg Municipality. In addition, there are all the derivative activities in the local business community that the visual artists' work creates.
"There is no doubt that it pays off financially for the municipalities to invest in a good framework for the professional visual arts," says Flemming Olsen, who is one of the authors behind the report.
"But the financial benefits cannot and must not stand alone. Our mapping and interviews show that art contributes significantly and positively to the citizens' everyday life in the municipalities on a wide range of other parameters. Among other things. adds aesthetic values to art, which creates an increased quality of life, while at the same time art can help to support e.g. urban development, citizens' health and children's and young people's learning."
New tool to promote the arts
In the report, the researchers present a wide range of recommendations for use in the work of creating a better framework for the professional visual arts throughout the country. First of all, it is recommended that the municipalities draw up an art policy or strategy, and/or that a continuous dialogue be initiated with the local, professional visual arts environment.
Unfortunately, the initiative to establish this dialogue rarely comes from the municipalities themselves - therefore the new BKF report, among other things, intended as a tool to establish contact with the municipality's politicians and administration. The ambition is that the report's inspiration and research material can act as the first step to 'get through' to a municipal politician or municipal cultural consultant with a view to promoting the arts locally.
"The dialogue between the artistic milieu, municipal politicians and the municipal administration is extremely crucial," says the report's main author Flemming Olsen, who was himself for a number of years Director of Children and Culture in Herlev Municipality.
"My advice to artists who want to work locally with visual art activities is to create a binding platform for the dialogue with the politicians. It can be in the form of a visual arts council or other committees where artists, administration and politicians meet. It is important that the dialogue is based on data, and therefore I hope that research can also be launched in the future that tells about the value of art on many bottom lines – both the economic, the aesthetic and the learning and education aspect. But it is just as important that the dialogue invites in to get together about the artistic soul. Because it is also through being emotionally affected that development is created in our society," he says.
Recommendations for the municipalities: Your art policy must contain this
In the report, it is recommended that the municipalities draw up a visual arts policy which, among other things, describes:
• Opportunities for children and young people to meet the professional visual arts
• The role of art in urban development, both in larger cities and in villages
• The role of art in working for physical and mental health
• Art's potential for citizen involvement and its role as a co-creator of new communities in cities and in rural areas.
• Framework conditions for art production in the municipality, workshops and exhibition facilities
• Procedure and guidelines for artistic decoration (% scheme or equivalent) and guidelines for artists' remuneration in connection with exhibitions
• How the dialogue between performing artists and municipal politicians is integrated into everyday municipal life, as well as how the dialogue is continuously strengthened and professionally developed, so that citizens always receive high artistic quality for the funds the municipality spends on the visual arts.
Source: The visual arts in the municipalities – potential and recommendations, BKF 2020.
Illustration at top: Sculptor René Schmidt's sketch of Hærvej's stegler, Viborg Baneby. Viborg Municipality is highlighted in the report for providing the professional visual arts with a good framework. Read more in the March edition of the trade magazine Billedkunstneren, which is on the streets on 4 March 2020.