Once your project has been completed, you will want to measure its impact. Did it change things in the ways you hoped for? What would you do differently another time? The evaluation you do after your project has finished is called ‘summative evaluation’. This is when you take stock of successes and, just as importantly, challenges. It is a chance to look at the lessons learned from the project.
Arts of evaluation
Art Alive in Norfolk Churches brought in artists, writers and craftspeople to run activities and exhibitions in 26 of the historic churches for which the county is famous.
Volunteers’ main job was to ensure that the churches were open and welcoming. They recorded visitor numbers and types of visitors, such as family groups. “There’s a perception that it is mainly older people who visit churches,” says project co-ordinator Jennie Hawks. “In fact, we found a surprisingly good spread of ages.”
Visitors and artists were encouraged to fill in a questionnaire. This simple method captured both quantitative (numbers, etc) and qualitative information (comments and responses). Evaluation highlighted some challenges – there were clearly lessons to be learned about publicity and signage – as well as the project’s successes. “A lovely idea for using a church that is not much used” and “We need more of this in the villages!” were typical responses, suggesting that the project met its aim of linking historic buildings and present-day communities.
A flexible approach
The Museum of London’s Inclusion Programme involved 13 projects over three years. It aimed to engage people at risk of social exclusion with their heritage and develop their life skills. Participants included young people aged 16–25, offenders and long-term unemployed people.
A big part of the project was about building participants’ self-confidence. Good qualitative data was therefore especially important for evaluation. “We developed a range of approaches,” says the museum’s inclusion officer, Lucie Fitton. “We had a template of questions, but we adopted a flexible approach to how we asked these, depending on the group or individual. To evaluate the benefits to participants we used the GLO framework.” Find out more about
Generic Learning Outcomes.
How were participants’ responses recorded? Some were happy to do a written questionnaire. Others felt more comfortable with one-to-one conversations. Post-project, the museum’s exploration of new approaches to qualitative evaluation goes on, including the use of audiovisual recording and project blogs.
In the project’s final year the museum employed external evaluation consultants. “It was important for them to understand what we were doing,” says Lucie. “They came to workshops, and we even took them to prison!” The evaluation identified successful outcomes in such areas as increasing participants’ communication and team-working skills.
It’s not the last word
Evaluation isn’t only about proving that your project changed things. It is also about improving – part of a continuous process of learning and growth. We encourage all HLF-funded projects to disseminate their evaluation results, spreading good practice and useful data.
For the Museum of London, evaluation data plays a part in planning new projects. Information gathered by Art Alive volunteers was analysed by an independent evaluation team (funded through the project budget) and has led to setting up a volunteer training programme. The Art Alive evaluation has also been used by the regional tourism authority and the Diocese of Norwich.