Revealed Arts Market

The Revealed WA Aboriginal Art Market celebrates the vibrancy, quality and diversity of Aboriginal artistic practice in Western Australia and provides essential income for artists and their communities. Works start from as little as $50 and 100% of profits from all Revealed Art Market sales return to the artists and art centres.

Supported by the Western Australia State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC), the Australian Government and the Fremantle Arts Centre, Revealed provides professional development, exposure and commercial opportunities for WA’s emerging Aboriginal artists including: 

• An exhibition of artworks by emerging WA Aboriginal artists.
• Artists in Conversation featuring recent stories and issues from the Indigenous art world
• Marketplace with more than 40 Aboriginal art centres from across the State selling art work directly to the public
• a professional development program for Aboriginal artists, Aboriginal art centre staff and boards.

DLGSC have used Culture Counts to evaluate the program since 2015. Through surveys distributed by the Department, responses are collected from staff, industry peers and public responses regarding the experience of the Arts Market.

Requirement

In 2011, the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) developed Public Value Measurement Framework (PVMF) policy evaluating the benefits of arts and cultural activities. DLGSC wished to use this evaluation approach to measure the impact of the Revealed WA Aboriginal Art Market.

Approach

DLGSC used a survey template available in the Culture Counts platform to build a survey that would measure the impact of the Revealed WA Aboriginal Art Market. The outcomes selected for the evaluation were sourced from Culture Counts and were selected by DLGSC to measure the strategic outcomes it sought to achieve through the Arts Market. This evaluation methodology followed that of the PVMF, which included collecting responses from public attendees, industry peers and event staff and organisers (self surveys). Peers and Self respondents were asked to undertake a survey prior to the event, capturing their expectations, as well as after the event took place. DLGSC were able to resource the production and distribution of the survey using support provided by Culture Counts. Culture Counts was then engaged to produced a summary impact report of the evaluation. We confirmed what data had been collected by DLGSC and proceeded to generate an online insight report using the evaluation data. The reporting format was designed by Culture Counts to best inform the impact story, with feedback provided by DLGSC.

Outcome

The report generated was an Online Insight Report. This report format allows to sharing with stakeholders and clients directly, via an online link. The report highlighted responses from 121 members of the public, 5 peer assessors and 7 self assessors across a range of impact domains; Cultural, Economic, Social and Quality. The dimensions ‘Local Impact’ and ‘Authenticity’ were the top performing outcomes from public responses with over 97% of respondents agreeing that ‘it’s important it’s happening here’ (Local Impact), and 95% agreeing ‘that it had a connection to the State/Country we live in’ (Authenticity). ‘Distinctiveness’ was the lowest performing dimension, with 81% agreeing that the event was ‘different from things I’ve experienced before’. The high results for ‘Local Impact’ and ‘Authenticity’ demonstrate the importance of Revealed and also help organisers understands that the event’s distinctiveness is not its primary public value.

Image attribution: Tjarlirli artists Dennis Brown, Doreen Bennett, Henry Farmer, Julieanne Farmer & Ms M. Giles just over the WA border, west of Kaltukatjarra, 2019. Troopy artwork: Carol Giles, Minyma Tjukurla, 2019. Images courtesy of Tjarlirli Art Inc.