Evaluation Title
The art of inclusion
Type of evaluation
Data type Qualitative
Evaluation Focus Distinctive contribution of Arts, Impact of arts-based approaches
Key indicators Best practice review, Programme design, Quality of participatory arts, Sustainability
Project outputs Arts-based workshops, Performances
Methodologies Case Studies, Evaluation reviews, Interviews, Literature search
Research limitations Attribution, Links to Government targets, Projection of future benefits
Summary of evaluation
An Arts Council England (ACE) evaluation, exploring practice and outcomes within three different identified models of social inclusion work, involving 28 artsorganisations participating in the research and builds on a literature review, The Arts and Social Exclusion: a review prepared for the Arts Council of England (Jermyn, 2001).
The overall objectives of the research were to:
- gather evidence that could be used to inform policy and advocacy initiatives develop and test appropriate methodologies for evaluating arts initiatives with aims related to social inclusion
- evaluate three different models of initiating and delivering projects identify the characteristics of successful initiatives and approaches that did not work and the reasons for this
- develop measures of success that could be used to evaluate a broad range of initiative.
It covers the areas of definitons and language, partnerships, sustainability and sucess indicators.
Project description
The research has two independent, but related, strands of work:
- a self-evaluation strand, conducted by arts consultant Gerri Moriarty, involved working with arts organisations to help them evaluate their own practice and producing an evaluation guide for arts organisations undertaking work in the area of social exclusion. The resulting report, Sharing Practice, was published in 2002
- an external evaluation strand, conducted by independent researcher Helen Jermyn, explored practice and outcomes. This report presents the key findings from this second research strand.
it highlights 15 case studies including Soft Touch, Writers in Prison Network and the Unit for the Arts and Offenders.
Key Quote
It is difficult to judge the success or failure of projects purely on whether they meet their stated aims and objectives because you are not comparing like with like. Further, aims and objectives were sometimes not met but other unpredicted outcomes were achieved, as well as important learning.
Links
Info
Artform
Multi-ArtsCJS Context
Prison and CommunityRegion
Evaluating organisation
Author
Helen Jermyn
Conducted: 2001 – 2004
Published: July 2004
Type: Independent Report
