Public Art Evaluation Tools: Matrix and Personal Project Analysis

ixia, the public art think tank, is funded by the Arts Council England and aims to provide guidance on the role of art in the public realm. Through its activities, ixia identifies and challenges restrictive practices which result in limited and missed opportunities for artists working in the public realm. ixia works with artists, policymakers and implementers within the public and private sectors and conducts research, supports events, delivers training, and commissions publications. [Adapted from ixia’s website.] A companion piece to Research on Public Art: Assessing Impact and Quality, this item includes the electronic versions of two items that appear in an appendix of Reasearch on Public Art, and it is clearer (higher resolution) and more ready to use than the appendices. The Matrix encourages collaborators to have facilitated conversations in order to better understand their values (both shared and contrasting) as they embark on public art collaborations. Its four sections ask users to score the project on each subset dimension: Artistic Values [visual/aesthetic enjoyment, design quality, social activation, innovation/risk, host participation, challenge/critical debate], Social Values [community development, poverty and social inclusion, health and well being, crime and safety, interpersonal development, travel/access, and skills acquisition], Environmental Values [vegetation and wildlife, physical environment improvement, conservation, pollution and waste management-air, water and ground quality, and climate change and energy], Economic Values [marketing/place identity, regeneration, tourism, economic investment and output, resource use and recycling, education, employment, project management/sustainability, and value for money]. The Personal Project Analysis is a two page tool that asks users to score, on a scale of zero to five, their view of the project on various dimensions: importance, enjoyment, difficulty, visibility, control, initiation, stress, time adequacy, outcome, self-identity, others’ views, value congruency, progress, risk, absorption, competence, autonomy, and legacy. Users are then asked to score their support for the project. Next, users are asked a series of general, open-ended questions about the project. Finally, users answer open-ended questions about the context of the project.