Hello and welcome. In a change to our usual format, I don’t have a guest today. It’s just me, and that’s for a couple of reasons. Firstly, somebody dropped out due to ill health, and secondly, and perhaps most importantly, there’s something I want to talk about, and I have been talking about it a little bit on LinkedIn. It’s something I think that those of us working in music for education, well being and social justice, and those of us working in the wider arts need to talk about.
We need to talk about the way we’re talking about the arts and music: to ourselves, to our friends and family, to commissioners of services, funders, the public, to politicians. In a recent LinkedIn post, I asked, “Does the arts and culture in the UK have a framing problem?”, by which I meant, are we communicating why it matters in the most effective way?
And I think we do have a framing problem. I think that the way we talk about arts, culture, and I include music in that, isn’t fit for the times we’re living in. It isn’t fit for the people we need to talk to about it. And I think most of us have an uneasy sense that that’s true.
If we didn’t have a problem,
we wouldn’t rank at the bottom 22nd out of 25 among European nations in terms of culture spending from government. So that’s from the state of arts report from the campaign for the arts and the University of Warwick 2024
If we didn’t have a problem, we wouldn’t struggle so much to get the arts valued properly in schools and included in schools performance measures.
And if we didn’t have a problem, we wouldn’t have a 161 point 4 million shortfall in funding for music education in England. That’s from the Music Mark and Demos report in 2024
And as Shain Shapiro of the Center for Music Ecosystems and Sound Diplomacy says in a recent article for Forbes, “one of the biggest opportunities we have in the music ecosystem (and for music, you could also read arts), is the potential of music to improve our health and create an economic benefit alongside but this is not recognised across public policy. Why isn’t music structurally incorporated into health policy? It should be.” And I’d say, why isn’t arts and culture structurally incorporated into all sorts of policies? Because they should be.
By the way, I’m going to be mentioning a lot of people resources and reports in this podcast, so I’ll include a full list of links to everything in the web page for this, which will be on my website, www.writing-services.co.uk
So back to my LinkedIn post in it, I said that I felt the way we talk about the arts and culture, the way we define it, describe it, advocate for it, needs more thought, collaboration and expertise, not least in getting our definitions clear.
In his book, culture is not an industry. Justin O’Connor argues that the association of culture with creative and creative industries opened what he calls “a Pandora’s box of definitional and taxonomic nightmares, which remain at large to this day”. And he also says that culture is Central, and I’m paraphrasing, culture is central to democratic citizenship and should have a place in wider public policy as “an essential component”, as he says, “of our collective reimagining of the future”.
Now, again, we’re veering into our usual kind of woolly art speak there, which is one of our problems, I think. But he makes good points, and the book is well worth a read.
So yes, indeed, to all of that, to what Shain said, what Justin said, and all those reports are saying. And it feels like the time is now to change the way that we’re talking about arts and culture. Why is the time now?
Well, firstly, because it’s getting tough out there. We just need to work smarter.
Secondly, because I know there are many of you that are thinking the same way that it’s just about time we really sharpened up the way we communicate why the arts and music matter.
And thirdly, because, as freelance producer and arts education specialist David Baxter said in a recent What Next Cymru? meeting, we are everything that those who are threatening our democracies at the moment, hate so – and this is me talking now – I believe we’re about joy, not fear. I believe we’re about meaning and reflection, not knee jerk reactions. We’re about inclusion, democracy and so much more and the arts of music, like libraries, can give us. All of us, but we have to recognize that for a lot of people, the arts don’t matter, or what we term as the arts don’t matter, and those people who are threatening our democracies will use that against us.
In Wales in particular, we’re thinking ahead to the Senedd elections, and it’s likely that Reform will use the arts and culture as a political punch bag.
So to zoom out for a moment and back onto to the issue at hand about communications and how we’re talking about the arts and culture, we have a lot of scientific research now about what people think, how they behave in relation to that, and how we can best motivate them to think about and make choices that benefit themselves and society and people in health, in housing, in social care, in climate change, in international development, in government, in politics and in mission driven organizations and in business. So basically everybody in organizations the world over have been applying this science in changing citizen and consumer behavior for decades now, but in the arts and culture and music, we’re lagging behind.
So what on earth am I talking about? Well, for me, this comes back to a particular type of communication specialism, which is called framing. Bear with me if you’re about to switch off listen to something else. Please bear with me, because if you work in arts, culture and music, this is about your work and the future of it, and it’s important. I’m not here to sell my services. In fact, if anything, I’m here to sign post you to some different ways of thinking and to some other people’s services and support.
So on my blog, I’ve written quite a few articles about decision science and about messaging, and they’re all kind of connected to this, but framing is something slightly different. So basically, framing is making choices about what we say and how we say it, what we emphasize, how we explain an issue, what we choose to say and what we don’t say. These are all choices that affect how people think, feel and act. And anyone who’s worked with me knows that those three things are really important in communications for change.
So you may also have heard me talk about key messages, and perhaps I’ve worked with you to develop yours. Well frames and framing works beyond key messages because it uses evidence, it uses research about what people actually think about our issue and the frames that are already influencing them, frames that often politicians are using, that often other organisations are using and then this information helps us create ways of talking about the issue that will cut through the noise to create change and often to act as a counter to perhaps damaging narratives that are out there.
