Overview
At the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), Prof Mariana Mazzucato leads a programme of work that explores the essential role of arts and culture in creating value and shaping the direction of economic growth to be more inclusive, imaginative, and outcomes-oriented. From redefining the BBC’s public value to envisioning a New Bauhaus for a Green Deal, IIPP’s Public Value of Arts and Culture Working Group brings together artists, designers, policymakers, and economists to reframe cultural ecosystems as key actors in mission-oriented innovation. IIPP’s research, reports, and public engagements, from the Venice Biennale to the Serpentine Gallery and Global Design Forum, highlight how culture contributes to public value, challenges extractive economic narratives, and helps design policies that are democratic, dynamic, and hopeful.
Publications
- Journal of Cultural Economy: The art of the public: cultural economy and cultural policy, by Mariana Mazzucato, with Justin O’Connor and Toby Bennet (2025)
- Blog: Seeing the bigger picture at the BBC, By Rowan Conway and Mariana Mazzucato (2021)
- Report: A New Bauhaus for a Green Deal, by Christian Bason, Rowan Conway, Dan Hill and Mariana Mazzucato (2020)
- Report: Creating and Measuring Dynamic Public Value at the BBC, by Mariana Mazzucato, Rowan Conway, Eleonora Maria Mazzoli, Eva Knoll, Sarah Albala (2019)
- Written evidence submitted for BBC Future Funding (pdf)
Communications and Digital Committee uncorrected oral evidence: BBC future funding (pdf)
Licence to change: BBC future funding (pdf)
Social media summary: BBC future funding
Watch the evidence submission
- Green European Journal: Shaping What We Value, by Mariana Mazzucato (2025)
- Project Syndicate: Carnival Economics, by Alvaro Barrington and Mariana Mazzucato (2024)
- Project Syndicate: Don’t defund the BBC, by Mariana Mazzucato (2021)
- Tate Modern: Art in Real Life: Architecture and Public Space Panel & Book, Olafur Eliasson (2019)
Our impact and engagement
- Keynote: International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM) Conference, 30 November 2025, Turin Italy,
- Roundtable: Culture and Climate Adaptation – Financing Cultural Heritage as a Global Public Good at COP30 Belem, 13 November 2025, Belem Brazil
- Event: Global Design Forum / London Design Biennale: What is the value of design? (2025)
- Event: Venice Biennale, Governing, Designing and Educating Urban Futures at Venice Architecture Biennale (2023)
- Video: Serpentine Gallery: Mariana Mazzucato, climate change mission orientation, Infinite Ecologies Marathon: The Prelude (2023)
- Event: Public Value of Art: Connecting value creation and culture, panel with Alvaro Barrington, Francis Morris, George the Poet (2022)
- Video: DLD Sync Back To Zero: Rebooting Capitalism, Mariana Mazzucato & Hans Ulrich Obrist (2021)
- Video: South London Gallery: Alvaro Barrington in conversation with Mariana Mazzucato (2021)
- IIPP Interview: Brian Eno and Finn Williams: Planning for the longer now (2018)
- IIPP talk with Amanda Levete at British Library: Only connect - why public spaces matter (2018)
