AESOP Toolbox – Hover over the toolbox tab to get into the specifics of the research methodology, evidence and policy provided by AESOP, specifically for approaching arts’ activity with a social purpose.
Arts for health and wellbeing: an evaluation framework – A new document by Public Health England that provides effective ways to document and evaluate arts projects and programmes that seek to improve health and wellbeing.
Arts Observation Scale Manual and Template – A guide to gathering observational data, designed specifically for use with participatory arts interventions, originally in healthcare settings, but could be adapted to programmes in museums, and would be useful when it is difficult to gather feedback directly from participants.
Creative & Credible – A guide into evaluating arts & health projects. Just start scrolling down!
Embedded Evaluation – Guidance from the Happy Museum Project about how to build visitor evaluation and feedback into the museum experience.
Inspiring Learning – A self-help improvement framework for museums, libraries and archives by MLA that supports organisations to:
- Assess their strengths and plan improvements
- Provide evidence of the impact of their activities through the generic learning and generic social outcomes
- Improve their strategic and operational performance
Look, I’m priceless! Handbook on how to assess your artistic organisation – a comprehensive evaluation handbook by researcher Vassilka Shishkova (2017), commissioned by IETM international network for contemporary performing arts. Although a longer handbook, it’s clearly written, and reflective about the difficulties of assessing (and importance of recording) the less obvious, intrinsic benefits of arts participation. It also highlights the differences between research and evaluation, the benefits for organisations of evaluating what they do, and the strengths and weaknesses of the whole spectrum of evaluation approaches.
NEF Measuring Wellbeing handbook – A short handbook on measuring well-being from the Centre for Wellbeing at the New Economics Foundation – designed primarily for voluntary organisations and community groups delivering projects and services, to help them kick-start the process of measuring wellbeing outcomes.
UCL Museum Wellbeing Measures toolkit – Developed and validated with 20 museums and galleries across the UK and 250 participants.
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) – Widely used tool for the evaluation of interventions designed to improve mental wellbeing.
National Alliance for Museums, Health & Wellbeing 