Culture Counts are proud to work with Townsville based theatre company TheatreiNQ to measure the impact of their productions and education programs in an ongoing way. We recently invited Arminelle Fleming, THiNQ Education Coordinator, to offer some insight into their evaluation strategy and how learnings are used within the organisation.
When asked about what TheatreiNQ set out to achieve with their productions Arminelle stated, “our primary objective for every event is to create a positive theatre experience for our audience.”
Anecdotally and intuitively, most organisations have a sense of whether they are achieving their mission but often these objectives aren’t measured in any structured way. As Arminelle highlighted, “The wonderful thing about theatre is that you know immediately if the audience is engaged or not by how they are reacting. Are they laughing? Are they crying? Are they shocked?” TheatreiNQ support (or challenge) this immediate indication of success by capturing public data about artistic quality and impact. This has the benefit of providing hard evidence to make a stronger case about the important outcomes they are generating for their audience.
“Following the event, we send out surveys to audience members to garner their honest, anonymous feedback. From these we can see what aspects of the production were most successful and how outside factors (venue restrictions, pricing) affected the audience’s overall satisfaction with the final product”.
Arminelle commented on how insights are used in the organisation, “TheatreiNQ is a very small organisation with only four permanent staff members – as a result information can be distributed quickly and action taken immediately. We regularly liaise with each other regarding company policy and future planning. This year we have organised a two-day planning weekend in December to focus on company goals and moving forward”.
