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21 Sep 2026

Some things are hard to measure

Some things are hard to measure

Lately, I’ve been pondering the popular ways we measure things. 

The rise in popularity of data and analytics being available for everything and an overwhelming amount of information being accessible to us at any moment. I ponder this as someone who is halfway through their Masters in Analytics and as someone who has always loved a good spreadsheet and willingly answers most surveys that end up in front of them… I love this type of information and really believe in the civic good of running surveys and collecting data to inform better decision-making. 

But I wonder if we’re all just a little bit hooked (including myself) with everything needing to have some number, infographic or graph pinned to a statement and holding onto that number as speaking a greater truth than any other form of information.

In some industries, numbers make so much sense for evaluating. A business might invest money into purchasing a new and more efficient machine and you’ll be able to fairly directly measure the return through increased productivity, time saved and eventually reduced costs. 

But what about these types of metrics in the arts? 

What I’ve been reflecting on is whether getting good looking stats and metrics is the right thing to do at all. Statistics can be a great starting point and segue into storytelling on the power of creativity. However, sometimes trying to attribute a number or dollar value just doesn’t make sense. The impact of a creative experience might be immediate or not felt for years to come, as we’re often working with people, their sense of wellbeing, community connection and purpose. Which are much more subjective, nuanced and complex things to measure.

This also got me thinking about how we articulate and show our impact to those outside our sector. We’re asked to show that arts and creativity have a positive impact and it contributes to things like wellbeing, GDP, social cohesion, education and all of these amazing outcomes we know arts and creativity contribute to. And of course, I understand why. Accountability is absolutely important, no matter what sector you’re in, and those that fund the arts (whether publicly funded or through philanthropic sources) can fairly expect to understand how a project went.

BUT! And you knew there would be a but. How do we do this well? What kind of accountability actually helps us to understand the value of creative work? And to an extent, don’t we already know this? Quite a lot of research has already been done! From a very small snippet of the research in New Zealand that has recently been published, we know things like:

These are some of things we already know about how the creative sector contributes to wellbeing, the economy and our communities.  But look at where this evidence came from – universities, researchers and specialist consultants. What I’m trying to demonstrate here is that evaluation and impact is actually a specialised skill. And to do it well beyond simply reporting attendance numbers or tickets sold, there’s a fair bit of thought that goes into effective and meaningful evaluation.

So when I get the sense that arts continues to need to prove its impact with awesome stats like the ones above, I feel like at a grassroots community arts level there is a capacity gap. 

Often in arts projects, you’re already volunteering time and working beyond the means of your budget – because you’re passionate and know the value, so of course you’re going to make it happen anyway! You’re running the programme, the workshop, the show… to run a meaningful evaluation process alongside and on top of that work… is actually just more work for an already resource-stretched sector. Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it, but I do think it needs to be acknowledged as being work that takes time and is ideally supported with resources and education to make it happen well. 

Here at Creative Waikato, over the past year or so myself and Aimee have been working on the way we evaluate the impact of our own projects and also community projects. It has taken time and space to figure out per-project what would be the best research approach. Sometimes it did look like a standard survey. But other times it was casual conversations over a colouring-in activity or a vox-pop to keep the tone and feeling casual and not burdensome. Sometimes we experimented with approaches and they didn’t work at all. 

What did surprise me, is that we did drift away from numbers. Sometimes we purposefully keep our approach light-touch because the context really called for the participants not to be overburdened by paperwork and 20 questions on a Likert scale.

Where I’m heading with this, is that I feel there needs to be a culture shift with how we evaluate things. It’s a two-way street, so I think improvements can be made from both funders and grantees/people making the projects happen. 

It would be great to see funders play a more active role in the evaluation of the projects they fund. Either by providing education, financial support to carry it out, and being clear on why this information is needed and what it will be used for. And being cognisant on the figures that you want to gain out of these funded projects. 

It’s not always appropriate to gather certain types of information in certain situations, so we can’t expect the same reporting form or set of evaluation questions to work in all contexts. Every project is unique with its own parameters and expected outcomes.

A recent publication from the UK looked at this very topic on the tension between funders and grantees on balancing the practical needs to deliver a service vs. the requirements to gather data. Their conclusion was that the gathering of data needs to be clear, purposeful and proportionate. What it also suggested (which I think is great), is that if there are measures that funders want to see across all sorts of different projects, that they work in partnership with grantees so that all types of organisations feel enabled to use these measures.

For the grantees, evaluation needs to become part of the project from the beginning. We don’t need to become professional statisticians or evaluators, but perhaps thinking of those simple ways we can integrate evaluation into our project from the outset. 

A workshop with a vox-pop to show student participation, stickers on a board to correlate to feeling, questions you know to ask in casual conversation that you note down later… If it becomes part of the project, it’s sustainable, rather than a tacked-on survey at the end that might end up with little to no engagement.

We’re very lucky that at Creative Waikato, we have had support from our funders to do our evaluation thoughtfully. We’re always working to evolve the way we do things so it both aligns with our values and still meaningfully shows the impact that creative activations have. 

You can see some of our research and reports if you’re curious here – and there will be more to come! Or if you’re more into video format, one way we told the story of a project’s impact was through a documentary. Check out the Whiria te Tāngata documentary on RNZ. 

If you’re an artist or arts organisation wanting to upskill in your evaluation skills for your own projects, check out Evaluation, Insights and Impact from our ArtReach suite. It could be a great thing to get your arts group to do altogether over the course of your next meetings for the rest of the year, or take a little dip into one of the sections you’re most interested in upskilling in. All of our ArtReach workshops are available for free for our Waikato based artists and arts groups here.

Written by: Evelyn Coulson, Creative Waikato team member