Social Impact of Arts and Cultural Organizations: Perspectives from the Field

December 2024

By Natalia Vartapetova, AEA Consulting

Building on AEA’s primer on how social impact is defined and measured in the arts and cultural sector, we have been exploring approaches to social impact with colleagues in the field, including individual organizations as well as private and public sector funders. Our initial cohort of conversations focused on experiences on both coasts of the U.S. and funders working internationally. 

In our recent work with Little Island (New York) from 2023 to 2024, we collected and analyzed data to measure the park’s social impact across all areas of its activity: as a public space, a workplace provider, a community partner, and an arts presenter. When the second year of the social impact analysis was completed in 2024, Little Island found that its deepest impact lies within the organization’s Workforce Development Program, which provides paid workplace training to young New Yorkers. The impact of this program is closely connected to the organization’s values, mission, and associated activities. As the mission evolves, so will the organization’s impact on its staff, visitors, and partners. 

In Los Angeles, The Music Center put in place processes and resourcing for continuous data collection, evaluation, and learning of its impact as an arts presenter, producer, and educator. A dedicated staff member leads the learning and evaluation work and seeks to collect and analyze audience and organizational data, mapping the learnings to the organization’s theory of change. They have found that The Music Center’s social impact spans dimensions of creativity, well-being, and connection. While this work is underway, The Music Center acknowledges the need for a broader community of practice measuring social impact in the arts and a more universal approach to measurement across the sector that could be made possible by private and public-sector funders.

Funders typically allow arts organizations and practitioners to define their respective social impact and develop methodologies for measurement. While some funders are driven by priorities of reach, inclusivity, and equality, others seek to align with the metrics and measurements that are priority to the grantees themselves.

As a public funder, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture seeks to understand equity factors in arts participation through regular analysis of grantee audience participation data. One way it has done so is through regularly analyzing communities reached, consolidating over 40 data points into 12 dimensions, including race, ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic factors. While understanding further intrinsic social impact, e.g. changes in health and well-being, would be beneficial on a place-based and country level, the effort required to collect and analyze required data would be burdensome to grantee arts organizations in LA County. 

By working with cultural organizations “founded by, with, and for communities of color”, The Wallace Foundation (New York) prioritizes community-defined impact and recognizes that organizations themselves are best positioned to determine their own goals and methods of assessment. While acknowledging the difficulty of measuring social impact, the foundation values qualitative descriptions alongside quantitative data, focusing on contributions to community well-being, social cohesion, and the development of a diverse workforce. The foundation is actively exploring alternative impact metrics beyond traditional economic or health-focused measures, highlighting a shift towards understanding the multifaceted contributions of arts organizations.

Working internationally, the Prince Claus Fund defines social impact holistically, focusing on trust, autonomy, and experimentation. The Fund measures social impact through progress reports and analysis, linking the grantees' work to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Long-term effects are assessed through annual reflection sessions with a randomly selected cohort of awardees. The Fund emphasizes learning and contribution to societal transformation over the justification of funds spent.

It is difficult to define a universal social impact measurement methodology for the cultural sector due to inherent differences in environments, artistic disciplines, and scope of operation. However, the examples mentioned here and the impact assessment work happening elsewhere show that sharing stories of impact and openly communicating impact measurement methodologies and findings helps build trust with partners, funders, and beneficiaries. We look forward to further exploring  the benefits and challenges of social impact measurement, and the range of tools and approaches that can help advance this work.

With thanks to Bronwyn Bevan (Wallace Foundation), Mette Gratama van Andel (Prince Claus Fund), Bronwyn Mauldin (Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture), Rachel Lee and Michael Wiggins (Little Island), Victoria Perera Rojas and Josephine Ramirez (The Music Center, Los Angeles), Emily Harney and Bella Stenvall (AEA Consulting) for their thoughtful inputs and collaboration.