1. The impact of amateur arts on
individual and community
Jenny Phillimore and Hilary Ramsden
NCVO 21st March 2012

2. Northern Hordes Break Dance Competition
photo by Handle with Cake

3. The impact of amateur arts
• Increased policy and academic attention on
civil society
• Impact of small scale civil society and
mainstream arts little studied
• Gaps in knowledge around amateur arts – self
managed
• Are amateur arts just for fun or do they have
wider social and economic impacts?

5. The approach
• Literature review – post 2005
– Policy
– Grey literature
– Global and multidisciplinary – arts, humanities, social
sciences, medicine, maths, IT..........
• Documentary analysis of 33 AA publications
• Workshops and World Cafe with 31 people from AA
world
• Use of Guetzkow’s (2002) framework
– Impact of direct involvement
– Impact for audience
– Impact for community

6. Individual Individual and community Community
Physical Health Cognitive/ Interpersonal and Aesthetic Cultural Economic Social
psychological self development
Direct Improved physical Improves memory Builds individual Transitional Can create new Reduces GP visits Creates a
involvement health i.e. Fosters joy and friendships and mechanism for making individual and group and aids public community of spirit
pulmonary happiness networks that which formerly did identities purse Brings people
Increased fitness Feel good Participation in not exist Offers an alternative Enhances together across
Relieves stress endorphins and virtual networks Encourages risk taking identity employability via generation, class,
emotional balance Can include or and new forms of Provides an development of ethnicity and other
Opportunity to exclude creativity opportunity to self- transferable skills boundaries
externalise Develops skills: self- Beauty and adornment define or connect by and improved CV Creates links across
problems directed learning, bring people together ethnicity or culture Route to locales, regionally,
Being “in the flow” technical skills, and fosters joy and employment or self- nationally and
reduces anxiety communication happiness employment or internationally
Improves self- skills, and leadership Develops innovation income Evolution of virtual
confidence and skills and experimentation supplementation communities
self-esteem Improves children’s skills Activities can be
Helps the elderly academic gendered or
retain cognition performance racialised
Audience Music, colours Beauty and adornment Maintains tradition. Revenues earned at Community of
benefits and rhythm bring people together Engenders feelings events help to pay spirit develops
provide stimulus and fosters joy and of connection to upkeep of around live
and increase happiness diasporic community performances
happiness communities buildings
Presence of Can improve the Can improve the Artists spend Brings people
amateur arts appearance and status and image of benefits local and together around
attractiveness of place a place. Enables regional economies common goals
reconstruction of and local venues etc
place identity Fosters creative
economy and
professional artists
Fosters civic
participation
Promotes urban
renewal
Can help reduce
crime levels

8. Some impacts
• Improved health of individuals – physical via dancing, singing,
alleviation from symptoms i.e. Parkinsons, stroke and cancer
patients
• Audience impacts – watching beauty brings people together and
is pleasurable; crafts are tactile and bring vitality; laughter and
wonder reduce stress levels
• The presence of AA – improved attractiveness and appearance,
attracting tourists and residents, arresting decline and reducing
crime i.e. People’s Republic of Stokes Croft
• Community and individual impacts – development of social
networks and creation of new communities i.e. re-connection of
homeless men, the “village” feel of online Anime communities
• Negative impacts – physical risks, frustration of failure and
exclusionary forces

10. Conclusions
• Self-generation, self-sufficient, unintended but
significant
• The importance of beauty, fun, laughter etc for
social and (possibly) economic impacts
• Lack of empirical research.......or the desire to
prove anything
• How and when do impacts occur? Are there
pathways to impact?
• How do individual impacts accumulate to impact
at community level?
• What next?