Case Study

Measuring the Impact of the Arts

Company

A Midwest community organization committed to strengthening the region through arts, culture, and heritage.

Challenge

The client wanted to showcase how the local arts, culture, and heritage sector was playing a role in improving the quality of life and economic development of the region; however, it lacked data and metrics to highlight the sector’s community impact.

Intervention

B|G helped the client develop metrics, based on sustainable sources of data, that would measure progress in four critical cultural priority areas important for regional advancement.

Results

The client was able to operationalize its cultural priorities with data and metrics, enabling the organization to articulate the link between arts, culture, and heritage and advancing regional priorities.

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The scope of this project includes four main areas of activity:

Insight

During this phase, B|G sought to gain a deeper understanding of the organization’s internal and external environment.

  1. B|G reviewed internal documentation, which provided insight into current organizational operations, strategies, resources, capabilities, challenges and goals.
  2. Interviews were conducted with six different stakeholder groups from the arts and culture sector.
  3. A peer analysis was conducted of comparable communities resulting in a better understanding of best practices in measuring the impacts of arts and culture.

Innovation

A clear understanding of four previously identified cultural priority areas was established and preliminary measures & targets were developed for each of these four areas.

  1. Focus group sessions were conducted with relevant cultural and community partners to gather feedback on these measures and targets.
  2. Measures were revised, refined, and finalized to reflect stakeholder feedback.

Integration

Recommendations were made for implementing the newly identified metrics and using them to drive improvements.  

  1. This included a communications plan, a plan for gathering data, and ideas for cultivating commitment among community leaders.

Impact

Established metrics has helped the client explore and communicate the ways in which the arts, culture, and heritage sector has enhanced quality of life and economic development in their surrounding region.

  1. Metrics and data have allowed members of the arts community to plan new and mission-aligned actions/programs/initiatives make more compelling cases for investment in and support of the arts.
  2. The wider public is now able to understand and appreciate the impacts of the arts in their lives.

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