Arts-Based approaches to evaluating impact: an ‘Evaluative Performance’ case study

Description

As a cultural policy initiative, UK Cities of Culture are lauded for their potential to make ‘radical change’ to host cities. However, as the long-term impacts of past UK Cities of Culture are coming to light, the ‘radical change’ promised may not be as effective as advertised. The ability to track the impacts associated with UK City of Culture programmes have been exemplified by two large scale evaluation projects in Derry, Hull, with a third under development following Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture in 2021. In all these cases, the theatre arts are noticeably absent from the roster of methods used to identify indicators of social change. In response I developed a novel arts-based approach to evaluation as part of my PhD research: ‘Evaluative Performance’. This term encapsulates a method of presenting seldom heard voices in a live headphone verbatim performance, rather than via traditional methods such as written reports. In this talk, I will share two case study experiments with the ‘Evaluative Performance’ technique and reflect on its applicability as an arts-based research dissemination method and approach from within, and beyond cultural sector policymaking.

Period	22 Sept 2023
Event title	Values and (E)valuations of or as Cultural Practices? : Entering a time of pragmatic experimentation
Event type	Conference
Location	Amsterdam, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International