Reclaiming Culture as a Public Good

International Visiting Fellow Public Lecture

Hosted by Creative People, Products and Places (CP3) and the School of Humanities

Reclaiming Culture as a Public Good

From Return on Investment to Rights of Access

Abigail Gilmore

Professor of Cultural Policy

Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester, UK

Wednesday 13th May 5.30-8pm

Bradley Forum, Adelaide University, City West

This lecture explores the politics of cultural policy and what it means for fair and inclusive access to cultural infrastructure. Through a comparative lens focused on the UK and Australia, it asks what can be learned from three decades of shared ideas, policy exchange, and parallel challenges in planning for culture and using it as a tool for urban and regional regeneration.

The lecture examines how culture has been positioned as a remedy for post-pandemic recovery, declining high streets, and long-term deindustrialisation. Arts and culture are increasingly expected to deliver economic growth, improved health outcomes, and social cohesion, even as local government—the largest funder of cultural services—faces sharply reduced budgets. Public cultural assets are deteriorating, funding for infrastructure is uneven, and private investment tends to bypass places with lower land values, deepening territorial inequities in access to culture.

Rather than continuing a race to monetise culture through ever more sophisticated metrics, the lecture argues for a different direction: re‑narrating culture as a public good and a foundation of liveable, democratic places. It proposes policy frameworks that treat access to cultural infrastructure as a basic right—planned alongside transport, housing, and social infrastructure at all levels of government.

Free event, please register for catering purposes. Refreshments provided.