We haven’t completely ignored these communication sciences in the arts. Decision Science, which feeds into framing, is used by many arts fundraisers now, thanks to the great work of an organization called MC Consulting and one of their directors, Bernard Ross, you may have heard of them because they run the National Arts Fundraising School, otherwise known as NAFS. And a while ago, Arts Council England also ran some training and peer learning around decision science run by the same team.
Also, I recently found out that the Cultural Learning Alliance, who champion arts education, worked with an organisation called Frameworks UK, who I’ve followed for many years, they’re absolutely brilliant. And together, they’ve developed recent, really recently, what they call a Capabilities Framework, basically a set of messages about the seven capabilities developed through expressive art subjects. So you can find those in their report card, 2025 where they talk about agency, well being, communication, empathy, collaboration, creativity and interpretation, or, in other words, critical thinking.
But framing is not just about promoting the benefits of a particular thing. We’ve been doing that in the arts in the same way for far too long. It’s actually about understanding the world views that are informing people’s attitudes, their attitudes to the arts, the attitudes to culture, their attitudes to music, and using these to create messages and stories that hold attention, make plausible arguments, stir emotions and help us remember.
Because every word and every phrase you use evokes a frame, and that’s because our brains receive and process information so quickly that it often makes mental shortcuts to help us organize the information we receive. Otherwise we just simply couldn’t cope with the amount of information, and as we all know, that’s only increasing. So these shortcuts that our brain uses are frames, and they are structures that help us make sense of our world.
If you’re interested in Framing, do check out the website of Frameworks UK, who I mentioned, where you’ll find a lot more information, including some really interesting free resources, like their report how to talk about the building blocks of health, or their framing essential series of articles and their how to talk about series.
I’ll also, as I mentioned, include lots of links to further articles and resources in the web page for this episode, which you’ll find on my website at www.writing-services.co.uk My website is going to be relaunched any day now, so if you can’t find it or can’t find the information or the podcast, just email me at anita@writing-services.co.uk
I’m not going to talk any more about framing in this episode, because this is a little bit of a test for me to do an episode that is just me talking. And I don’t want to overwhelm and I want this to be a really quick kind of thought piece to just spark your interest, I guess. And I, as I said, I will include lots of links in the web page for this episode, but if you have an appetite for this type of thing, to hear this type of podcast from me, let me know, because I could do more. I could do some more episodes about that go into framing in a little bit more detail.
But for now, I’ll just leave you with some possible calls to action. So I started off by saying I think we have an arts and culture framing problem. So here are some of my recommendations, but I’d also really love to hear from you about what you think we can do about this.
So first of all, we need to bring some really smart thinking into the sector, people who have experience in communicating issues in ways that create change based on evidence. So I’m thinking about people like and I’m sure they won’t mind me mentioning them. Frameworks UK, who have already mentioned an organization that uses framing, research and messaging to spark shifts in public thinking. Mark Jaffrey, a leadership consultant and campaigns expert, who many of you in music education will know, as he was a government advisor and led the music manifesto many years ago, and I’ve worked with him for more than a decade on all sorts of work in music education and also in international development, where he does a lot of his work now.And someone I’ve discovered in the last few years through the National Union of journalist Cymru, who is Matt Greenough. He’s a past advisor to Welsh Labour, and more recently, he was campaigns director for Sadiq Khan’s successful Mayor of London campaign. So I’ll include links to all these fantastic people in the blog, as I mentioned.
Secondly, related to that, we have a lot of campaigns and messaging going on in the arts, culture and music. The National Campaign for the Arts, the Arts and Minds Campaign, Campaigns from theCultural Learning Alliance, from Music Mark, the Power of Music Alliance, Artworks Alliance, and many others. How are the public and politicians meant to remember those messages? How are those messages going to stick if they’re so diverse? I realise it’s complex, and segmenting messages and audiences is really important, but I just wonder if it’s possible to also have more collaboration and alignment on campaigns and messages.
Thirdly, organisations need to value and invest in communications. Now, I understand it seems so much less important than creating the work, delivering the work and fundraising for the work, particularly if you’re a small community or grassroots organisation. I know it’s hard enough finding the time and budget to do all that. I really do get that. But like I said, this is about your work, your communities and your futures, and beyond budgeting for it, in fact, I should say not your futures, really everybody’s futures, and particularly the most vulnerable in society and young people.
And beyond budgeting for it, we don’t even talk about communications enough in the sector, in forums and groups where people come together in the arts and music. I was thinking about that this morning when I was in a What’s Next? Cymru meeting, and I can’t remember the last time we talked about communications in that it came up today.
So, if we want arts and music to take its rightful place in society, to be understood, valued and invested in
if we want them to be seen as an integral part of everyone’s lives and of a healthy democratic society
then we also need to understand value and invest in the way we’re listening to what people think about arts and music and the way we’re telling the world about why they matter.
So I’d love to have some further conversations about this. So please feel free to contact me by email, through my website, LinkedIn, or BlueSky and let me know if you’re already on to this. It may be that I haven’t heard about the fantastic work you’re doing around this so it would be brilliant to hear from you.
Thank you for listening to the end, I’m no public speaker. I’m far better at writing than I ever am at talking, so I tend not to do so much public speaking, but I really do like sharing my learning, listening and having conversations. So please do get in touch and also let me know what you thought about this format for the podcast, if you liked it and would like me to occasionally do a solo podcast. Do let me know, and let me know what you’re interested to hear more about.
I hope you found this of interest. I hope you’ll explore a little more. Thanks again, and good luck with your amazing work.