Program evaluation, impact and the road ahead
Two years ago, Regional Arts Victoria, in partnership with creative sector specialists Future Tense, were entrusted with delivering the Making Change Creative Industries Strategy 2021-2026.
In this time, the Making Change project has strived to align the mission and vision of the strategy and its programming with community needs and values. Earlier this year, we engaged culture and event evaluation specialists Stu Spiers of Silver Lining Strategy to undertake an independent review to find out whether we had hit the mark. As a specialist in place-based approaches and over 15 years’ experience measuring impact, Stu was able to expertly assess our impact and provide recommendations for the future.
The report reflects on the continued importance of the mission and vision of the strategy, the role of Making Change in the region’s creative ecology and the change that has been delivered through case studies and quantitative analysis.
Some key insights:
- Making Change has clearly delivered on the stated Mission and Vision for the G21 region’s creative strategy 2021-2026,
- It has provided the region’s creative sector with a range of services which have become highly valued by stakeholders and that would not exist without Making Change’s presence,
- In its first two years, Making Change’s focus has been on listening and acting on what it heard. Tracking, measuring and understanding the end impacts these actions have had is the next step in its evolution.
With the first two years focussing primarily on identifying its resources, delivering activities of engagement and connection and tracking the results of these engagements, a continuation of the project was recommended. It was also recommended that the next two years have a focus on a ‘scientific approach to impact measurement and valuation’ to ‘ensure the next phase of Making Change translates the foundation of the past two years into meaningful, measurable outcomes and impacts.’
Image: Collaboration Changemakers event at Red Rock Regional Theatre and Art Gallery, Cororooke. Photograph: Timothy Marriage
Posted 3 June 2025