Second local event in Barcelona to debate evaluation frameworks for social impact assessment of cultural projects

The University of Barcelona had celebrated the second event with local stakeholders of Barcelona on July 8th, 2021, with the title “Evaluation frameworks for the social impact of cultural projects” that took place at the Faculty of Economics of the University.

The session was a follow-up activity of the first event held on May 11th, 2021, with the title “How to achieve social impact through cultural projects: learnings and challenges”, held at the Fabra i Coats Arts Factory, within the framework of the FAACCC Festival of Community Arts organised by Basket Beat association.

This second seminar was a closed-door session on the topic of the assessment of social impacts of cultural projects that saw the participation of different stakeholders involved in the MESOC City Pilots in Barcelona: namely, the public administration, represented by the Culture Institute of Barcelona (ICUB); private foundations funding cultural projects aiming at social transformation (Art for Change Programme of La Caixa Bank) and the directors of cultural projects with social impacts; coordinated by the researchers of the MESOC project of the University of Barcelona.

The objectives of the session were:

• Generating a reflection around alternative evaluation frameworks to assess the social impact of cultural projects
• Sharing expected social outcomes of cultural projects, both from the side of the directors of cultural projects as from the institutions that support this kind of initiatives
• Analysing possible evaluation indicators (or typologies of indicators) to assess the social impact of cultural initiatives.

The collective debate tried to merge the different needs of assessment regarding the social impacts of cultural initiatives in order to explore the typologies of indicators that best suit this purpose. Many interesting reflections emerged from the conversation and will nurture the conceptualisation and identification of transition variables to assess social change in cultural projects and policies.