“Arts Council England is to hire an economist for the first time, claiming the new role will enable it to make a stronger financial case for the sector,” writes Matthew Hemley in Thursday’s (6/28) The Stage (U.K.). “Chief executive Darren Henley revealed the appointment as he gave evidence to a parliamentary committee looking at the impact of cultural participation. Henley [said]: ‘We have to be better at gathering data and being able to tell the stories with a databased approach…. We can start to make economic arguments that are very powerful and make them in an economist’s terms.’ … Henley … said he wanted to … to implement programs for leadership training and management development…. ‘One of the things that has historically happened is that you might have [someone who is] good at a particular art form, they are promoted [to a leadership position] but we have not given them [leadership training] support,’ he explained. Henley referred to his background in business, where he said people were ‘given training all the way through. We want to do that much more.’ … Henley also spoke of his desire to see the arts prescribed more by [medical doctors] as a way of improving people’s well-being.”
Posted July 3, 2018
