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Cliff-hanger

The South East region was the first to have a designated heritage coastline when the Countryside Commission recognised the White Chalk Cliffs between Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters and Seaford Head as a stretch of coastline of particular natural beauty

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About the project

What's the point of the Southeast Cultural Observatory?

The Southeast Cultural Observatory is a result of an identified need for an information resource that demonstrates how culture has a positive impact on many themes of society - on learning and skills, on health, on social inclusion or economic development.

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We hope the following links answer your questions. If you'd like more information, please email info@seco.org.uk

Who is the Southeast Cultural Observatory for?

The Southeast Cultural Observatory is for people who want to maximise the impact of culture.

The Southeast Cultural Observatory is for you if you

  • work in a cultural or community organisation and want to show a potential funder or partner how your cultural activity contributes to their objectives
  • work in local or regional governance and want to embed cultural activity across all local or regional governance activities
  • are lobbying regional or national government to include cultural activity in its policies
  • want an understanding of how sectors like health, learning and skills and local government work
  • Work in the cultural sector and want to know what business support and training opportunities there are for you and your organisation

Why do we need to demonstrate the value of culture?

Many people believe that culture has an intrinsic value of its own and has no need to demonstrate its usefulness or worth. We know this to be true, but we also acknowledge that for those people trying to extend the reach of cultural activities, the usefulness of culture as a tool to further other objectives e.g. regeneration or social inclusion objectives, is extraordinary.

We believe that if we can show policymakers and funders in areas that are traditionally non-cultural (for instance in health or learning) how culture can contribute to their objectives, cultural activity in the South East will be broadened and deepened, and investment in cultural activity will increase.

But we need quality information to show the positive impact of culture.

Research undertaken by Kate Oakley for the South East England Development Agency and Culture South East argued that much information on the positive impact of culture could be less valuable because it could be seen to be

  • anecdotal
  • short-term
  • biased
  • faulty

Read the report here

The report  recommended that the cultural sector work together to

  • identify quality research and information to show the value of culture
  • create a mechanism to collate, interpret and disseminate the research and information

The Southeast Cultural Observatory aims to be that mechanism.

Our role is to provide:

  • A single central online resource with access to cultural research and information that will inform policy development and performance measurement  
  • A news service to stakeholders
  • A signposting facility to other intelligence sources.

This is what we hope to achieve:

  • To articulate the positive contribution that culture makes to a wide range of issues
  • To deliver the information and tools to enable users to make the case for culture
  • To encourage the recognition of the value of culture, and investment in the cultural sector