I have always had an interest in the arts - especially literature and theatre - and a fascination for the role they play in a society’s culture and politics. As a cultural policy scholar, the question of cultural value is very much at the heart of what I do. My research interests have developed around the central theme of the rationales for state involvement in the arts and the articulation of the value of culture in a public policy context. I am especially interested in the rhetorical arguments used to justify arts funding, and these are always arguments about value(s), politics and power. As a researcher, I am committed to public engagement and to developing networks of debate and collaboration with policy makers, arts professionals and creative producers. Being one of the academic leads for the Commission, then, represents a precious opportunity to be part of an ambitious project that will connect constructively different professional communities and networks of interest to develop, collaboratively, fresh policy thinking on one of the defining issues in contemporary cultural policy.

Biography

Dr Eleonora Belfiore is Associate Professor of Cultural Policy, Director of Graduate Studies, and one of the main tutors for the MA in International Cultural Policy and Management.

She is a humanities scholar, with a background in classics and Italian literature. Her research has consistently focused on the development of a humanities-based, but also highly interdisciplinary, approach to the study of cultural policies and cultural politics.

She is on the Project Advisory Group for the AHRC's Cultural Value Project.

She is also currently working on leading an international effort in developing a refreshed and robust interdisciplinary and collaborative research agenda around Cultural Value and Cultural Politics. This strand of work consist of a number of inter-related sub-projects which together form The #culturalvalue Initiative. In order to co-ordinate planning of the inter-related activities that are part of this new strand of work, and to facilitate debate and bridge the gap between academic research, policy making, and artistic and professional practice, she has created a web platform for discussion and exchange: www.culturalvalueinitiative.org.

Staff page: www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/theatre_s/cp/staff/belfiore/

Email: e dot belfiore at warwick dot ac dot uk

Twitter: @elebelfiore