I think that we should rethink the value of culture

The many interconnected challenges of our time all require holistic solutions. For cultural funding, that means we need to ask more questions, like how do we define cultural ‘value’? How can those values and funding sources be positioned within a more circular cultural economy?

Thanks to all the strategic work done around sustainability in recent years, there are now methods for ecosystem-based accounting. These include ways to understand cultural activities – intangible or tangible – as ecosystems. This means we  need to connect the dots and start looking more broadly at how the economic situation of arts and culture is embedded in many different influences and flows, and how different types of value reinforce one another. It's time to work on coherent and integrated ways of assessing cultural value using robust methods of cultural ecosystem accounting.

Understanding and working with circular thinking also means letting go of some of the major binaries that have shaped our cultural systems. The twentieth century built up and then broke down the high-art/popular-culture binary. In our time, we can go further, reframing more binaries – such as analogue versus digital, economic versus sociocultural, charity versus investment, private versus public funding, autonomous art versus profit, artistic freedom versus social relevance – to fit into circular models.

“Money often ends up in the wrong hands”

One myth holding us back right now is that culture is not as urgent as other spheres. But in our dizzying times, we need for artistic narratives that respond clearly and powerfully to our present moment. These can generate new shared creative energy for humanity, countering the fear of dehumanisation.

Another myth is that we can’t afford culture during hard times. But the fact is, the money often ends up in the wrong hands and needs to be redistributed, like through the regulation of big tech, tax breaks for artists.

Due to global rearmament, countries are redirecting vast amounts of public spending and debt at lightning speed. This leads not only to budget cuts but also to a rising politicisation of public cultural funding by conservative governments, whose cultural values have taken a rightward turn.

Where public arts funding once supported the idea of ‘free’ art, separate from profit-driven culture, we now see – for better and for worse – that money flows and artistic boundaries are far more intertwined, suggesting the need for more mixed funding models.

But despite all this, in most regions there is still potential to create growth that supports carbon-neutral transition, international exchange and cultural export. In short, we need to apply circular economic principles to cultural funding. Circular economics call for deep change in policy, decision-making, socioeconomic planning, and in how both for-profit and non-profit organisations behave.

Circular economic thinking isn’t just about degrowth or giving up old habits. It’s about bringing more positives into the picture, so that we can decouple resource use from growth.

“Smarter, alternative models already exist”

Take music streaming, a fast-growing part of the industry that creates huge profits from copyright, while leaving the majority of artists underpaid. Major labels use business models that block  fairer distribution and the flow of money into broader ‘cultural funds’.

But smarter, alternative models do already exist. For example, the Greenlandic initiative to launch a local music streaming app, Tusass Music, taps into the country’s vibrant underground scene. It supports Greenlandic musicians and Inuit cultural traditions while serving a niche market defined by huge distances between small local communities. Available in Greenland, the Faeroes, Canada and Denmark, the app aims to connect a demographic with shared culture despite complex administrative divisions.

In times of geopolitical tension, small pockets of cultural diversity within intangible heritage can show their value by strengthening things like resilience and community.