Creating impact
A new book by Lesley Brook and Nick Braae aims to help creative arts researchers understand and plan the impact their work has on the world.
Many of us will have walked out of a theatre or art exhibition feeling moved, challenged or changed. The arts have the power to reach wide audiences. For creative arts researchers, public impact can also be a benchmark of professional success.
Demonstrating how research matters beyond the institution is increasingly important in today's context where funders and the government expect research to have some impact on society. Often, this impact is measured in economic terms. Creative arts researchers may find it particularly difficult to navigate the requirements around engagement and measuring the effect of their work. But there are many benefits to understanding impact. “It’s important not to avoid the issue," says Lesley Brook, whose Master of Professional Practice looked at emotional responses to art for social change. Now she is the co-author of the guide Creating and Evaluating Impact: A Resource for Creative Arts Researchers.
In early 2023, Lesley (then at Otago Polytechnic) and Waikato Institute of Technology musicologist Nick Braae connected over a shared interest in the impact of creative arts research. While other organisations were exploring these themes in broader creative contexts, there was limited information and guidance for arts researchers in the tertiary education sector. They identified the potential for a guidebook to help creative arts researchers grapple with the concept of impact and to develop tools and language for measuring and articulating it in varied fields. “This may be a new or unexplored area for some,” Lesley says, but for those looking to improve how they plan and measure impact, “we hope it’s a useful tool.”
The book offers a clear guide to what impact is, why it matters, and the different ways that it can be achieved. Helpful case studies illustrate how these different strategies might be fleshed out across a range of disciplines including fashion, visual digital arts, and disabled theatre.
Creating and Evaluating Impact: A Resource for Creative Arts Researchers was published by Otago Polytechnic Press in 2024. The book is available open access on a Creative Commons license. Copyright in the text remains with the co-authors, and the artists and creators retain copyright in their images, but the book can be freely shared (crediting the authors) with anyone who needs it.
Contact Nick Braae and Lesley Brook