Emergent Value: Capturing the unexpected value of arts experiences

在艺术资金受到威胁的时候，理解艺术的价值是至关重要的。在政府议程的背景下，我们如何捕捉艺术体验的挑战尤为紧迫，政府议程将艺术作为经济发展和社会影响议程的工具。这导致越来越多的人通过参数来判断艺术体验。目前确立价值和捕捉艺术体验影响的框架采用了工具主义的方法：事先设定一个具体目标，评估的目标是捕捉这个具体目标是否已经实现。虽然这种策略是捕捉艺术体验影响的重要组成部分，但它并不能完全理解体验对参与者有意义的所有方式。相反，我提出的“涌现价值”是一种新的、创新的方式，用来理解参与者在他们的经历中找到意义和价值的不可预测的方式。这种意义源于他们的生活经历与作品的背景和内容之间的特定联系。探索艺术如何对个人变得有意义，发现他们看重什么，以及他们如何看重它，对参与者和组织都有很大的潜力。该项目将使参与者重新集中在收集复杂的经验信息的过程中，并为他们的经验提供更深层次的欣赏。对于艺术机构来说，“新兴价值”提供了对观众体验的重要见解。在更广泛的层面上，这些见解有可能为更广泛的艺术和文化价值提供有说服力的案例。因此，主要的研究问题是：我们如何理解和捕捉参与艺术的新兴价值，并将其嵌入影响框架中？为了解决这个问题，该项目将探索艺术体验对个人有意义的过程。它将评估重新定义为一个对参与者和评估者都有意义的过程，这将使获取更丰富的经验数据成为可能。该项目将审查以下相互关联的领域：探讨涌现价值与参与者反思的关系。这将通过在参与者体验之前，期间和之后尝试不同的脚手架反思策略来完成。检查在事件发生后为参与者创造意义的便利空间的作用。这包括探索这样的空间如何能够让Emergent Value更加持续地发展。开发一系列创造性和有趣的评估策略，以捕捉突发价值。这将使参与者能够更多地表达他们经历的复杂性。该项目是与两个创意合作伙伴的合作：Coney和Pudding，他们各自在建立吸引观众的体验、为反思提供空间和促进观众对话方面具有重要的专业知识。此外，我们将与MAYK、Paraorchestra和Trinity Community Arts等其他文化机构合作，测试和实施项目内制定的参与和评估策略。除研究活动外，我们还将主持一系列对话，讨论不同利益相关者对稳健而细致的影响框架和相关评估策略的需求。这些对话将用于数据分析并形成结果。该项目还将支持行业发展，并通过与非学术利益相关者和受益者的互动，使观众、文化机构和艺术家受益。

Understanding the value of the arts is vital at a time when arts funding is under threat. The challenge of how we capture arts experiences is particularly pressing in the context of government agendas that instrumentalise the arts within economic development and social impact agendas. This has lead to a situation where arts experiences are increasingly judged through metrics. Current frameworks for establishing value and capturing the impact of arts experiences take an instrumentalist approach: where a specific aim is set out beforehand and evaluation is targeted at capturing whether that specific aim has been achieved. Whilst this strategy is an important part of capturing the impact of arts experiences, it does not enable a full understanding of all the ways in which experiences become meaningful to participants. Instead, I propose 'Emergent Value' as a new and innovative way of understanding the unpredictable ways through which participants find meaning and value in their experiences. This meaning arises out of the specific connections between their lived experiences and the context and content of the work. Exploring how art becomes meaningful for individuals, and discovering what they value and how they value it, has great potential for participants and organisations alike. The project will re-centre the participant in the process of gathering complex information on experience and offer a deeper level appreciation of their experiences. For arts organisations Emergent Value offers important insights into the experiences of their audiences. At a broader level, such insights have the potential to make a persuasive case for the value of the arts and culture more broadly.Therefore, the main research question is: How can we understand and capture the Emergent Value of participation in the arts and embed this in impact frameworks? To address this question, the project will explore the process by which arts experiences becomes meaningful for individuals. It will reconceptualise evaluation as a process that is meaningful for both participants and those evaluating, which will enable the capturing of richer experiential data. The project will examine the following, interconnected areas:1. Explore the relationship between Emergent Value and participant reflection. This will be done by experimenting with different strategies for scaffolding reflection for participants before, during and after their experiences.2. Examine the role of facilitating spaces for participant meaning-making following events. This includes exploring how such spaces can enable Emergent Value to develop more consistently.3. Develop a range of creative and playful evaluation strategies able to capture Emergent Value. This will enable participants to express more of the complexity of their experiences.The project is a collaboration with two creative partners: Coney and Pudding, who each bring significant expertise in building experiences to engage audiences, holding space for reflection, and facilitating audience dialogue. In addition, we will work with further cultural organisations such as MAYK, Paraorchestra and Trinity Community Arts to test out and implement the engagement and evaluation strategies developed within the project. Alongside the research activities, we will host a series of conversations about the needs of various stakeholders for a robust and nuanced impact framework and associated evaluation strategies. These conversations will feed into the data analysis and shape the outcomes. The project will also support industry development and benefit audiences, cultural organisations and artists by embedding engagement with non-academic stakeholders and beneficiaries throughout.