Cultural analytics in the UK: events data potential for the creative and cultural industries

This article investigates the potential for novel research utilising data generated by the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) in the UK, focussing on the long tail of metadata associated with the UK’s rich cultural events landscape. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 29 researchers and related domain experts to ascertain: (1) How cultural data is valued by academic, social and industry research in the UK and how this relates to how culture is valued; (2) How large-scale cultural events data fits into the existing landscape of cultural data; (3) How UK research can make better use of cultural events data (skills and infrastructure); (4) The benefits and pitfalls of an evidence-based approach to cultural policy; and (5) The repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic on how data-led work is positioned within the CCI. We advocate for the potential value of cultural events data to academic research, policy and industry, and also for a humanities-led approach to counter the trends towards data-driven understandings of and appraisal of culture. We suggest that a centralised cultural events data service for use in research, industry and policy is one way of supporting this.