A Critical Evaluation of Quantitative Measures of the Quality of Arts and Culture

Art and culture i.e. theatre, film, music, visual art, literature, cultural heritage etc. and related institutions and participants, have traditionally not been measured and evaluated in the same way as other sectors. The reason for this is perhaps that art and culture cannot be ‘weighed and measured’, it is difficult to assess quality, and it has been difficult to see how and based on what criteria the quality, value and impact of art and culture can be measured. There has therefore been a reluctance to carry out such measurements, and ‘evaluations’ in the field have mostly been limited to analysing the content and aesthetics of individual works of art from a humanities perspective.