1st ENCATC Working Group on Evaluation

Evaluation has become a more and more crucial matter for public authorities and professionals in cultural field. Several ENCATC members are involved in the evaluation of European projects subsidized by Creative Europe, Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 or other transnational programmes of European Commission. They have to develop methodologies to help arts and cultural managers to implement the evaluation process. At the same time, several European networks are looking for best practices on evaluation and monitoring. Upon several occasions they have expressed the need to create a space for exchange and mutual learning. The European Commission is also working on finalising its own evaluation policy for the Creative Europe programme. The feedback from the beneficiaries and cultural experts is very important for the finalisation and validation the EC’s work. All of these factors are contributing reasons for the need of a working group on the evaluation of international and European transnational projects.

The Working Group is led by its chair, Pascale Bonniel Chalier, a member of ENCATC from the University Lyon II in France. The aim of this first meeting in Brussels was to: better understand the priorities of the Creative Europe programme in relation to the evaluation of both transnational cultural projects and European networks; share evaluation experiences of transnational cultural projects subsidized by EU (Creative Europe programme and Eramsus +); discuss how to improve our current evaluation methodologies for International / European cultural projects and networks; and adopt a work plan for 2017.

Why set up a working group on Evaluation? 

These questions about evaluation are not new, but in the context of reduced public funding and needs for professionalising the sector, this is a very important matter for cultural managers. It is especially important for cultural managers who start transnational cooperation projects or if they are supported by funding from the European Union or international organisations. They need competencies in this area because they are being asked to evaluate these projects. Even if an evaluation is not asked, I strongly believe cultural managers need to understand the process because evaluation is a key element for improving cultural projects. 

Why is this working group especially interesting for ENCATC members? 

ENCATC members are also responsible for training and educating new cultural managers, cultural administrators and mediators at their training centres and universities. This is why evaluation should be an important matter for ENCATC and is a driving motivation behind setting up this working group. Among members, we also have teachers and trainers who are involved in evaluation outside the classroom, not only evaluating cultural policies, but also evaluating transnational cultural projects. They need a space to share. What are their methods, tools, systems, devices used for evaluation? What are they proposing to cultural mangers when they evaluate their projects? 

How is this working group interesting at the European level? 

A network like ENCATC is asked by the European Commission to develop specific approaches for evaluation of cultural networks. I think for the working group it is interesting to combine both interests. By that I mean, we can have consultants, teachers, and researchers who are involved in evaluation of transnational cultural projects, but also those who are involved in evaluation for European cultural networks.