Culture, Place and Policy Institute

The Challenge

This project adopted an interdisciplinary approach and explored efforts to bring together sport and the arts in both theory and practice. In the past this idea would have seemed unexceptional: the ancient Greek games and de Coubertin’s concept for the modern Olympics embraced both sport and the arts within the same occasion.

The main aims of this challenging project were to:

• examine critically the potential economic, social and cultural benefits from bringing together sport and the arts;
• foster collaboration and new work between researchers working in the fields of sport and the arts, across different disciplines, in part also to begin to address a significant gap in existing studies;
• draw together academics, policy makers, professionals and practitioners working in the two fields, to contribute to a shared understanding of the existing and potential benefits of co-operation, in areas including audience development, aesthetic experimentation and innovation, and policy integration, especially in relation to the health and well being agenda.

The Approach

CPPI played a key role in the delivery of a successful bid to AHRC for a research network on the links between the arts and sport.  The Principal Investigator was Professor Jonathan Long (Leeds Beckett University) and Franco Bianchini was the Co-investigator. The total value of the bid was £23,600. The project consisted of four seminars, focusing on different aspects of the sport-arts relationships, running from June 2016 to April 2017. 

The Impact

The impacts of the project include the publication, in early 2018, of a selection of the papers presented at the four seminars in a special issue of the journal Sport in Society. A manifesto advocating the benefits of collaboration between the arts and sport was also produced.

CPPI works closely with the UK Fields of Vision network which aims to examine and advocates efforts to bring together sport and the arts in both theory and practice.     

CPPI collaborated with Fields of Vision and with the Dutch organisation Platform Sport & Culture – ‘Stronger Together’ to organise a research seminar on collaboration between arts and sport research, practice and policy. The seminar was held on 16^th October 2018 in Leeuwarden, in the north of the Netherlands, as part of the city’s European Capital of Culture programme.