Measuring the social impact of the arts made easier in Queensland

Following two successful pilots that saw 28 arts and cultural organisations trial the platform, the Queensland government has approved Culture Counts as their preferred supplier of cultural evaluation services.

 

Evaluating impact with Culture Counts

 

While data collection can be challenging, the pilots have found that the Culture Counts platform captures, analyses and reports public and peer feedback in a simple and cost-effective way. In addition to assessing the impact and value of arts experiences, the Culture Counts platform is designed to evaluate any activity that has an intrinsic impact for individuals and the community. This includes widespread use by local governments to capture the impact of investments in infrastructure, place activation, libraries and community programs.

 

The opportunity

 

All Queensland arts organisations are now able to utilise Culture Counts impact evaluation and reporting services at a discounted rate.

 

Organisations funded by Arts Queensland are able to access a further subsidy through the Arts Acumen initiative to support their use of Culture Counts, recognising that public and peer feedback is critical to ongoing artistic and business development.

 

State and local governments can access the Culture Counts platform and more comprehensive social, cultural and economic impact assessment services without going to tender. 

 

Experiences by organisations involved in the pilot

 

Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) used Culture Counts as part of the Arts Queensland 2016 pilot. Vanessa Gillian, General Manager of CIAF reflects on their experience.

 

Being able to see how we perceive ourselves versus how our peers see us, was intriguing and exciting with the chance to see that what CIAF delivers was above and beyond most expectations of peers. Distinctiveness, a core element for CIAF, was questioned on a number of levels with varying results – again providing a healthy review during our debrief process. Surveying the audience’s artistic experience and their feedback will potentially strengthen arts networks in Queensland and nationally.

 

Pat Swell, CEO Access Arts’ shares their experience using the Culture Counts platform as part of the Arts Queensland trial.

 

The Festival this June aimed to fill a gap in Queensland’s cultural infrastructure, a bold new departure for a small organisation like ours. The Culture Counts report would be a fundamental tool for us to identify how we performed and map next steps.

 

People who attended the festival were also asked eight Culture Counts ‘dimension’ questions about artistic quality. These related to captivation, rigour, relevance, meaning, challenge, imagination and distinctiveness. 97% of people agreed or strongly agreed that the Festival was absorbing and thought-provoking (captivation and challenge).

 

We now have great data to mine and apply.  I’m pleased Access Arts has been part of the Culture Counts pilot as it has given us hard evidence, rigorous results and impartial validation as we embark on this process of deciding our next directions.

 

Further information

 

For more information about this opportunity contact Madonna Townsley, Policy Manager, Strategic Policy and Partnerships Arts Queensland on 07 3034 4023 or Georgia Moore, Director Culture Counts on 03 9654 5575.