The Culture Counts platform has a three-pronged evaluation process – with participation from self, peer and public assessors. Average scores from each group can be compared to see whether the public and peers understood the creative intentions of the artists or curators.
In this blog, we provide some tips for the peer component of the Culture Counts evaluation process.
The value of peer feedback for reporting and comparison is generally agreed upon. As put by Becky Loftus at the Royal Shakespeare Company in a recent case study, “Regardless of the challenges, the peer assessment does give an important and alternative perspective to the work and enables deeper interpretation of the results, particularly when triangulated with self and public responses.”
We do understand however that the peer component, specifically peer attendance, can make the evaluation process a little more challenging for some events. We have compiled some of our top tips to help minimise the challenge and make the peer feedback process as seamless as possible:
1. Plan in advance and over-prepare
Try to ask peers if they can be involved well in advance of the event, and be sure to remind them the event is coming up closer to the date. Asking peers at the last minute, or relying on a small few to attend can make the peer assessment process stressful. As a general rule of thumb try asking more peers than you were originally aiming for to participate, this will allow for a buffer if some cannot make it at the last minute.
2. Personalise the request
Keep it personalised by emailing or calling your peers individually. These are people you consider experts in the field and are likely familiar with your work, they will appreciate the personal contact. There is an invite tool built into the Culture Counts system that has been designed so you can send your peer and self assessors a unique survey URL. It is advised that you contact peers directly first, and then use the platform to invite them to participate.
3. Make it free of charge
A good motivator to get more peers to help evaluate your event is by providing a ticket or allowing entry at no cost. This helps demonstrate the value you place on their feedback as well as reducing potential financial barriers for them in attending.
4. Spread the word
Encourage your peers to invite others to your event. They may know other professionals in your art form that they would like to bring along as a company. This will mean more feedback for you to report on, and a shared experience with friends for them, a win-win. Encouraging this can also expand your network of peers for future evaluations.
5. Share insights
After the evaluation, you could consider sharing some of the insights you found thanks to their peer contribution. You may want to send them some of the evaluation reports, or some generalised findings. Either way, this is a great way to maintain engagement with your peers and build upon your relationship.
Main image source: www.2danimation101.com
