Objective: Knowledge, ideas and insight to be gained
Outcome: Knowledge, ideals and insight are gained
Measure: Knowledge, ideas and insight gained
Short description
By knowledge, ideas or insight we mean intellectual stimulation, critical reflection, creative thinking and deeper understanding.
Full description and underpinning theory
Full description
This outcome covers the development of knowledge, ideas and insights resulting from the engagement. It also includes intellectual stimulation, critical reflection and creative thinking experiences. A desired endpoint is more and deeper understanding, as this is unlimited and can be continually generated. This outcome corresponds closely to UCLG’s cultural element of ‘knowledge’ (UCLG, 2006), but is broader because it is about the process of thinking inspired by the cultural experience rather than just the knowledge shared.
Theory underpinning this outcome
New understandings can be generated through cultural activity, with experience linked to self-knowledge, and self-development of participants (Radbourne, Glow & Johanson 2010; McCarthy et al, 2004; UCLG, 2006).
Intellectual enrichment involves the ability of an experience to provide opportunities for learning new things, being challenged or expanding a person’s understanding or perspective of an idea or issue (White and Hede, 2008, Walsmley, 2013, McCarthy et al., 2004, 2008, Fiske, 1999).
Innovation/risk in which the audience or participants enjoy being prompted or pushed by the artwork to ideas or thoughts they have not had before (ixia, 2014). The sharing of knowledge, not just its generation (Hawkes, 2001); sharing knowledge/ resources (Arts Victoria, 2013); Intellectual stimulation (WolfBrown, Intrinsic Impact)
Dialogue: providing access to cultural resources strengthens the public voice (Australia Council Cultural, 2016).
Functioning as agents of social disruption and change, the arts may intrude rudely upon our everyday sensibility, force us to consider the most extreme possibilities of the human condition, and prod us to think more profoundly than is comfortable about ultimate matters of life, death, and our own contingency (Weil, 1996, p. 156).
The arts also allow a channel of critical communication about society that is often very different to what is possible through the written or spoken word, thereby contributing in a special way to a functioning democratic liberal society. This though can happen through both the private and subsidised arts sectors, but it might happen only through the first of these channels where there is a subsidised sector with the freedom (from commercial constraints) to explore these possibilities (O’Hagan, 2016, p. 253).
Evidence that this outcome occurs
Motivation studies mentioned in NEA (2014); exposure to the arts is mind-broadening (Ministry ICA, Singapore cited in NEA, 2014);
knowledge, new ideas and insights (Beyond Empathy, 2009).
An arts-based approach to grappling with local issues and challenges was found to offer high school students positive differences in: creative and critical thinking skills, divergent and convergent thinking skills and innovation outputs and significantly greater incidence of applying their innovation learning experiences to work, school, volunteer and extracurricular activities than a control group (Goldman, 2016).
Activities contributing to this outcome
Activities
As of April 2021, there were 156 activities in Takso selecting this outcome with 20 completed and evaluated. Types of activities undertaken to achieve this outcome include:
Artists’ residencies and studio programs
These include the provision of local studio access for artists on a temporary basis, leasable studios for defined periods, whether applying competitively or not; and regional or international studio residency opportunities and exchanges.
Opportunities provided for arts participation by a community of people who would not normally have access to the mentoring, skills and tools that produce cultural outcomes leading to intended social or governance outcomes. Including: Activities where the intent is towards a community or social outcome by engagement in cultural activities, such as writing, performing, making etc. usually leading to events for the wider community or public presentations. Excluding: activities offered for those who seek or experience professional employment in the arts, and activities designed for educational or recreational purposes.
Opportunities provided for arts participation for people who would not necessarily consider themselves artists or artists-in-development. Including: Activities where the intent is purely for creative recreation, leisure and enjoyment. Excluding: activities offered for those who seek or experience professional employment in the arts and activities design for educational purposes; Public presentations where participants play no active role.
Formal or informal cultural (arts and heritage) education or instruction. Including: educational classes or workshops in any cultural facility including libraries, where there is group or individuals brought together for a learning purpose. Excluding: activities offered for those who seek or experience professional employment in the arts and activities design purely for creative recreation; public presentations where participants play no active role.
Exhibitions: of arts and objects in all forms
Displays of art or artefacts in galleries, museums, cinemas, libraries or outdoor areas; of all visual artforms.
