Were you unable to join us for the recent Evaluation Principles in Practice workshops? Or perhaps you would like to re-visit the sessions? All three workshops, exploring the co-created Evaluation Principles, are now available to watch on our YouTube channel.

The workshops have proven to be very popular, highlighting that the very real challenges of carrying out evaluation is a hot topic for cultural practitioners. Thanks to all workshop contributors and participants for sharing their knowledge and experiences of evaluation.

What are the Evaluation Principles?

In 2021, we co-developed a set of Evaluation Principles for meaningful evaluation of cultural experiences. Together they promote evaluation as a means of structured learning, to help us develop our impact, value, resources, knowledge and capacity. Discover more about the Evaluation Principles.

Workshop one: Committed to Learning and/or Change
(recorded on Friday 30 September 2022)

Session facilitated by Anne Torreggiani and Emma McDowell, with speakers Dawn Cameron, Kate Thompson and Suzanne Gorman discussing the following questions:

How do we ensure that evaluation makes an impact on our future work?
How do we design evaluation for learning and not just reporting?
How do we learn as whole organisations?
How can we communicate learning to stakeholders in compelling and action-orientated ways?
How can we use learning to drive real change?

Watch now

Workshop two: Listening to Many Voices
(recorded on Wednesday 26 October 2022)

Session facilitated by Anne Torreggiani and Emma McDowell with speakers Stephen Welsh, Morvern Cunningham and Lara Ratnaraja discussing the following questions:

How can we listen to all stakeholders when they don’t talk the same language, nor want the same things?
How do we deal with conflicting messages – and conflict in general?
How can we hear the signal in the noise?
How can we make the evaluation processes and outputs more representative and inclusive of the diverse communities involved in our work?

Watch now

Workshop three: Taking a Creative Approach
(recorded on Thursday 1 December 2022)

Session facilitated by Anne Torreggiani and Emma McDowell with speakers Maia Mackney, Sarah Boiling and Asher Jael discussing the following questions:

When are the tried and tested research methods not right or not enough?
What creative methods are available?
How do we know they are robust, and how do we articulate and communicate this to others?

Watch now

Have you used aspects of the Evaluation Principles in your work? Then we would love to hear your feedback – as we are eager that our Evaluation Principles best serve the sector.

If you are interested in sharing your thoughts, please email us at ccv@leeds.ac.uk