An interactive blog set up by DCMS and hosted by Dr Claire Donovan seeks to stimulate discussion across the cultural sector on how to measure "cultural value".

Donovan, who is an academic working at DCMS, is currently writing a report on the issue of measuring value and is inviting professionals working in the cultural industries to voice their views.

In her first post on the blog called "Priceless", she poses the question whether the value of culture can be measured by government in monetary (or other) terms, or whether it should, indeed, be termed 'priceless'?

Donovan writes: "Organisations in the cultural sector have largely been individually grappling with how to provide the most powerful evidence of the value of their efforts. The dominant discourse traditionally is one of metrics, inputs and outputs. Yet there is a parallel concern that this renders broader public benefits invisible or intangible.

"I would like to issue a challenge. I bet that there are so many diverse approaches to demonstrating the value of the cultural sector that we can collectively generate a list of one hundred 'measures' of cultural value this week. And as an incentive - as if you would need one - there are some DCMS prizes for the most creative suggestions!"

Donovan is a reader in the Health Economics Research Group at Brunel University, London. Her report, Measuring Cultural Value (Phase 2) is jointly funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

To take part in the report and to offer Donovan your opinion, click here for her "Priceless" blog