SCC2013 - The challenges of measuring informal science learning - Jenny Mollica

Informal Science LearningJenny Mollica

Creative Learning• Formed in 2008

• Arts centre and an academic organisation

• Experimenting and developing new models of access and learning in the Arts

Core Strands

• Education• Community• Young people• Public Programme• Laboratory

Research & evaluation• Own research & evaluation

team

• Two PHD researchers • Cultural value• Artists working in

participatory settings

Research project: Cultural Mobility through Social Intelligence• Funded by Creativeworks

London

• Pilot Year - Barbican in partnership with QMUL and Chatterbox

• Measuring emotional and aesthetic responses to our work

Research project: Artworks London• 3 year research project

• Funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, exploring the role of the artist in participatory settings

•  Accreditation for artists who deliver informal learning experiences

Why we evaluate•Quality•Research•Monitoring & reporting

Who are we evaluating for?• Mixed funding models whereby one single project may have

multiple funding streams• Example of some of our regular funders & their reporting

focus:• Arts Council England – artistic processes + increasingly

economic impact • City Bridge Trust – social impact• Corporate – transferrable skills for later life

• Can make it challenging for us to work towards a common set of metrics

How do we evaluate?• Evaluation frameworks

• Template evaluation toolkits

• Mainly proximal - limited resources for developing distal indicators of impact

The Rep’s Children• Birmingham Rep’s Learning department in partnership with

Warwick University• All babies born at two Birmingham hospitals during two

weeks in Feb 2013• Offered free cultural experiences at the Birmingham Rep for

the first 10 years of their lives • PHD researcher • How do we measure the impact of people’s aesthetic

experiences on the footprints of their lives?

The Cultural Sector• No over-arching body to pull together a common set of

indicators

• The need for unilateral buy-in from whole host of funders on an agreed set of indicators

• At present, the Arts are trying to fulfil a myriad of functions

Policy Making • 2008 - Brian McMaster’s 2008 review: Supporting

excellence in the arts – from measurement to judgement

• 2013 – Maria Miller: the Arts must make economic case

• Cultural sector increasingly looking to use scientific methodologies to measure impact and learning

• Arts subjects given reduced priority within the curriculum

Questions & Conclusions• The Arts has to prove its worth and

value in society at the moment• The need to continuously re-make the

case for the arts - data as a tool for advocacy purposes

• Acquisition of data v analysis and use of data in a meaningful way

• Sharing and dissemination of research• Are scientific methodologies the way

forwards for survival in the Arts?