Value vs measurement

After making some bad decisions in my mid-20s, I have become something of a personal finance hawk over the last few years. I recently found a fantastic interview that Bill Moyers did in September 2007 with financial kingpin, John Bogle (founder of Vanguard). So, what does this have to do with independent artists or arts & culture in general?

The crux of the discussion centers around Mr. Bogle’s position that the financial services industry is actually taking value out of our economy. What Mr. Bogle says at the end is what inspired this post. To quote him directly:

“I’m perfectly willing to give a high value, for example, to art and poetry and literature. They add value to society. It may not be easy to measure it in a society that measures too much of what’s not important. And not enough of what is important. As the sign in Einstein’s office says– There are some things that count that can’t be counted. And some things that can be counted that don’t count.“

What inspired me most about this comment is the acknowledgment that certain things with tremendous value simply CANNOT be measured using quantifiable criteria. This is one of the unique challenges that arts organizations face when it comes to justifying our existence as charitable under the IRS code (which does not actually recognize art as a charitable activity) and to grant makers who often require “measurable outcomes” when requesting funding and reporting on funds received. Fortunately for Fractured Atlas, we CAN measure our services quantitatively (how many artists enrolled in healthcare plans, how many dollars were disbursed to our sponsored projects, how many artists accessed our new online courses, how many liability insurance policies did we sell) but many of the artists and emerging companies in our membership don’t have it so easy.

I am all for measuring what can be measured and in fact, there are some innovative solutions in the arts to gather qualitative and quantitative data that prove our worth and demonstrate service to our community. What worries me about our logic-based, post-industrialized national psyche is that it often assumes “if it cannot be measured, it is worthless” and that is what struck a chord with me in Mr. Bogle’s interview (note: sound waves can indeed be measured).

Arts advocacy seems to feed this obsession with quantity over quality by continuing to tout the economic impact of the arts on communities rather than developing initiatives to promote the intangible value art provides and educate the voters about what a society without art would look/feel/taste/smell/and sound like…

Until our citizens and policy makers understand the immeasurable value of art with respect to our society’s quality of life IN TANDEM with the measurable outcomes, the issues surrounding sustainability in the arts will continue to grow and the small to medium sized community based arts orgs that are not gigantic institutions funded by massive government subsidies will find it harder and harder to survive. Thankfully, research on the topic of art’s intrinsic value has begun (my thanks go out to The Artful Manager for posting about the aforementioned report).

To learn more about Mr. Bogle and his insights into our economy, you can check out his blog.