Arts and culture are not peripheral to economic development but essential to both stimulating and directing economic growth
Introduction
The Public Value of Arts and Culture: Investing in Arts and Culture to Reimagine Economic Growth in the 21st Century | UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Authors:
- Mariana Mazzucato | Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London, and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Executive Summary:
In an era of multiple interrelated crises, governments have a critical role in shaping economies. The question is no longer whether the state should intervene, but how and towards what ends. Arts and culture, from visual arts to music and design, are the foundations for reimagining alternative futures, fostering civic identity, and mobilising collective action. Yet they remain underutilised and undervalued in economic policy.
Arts and culture are not peripheral to economic development but essential to both stimulating and directing economic growth toward more creative, inclusive and sustainable societies and generating high economic multipliers and dynamic spillovers across the economy and society.
We need to move away from viewing arts and culture as a cost and towards recognising them as an investment. Arts and culture can be both a means and an end: a goal of economic policy as well as a precondition for economic transformation.