Not rocket science: a roadmap for cultural R&D

• Hasan Bakhshi, Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman
• Mission Models Money

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27 January 2010Outlining a radical new roadmap for cultural R&D, these proposals challenge two entrenched prejudices which block arts and cultural organisations from playing their full role in society and economy.

First, arts and culture are largely excluded from R&D by definitions based on its Science and Technology (S&T) origins. Second, the arts and cultural sector relies on a conception of creativity that mystifies too much of its work, preventing it from accessing valuable public resources.

Not confined to novel products or processes, arts and cultural innovation will yield altogether new ways in which arts and culture are embedded in the knowledge society and economy. So, for example, experimental development will trial new ways of engaging audiences, or explore new forms of collaboration between producers, and between them and consumers, through digital technologies.

It will investigate how arts and cultural organisations can re-imagine their relationship with private sector businesses, social enterprise and public service delivery. In short, arts and cultural R&D will expand the sources of cultural, commercial and public value.