Evaluation Guide for Arts & Health projects

 

Over the past few years, the Nordic arts and health field has expanded, both in terms of cross-border collaborations and network development: there has been an increase in projects and health-related interventions. This expansion has necessitated questions and considerations about evaluation and documentation of the undertakings.

In recognition of the need to ensure robust evaluation and documentation for arts and health projects a collaboration between Region Nordjylland and Aalborg University in Denmark, together with Region Skåne in Sweden, financed the development of an Arts and Health Evaluation Guide intended for arts and health practitioners in the Nordic region.

The background research was conducted in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in order to understand the needs of the practitioners and to inform the content of the Evaluation Guide.

A questionnaire survey was sent out in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in Danish, English and Swedish, respectively. The questions were designed to gain a better understanding and insight into the experience and needs of arts and health practitioners in terms of conducting evaluation in the field. The data collection took place between December 2019 and February 2020. The survey was distributed via social media, emails and networks in collaboration with the National Competence Center for Culture, Health and Care in Norway and the Arts & Health Coordination Centre (Taikusydän) in Finland and 123 arts and health practitioners responded. By completing the survey, the respondents consented to their data being used for research purposes after anonymising.

Workshops were also held, and in these the participants were invited to explore their experience of evaluating arts and health projects. These workshops were dialog based and gave the participants an opportunity to meet other practitioners and to discuss challenges and share good practice.

The Evaluation Guide has been authored by Anita Jensen, Arts & Health Strategist (Primary Healthcare, Region Skåne), Guest researcher (Aalborg University). The Finnish version of the Evaluation Guide has been edited by The Finnish Arts & Health Coordination Centre (Taikusydän).

The purpose of the Evaluation Guide is to bring more focus on the need for evaluation of arts and health projects, to disseminate useful advice and principles for good evaluation in the arts and health field and to provide of effective evaluation tools.

The Evaluation Guide is available in Danish, Finnish and Swedish and it is anticipated that a Norwegian version will be available soon.

 

Download the Evaluation Guide in Danish here.

Download the Evaluation Guide in Swedish here.

Download the Evaluation Guide in Finnish here.