Determinants of Impact: Towards a Better Understanding of Encounters with the Arts

Abstract

The paper argues that current methods for assessing the impact of the arts are largely based on a fragmented and incomplete understanding of the cognitive, psychological and socio-cultural dynamics that govern the aesthetic experience. It postulates that a better grasp of the interaction between the individual and the work of art is the necessary foundation for a genuine understanding of how the arts can affect people. Through a critique of philosophical and empirical attempts to capture the main features of the aesthetic encounter, the paper draws attention to the gaps in our current understanding of the responses to art. It proposes a classification and exploration of the factors -social, cultural and psychological -that contribute to shaping the aesthetic experience, thus determining the possibility of impact. The 'determinants of impact' identified are distinguished into three groups: those that are inherent to the individual who interacts with the artwork; those that are inherent to the artwork; and 'environmental factors', which are extrinsic to both the individual and the artwork. The paper concludes that any meaningful attempt to assess the impact of the arts would need to take these 'determinants of impact' into account, in order to capture the multidimensional and subjective nature of the aesthetic experience. Keywords:Arts impacts assessment; aesthetic experience; transformative powers of the arts; reception; audience research.1 The authors would like to acknowledge the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Arts Council England for their support of this research and thank three anonymous referees for their useful suggestions and insightful comments on an earlier draft of the paper. 2 IntroductionThere are many things that policy makers expect the subsidised arts to achieve. These have to do with, amongst other things, local and national economic development; job creation; the enhancement of self-esteem, personal health and well-being; an individual's competitiveness in the job market; and the reduction of criminal re-offending. As we have put it in an earlier paper (Bennett, 2002), "[i]t really is difficult to think of any other area of public policy which attracts quite such an extraordinary combination of expectations". This paper concerns itself in particular with the belief, central to contemporary articulations of the aims and rationales for public support of the arts, that the artistic experience can have transformative effects on both the individual and society. The following passage from manifesto Ambition for the Arts, clearly shows the central place that the language of transformation has gained in the official rhetoric that accompanies arts funding in England:We will argue that being involved with the arts can have a lasting and transforming effect on many aspects of people's lives. This is true not just for individuals, but also for neighbourhoods, communities, regions and entire generations, whose sense of identity and purpose can be One thing that our extensive analysis of sources, ...

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