Harnessing the power of research to learn and generate new insights, enabling the arts community to be strategic, focused and adaptive.
Harnessing the power of research to learn and generate new insights, enabling the arts community to be strategic, focused and adaptive.
Explore Mass Culture’s projects on Arts Impact here.
Understanding Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Public Arts Sector by Shanice Bernicky
Understanding the Transformative Role of the Arts in the Climate Emergency by Emma Bugg
Understanding Accessibility Beyond Logistical Dimensions by Aaron Richmond
Mass Culture, in collaboration with Ontario Trillium Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage – Federal-Provincial-Territorial Culture and Heritage Table, and Toronto Arts Council, provides three exciting qualitative arts impact frameworks, designed to support more meaningful, community-informed approaches to measuring the value of the arts. The result of two years of research, the frameworks provide effective ways of measuring the impact of the arts on equity, environmental sustainability, and access.
Three frameworks were made available to the arts sector in Summer 2023.
Access in Counterpoint developed by Aaron Richmond (McGill University). A framework to measure the impact of making dance accessible to people with blindness and low vision.
Living Climate Impact developed by Emma Bugg (Dalhousie University). This framework provides indicators to measure arts impact in environmental sustainability and climate action.
Spiralling Outwardly For Equity in Public Arts developed by Shanice Bernicky (Carleton University). A framework to disrupt and reflect on arts’ organization approaches to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
These frameworks were developed as part of Mass Culture’s Research in Residence: Arts’ Civic Impact initiative. Find out more about the research and testing of these frameworks below:
The Canadian arts sector and university arts programs share a common challenge: how can we better understand, document, and communicate the impact of the arts on society? While data analytics and advanced computing offer new ways to measure the value of the arts, this focus on data has often overlooked the unique and fleeting nature of artistic activities that deeply connect with communities.
Arts organizations struggle to demonstrate their true impact to donors, funders, and the public, often relying on basic metrics like ticket sales or jobs created, which don’t capture the full richness of their contributions. Similarly, arts research at universities is difficult to quantify with traditional academic metrics. To truly appreciate and promote the arts, we need to engage with data in new ways and collaborate to develop innovative methods to document and share the arts’ impact.
The Arts Impact Partnership (TAIP) at The Creative School of Toronto Metropolitan University, in collaboration with Mass Culture and other partners, aims to tackle this challenge. TAIP brings together a vast network of researchers, organizations, and partners from Canada, the US, and internationally to better measure and communicate the impact of the arts. Our goals are:
Over the next seven years, TAIP will work to provide better evidence of the arts’ value, help arts organizations and universities share their contributions more effectively, and train over 170 experts in arts impact documentation. This partnership will also support broader movements for better research metrics and open access to information in Canada and beyond.
Mass Culture collaborated with Association for Opera in Canada and Good Roots Consulting on the multi-year Building an Arts Impact Community project. Find out more and access the Powered by Arts Impact Evaluation Toolkit now!