Quality Assessment in the Arts – A Glasgow Perspective

Last year I was invited to contribute to a special edition of Cultural Trends Journal Vol 26, No4, edited by Professor Sara Selwood, academic, independent cultural analyst, writer and researcher.

Exploring the experience of applying quality assessment methodologies in a variety of cultural projects and programmes taking place in Glasgow between 2014 and 2016, the article outlines some of my learning around this area. This includes reflections on the vital role that structures and processes of leadership and governance have in the organisational ability to learn from and address questions of quality, value and impact arising from the insight these methodologies provide.

The contribution contains a response to applying the Culture Counts methodology, now currently being rolled out across Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations through the Insights and Impacts Toolkit approach, as well as Creative Scotland’s own Artistic and Quality Review Framework which is currently being developed into a toolkit version.

I’m intrigued to know whether any arts organisation would say that it has demonstrably improved their quality through successfully applying one or other of these methodologies, and responding to the findings?

Does the Cultural Sector use measurement for improvement? Should it? Who does it benefit most to gather this information?

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