DEMOS

Whereas two previous Demos pamphlets, Capturing Cultural Value and Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy have shown how the many different valuations that are placed on Culture can be expressed within the over-arching concept of Cultural Value, this essay focuses on the value created by institutions through their relationship with the public: Institutional Value. Beginning with the ruling ideas of Creativity, Continuity and Care, a new evaluative matrix is developed as a critical tool to help cultural institutions assess their organizational capacity, their creative drive, their ethical stance, even their environmental responsibilities. Ultimately, however, it is not institutions that change things, it is the people within them. This essay is a challenge to cultural leaders, and to the members of the organizations they lead.