Event Details

The Lancaster Evaluation Group welcomes Dr Steph Hawke, the Head of Evaluation and Impact at Curious Minds to the online seminar: "Evaluation and the Infrastructure Organisation: Challenges and Opportunities"

Seminar description: Since 2008 Curious Minds has been helping teachers and youth workers connect children and young people with talented artists and creatives – sharing knowledge, resources, and space to support collaboration and new ideas in creative and cultural education.We describe ourselves as a ‘field building’ or ‘infrastructure’ organisation. We see the disparity of access to art and culture for children and young people as a social justice issue and we aim to tackle it head on through strategic work to create systems change.This session is a reflection on the challenges of evaluation and impact in this context. It explores the development of Curious Minds’ Impact Framework which combines monitoring, reflective practice, impact evaluation and research partnerships. We describe our emerging work to support the sector to better evaluate impact and our broader evidence and advocacy work including research partnerships and agenda setting with partners such as Goldsmiths, University of London and the Cultural Learning Alliance.

Dr Steph Hawke is Head of Evaluation and Impact at Curious Minds. She has over 25 years’ experience in cultural education, having worked in schools, heritage and the arts. She is currently supervising a collaborative PhD with Goldsmiths exploring creativity, curiosity and the value of professional artists working in school.