Gathering, celebration or ceremony
A public occasion, especially one celebrating an event, achievement, or anniversary. This could include ritual observances and procedures required or performed for a formal occasion and/or an activity held to celebrate something. Including: ceremonies, commemorations and community gatherings that have a creative or cultural focus. Excluding: Festivals
Performances: performing arts all forms
Public presentations of all performing artforms, including music, (of all forms including opera, orchestral music and musical theatre), dance (of all forms from ballet to jazz to culturally specific styles), theatre (of all forms including circus and physical theatre, performance art, puppetry, comedy and other), performances of literary arts such as readings or poetry and other performances held in theatres, halls, open spaces or on temporary stages; including story times and public book readings in libraries.
Activities for artists of all ages and levels to develop skills, share ideas and form networks, with professional development intent.
Including: scheduled events such as classes and training workshops where specialist technical knowledge is passed on, structured with specific topics of interest; programs in which advice and mentoring is provided to artists as individuals, or activities to broker new relationships between artists and audiences, sponsors or funders, etc. such as artists’ register. Excluding: activities designed for educational purposes and those offered for purely for creative recreation; Public presentations where participants play no active role.
Formal investigation into past, present or future activities that is documented and published or communicated in some form. This can lead to development of new work and or presentation of new work, development of new activities or processes.
Results
Over the 20 completed activities that addressed this outcome, 940 people responded to the evaluation question. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not at all and 10 the most imaginable, respondents reported an average attainment of 7.5 for this outcome.
Knowledge, Insight and Ideas gained
20 activities / 940 responses / Average attainment 7.5
Evaluation measure
New knowledge, insights and ideas.
References
Arts Victoria (2013). OIP Assessment Framework. Melbourne: Arts Victoria.
Australia Council for the Arts (2016). Cultural engagement framework. Sydney: Australia Council for the Arts. Accessed 28 May 2016 from www.australiacouncil.gov.au/about/cultural-engagement-framework/
Beyond Empathy (2009). Social Audit: Social Accounts. Armidale: Beyond Empathy. http://be.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/090703-SAA-Report_Beyond-Empathy_final.pdf
Brown, A. & Novak, J. (2007). Assessing the intrinsic impacts of a live performance. San Francisco: WolfBrown. http://wolfbrown.com/images/books_reports/documents/ImpactStudyFinalVersionFullReport.pdf
Fiske, Edward B. 1999. Champions of change: the impact of the arts on learning. Washington, DC: Arts Education Partnership President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Goldman, K.H., Yalowitz, S., Wilcox, E., Audience Viewpoints Consulting (2016). The Impact of Arts-Based Innovation Training on the Creative Thinking Skills, Collaborative Behaviors, and Innovation Outcomes of Adolescents and Adults. New York: The Art of Science Learning. Retrieved from http://www.artofsciencelearning.org/phase2-research-findings/
Hawkes, J. (2001). The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability. Melbourne: Cultural Development Network.
Ixia (2014). Public art: A guide to evaluation (4th ed) (Birmingham: ixia). Accessed March 13, 2014. http://ixia-info.com/files/2009/01/ixia-Public-Art-A-Guide-to-Evaluation4th-Edition-20141.pdf
McCarthy, K., Ondaatje, E., Zakaras, L., & Brooks, A. (2004). Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the debate about the benefits of the arts. USA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved 20 December, 2009 from www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG218.sum.pdf.
NEA (2014). Measuring Cultural Engagement. Summary of Joint Research Symposium June 2014, Washington: NEA.
O’Hagan, J. (2016) Objectives of arts funding agencies often do not map well on to societal benefits, Cultural Trends, 25(4), 249-262, DOI: 10.1080/09548963.2016.1241343.
Radbourne, J., Johanson, K. & Glow, H. (2010). Empowering audiences to measure quality, Participations: Journal of audience & reception studies, 7(2), 360-379.
United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) (2006). Agenda 21 for Culture. Barcelona: UCLG. Retrieved from http://www.agenda21culture.net/documents/agenda-21-for-culture
Walmsley, B. (2013) ‘”A big part of my life”: a qualitative study of the impact of theatre’. Arts Marketing: An International Journal 3:1. 73-87. https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/20442081311327174
White, T & Hede, A, 2008, Using narrative inquiry to explore the impact of arts on individuals, The journal of arts management, law and society, 38, 1, 19-35.