The Intrinsic Impact Project
“Talk to any artist, and you’ll hear absolute conviction that their work matters to their audience, but until now they’ve had no way to measure and prove it.”-Brad Erickson |
We are excited to be moving forward with one of the most ambitious projects that we've ever tackled here at Theatre Bay Area - a nationwide study of the intrinsic impact of live theatre on audiences! Spanning 15 theatre companies in 5 cities across the country, this work will ultimately, as always, come back to the Bay Area, providing our companies and individual artists with a new set of tools, developed over the next 18 months, to measure and understand the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and social impact of your work on the people who watch it.
The real challenge to the American theatre, and all the arts, is not a financial emergency but a crisis of relevance. As a field, we have become very good at measuring “things financial;” any theatre knows how to count heads in the house and dollars in the box office till. Studies are regularly conducted by major funders and service organizations to assess the aggregate financial well-being of the sector. Advocacy groups commission research to extrapolate the mega-economic impact of the arts on communities and the nation as a whole.
But financial data tells only a fraction of the story. A theatre company may be financially sound, but is it really moving and exciting its audience? Is it connecting to its audience in a fundamental (i.e., intrinsic) way? And can that connection be deepened? How can artistic staff understand the impact of their programming decisions, and what, if anything, can they do about it? We have come to see that the theatre field lacks a generally accepted and widely used metric or “outcome rubric” for what matters most: the intrinsic value of the theatre experience.
What is Intrinsic Impact?
In 2004, the RAND Corporation published “Gifts of the Muse,” an important examination of the public and private benefits of the arts. The study divided benefits between “instrumental” and “intrinsic” benefits.
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“The effect of art is invisible, much like an animal that has departed but left behind a track. We may not be able to see the animal itself, but we can measure the footprint left in the sand.”“Intrinsic” benefits, as described in the study, entail intimately personal responses to an art experience. Researcher Alan Brown uses the image of a footprint in the sand as a metaphor for the impression left on an arts participant. The effect of art, Brown says, is invisible, much like an animal that has departed but left behind a track. We may not be able to see the animal itself, but we can measure the footprint left in the sand. Once we have ways to measure and describe these “footprints,” we have new and powerful tools to talk about the importance of the arts, to market our offerings, and to increase the impact of performances on audiences.
Theatre Bay Area has commissioned research firm WolfBrown, led by noted researcher Alan Brown, to complete this work, and will be working alongside the firm to develop the toolkit to allow theatres to do this work themselves in the coming years, at a fraction of the cost.
What will be measured?
As the largest and most comprehensive attempt to date to measure the intrinsic impact of performing arts experiences, this project will take a significant step toward quantifying what has until now been unquantifiable: the lasting impact of live performance on audience member.
Researchers at WolfBrown have developed six indices to measure intrinsic impact: intellectual stimulation, emotional resonance, spiritual value, aesthetic growth and social bonding.This study will encompass 15-25 theatres in five cities across the country, surveying 3 productions per theatre. Each theatre will have the opportunity to customize a section of the survey in order to capture impact data specific to their artistic goals as well as related data on other factors that impact audience experience (pricing, parking, restrooms, etc.).
What are the goals of this study?
- To clarify/understand intrinsic impact – how we memorize and tag arts experiences, how we choose to return or not return for more, and how we engage as audiences.
- To give companies a potential tool for measuring the effectiveness of work in order to better it
- To understand the current methods of valuing work and the limits and inequities of those methods, and where intrinsic impact can fit in
- To democratize intrinsic impact by creating a web tool kit, lowering the cost, increasing access, developing baseline statistics so people can set goals, increase understanding of the tools, encourage measurement and interaction and engage the community in a conversation
What are the specific deliverables?
This study will look at 15 theatres in depth, but will also include a variety of supplemental, community-wide tools and activities to stimulate conversation in each of the study regions. These other deliverables will include:
- A web-based interface to eventually allow any company to do their own impact study at minimal expense
- A series of community-wide conversations around intrinsic impact and audience engagement in general
- A set of data that will be useful for artists, administrators, advocates, funders and audience members
- A final report and accompanying set of national conversations designed to really tackle how best to talk about the arts in a way that isn't economic
What is the timeline?
We will begin surveying in the fall of 2010, and plan to complete surveying by summer 2011. The final report and website should be completed before December 2011.
Who can I talk to for more information?
This project is being managed by Clayton Lord, the director of marketing and audience development at Theatre Bay Area. You can email him at clay@theatrebayarea.org.
Other resources
Gifts of the Muse - published by the RAND Corporation
"Assessing the Intrinsic Impact of Live Performance" - the original study conducted by WolfBrown in 2007
"Assessing the Intrinsic Impact of the Bay Area Free Night of Theater Program" - conducted by Theatre Bay Area and WolfBrown in 2008