Beyond Economic Impact: Rethinking Culture in Public Policy

This panel highlights the role of culture as both a direct and indirect contributor to the national economy and explores culture’s influence on innovation, employment, and tourism, while challenging the tendency to measure its value solely through economic metrics. The panel will showcase national and international examples to rethink how cultural value is defined bridging economic, social, and human dimensions to build a more holistic understanding of culture’s role in national prosperity.

This session explores culture’s power to drive transformation: to redefine meaning, build new connections and challenge power. Grounded in academic research, concrete examples, and policy reflection, this panel demonstrates how cultural initiatives extend far beyond economic impact. Arts and culture actively shape society, strengthen social cohesion, and contribute to inclusive and sustainable development.

The conversation explores the vital role of arts and culture in supporting health and wellbeing, highlighting how creative practices contribute to mental health, therapeutic processes, recovery, and rehabilitation. The discussion invites a broader understanding of cultural value—one that recognizes the profound human and social dimensions of the arts—and considers how creativity fosters connection, resilience, and care in ways that reach far beyond traditional cultural and economic measures. 

Intro Keynote

12:10 – 12:20 | Daisy Fancourt, Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology, Author of Art Cure

This session explores how we can reframe cultural investment to support a healthier, more resilient cultural ecosystem. It considers why messages about the social, economic, and human value of culture often fail to reach policymakers—and which new strategies might help. The discussion challenges the tendency to reduce the arts to economic metrics, offering ways to depolarize funding debates and integrate culture into wider policy goals.