CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was an invited participant in an overnight consultation meeting at Windsor Castle, an official residence of Her Majesty the Queen.
The event was set up to discuss “The Value of Culture and The Crisis of Judgement” and was hosted by St George’s House: “a place where people of influence and responsibility” are invited to gather, communicate, explore and analyze contemporary issues. The house is part of the College of St George, at the heart of which is St George’s Chapel, founded in 1348.
Although house protocol does not permit the divulgence of the other participants, Dr Howells is able to reveal that the discussion was free, informed and wide ranging, and that he held to his own position that the value of culture was not in its contribution to the economy or its “impact” on society. But he does believe that aesthetic judgement has a place in the informed understanding of culture.
The event was organised by St George’s House in partnership with the Institute of Ideas. Howells’ book chapter: “Sorting the Sheep from the Sheep: Value, Worth and the Creative Industries” is included in The Public Value of the Humanities, edited by Jonathan Bate, London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011, pp. 232-243. His essay was originally commissioned by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
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