Performing arts and the city : Dutch municipal cultural policy in the Brave New World of evidence-based policy

Research aims to ameliorate the evaluation of Dutch municipal cultural policies. It is prompted by the rise of evidence-based policy, a tendency to provide (scientific) proof of the effects of public policies. In the first part of the research, the goals of public performing arts policies are researched by studying Dutch cultural policy documents published between 1992 and 2005. Intrinsic and extrinsic goals are distinguished. The second – theoretical – part of the research confronts these goals with views on the functioning of the arts in society from arts philosophy and sociology of the arts. The policy legitimizations are broken down to the values of the experience of performing arts and the subsequent functions they can give rise to on personal and societal level. This part closes by presenting a model to describe the functioning of the performing arts in urban society. The model describes how participation in the performing arts generates intrinsic and extrinsic values and functions in urban societies. In the third part of the research, the model is used to analyze the current evaluation efforts of eight Dutch municipalities. Current evaluation practices can be ameliorated by researching the values of the performing arts for the attendees and the subsequent values these can give rise to on societal level. In this thesis, proposals are formulated to develop current evaluation practices in stages. A combination of quantitative and qualitative audience research and general-population research is necessary. However, Dutch municipalities currently focus on developing intricate instruments to follow the performing of subsidized performing-arts organizations, which from the perspective taken in this research should be qualified as a secondary form of policy evaluation.