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Retrospective identification of impactful
events
While all of the empirical studies discussed so far have sought to shed light on
the audience’s experience of specific cultural events, some qualitative studies
have inquired about the role that the arts and culture play in people’s lives more
generally, allowing the respondents to determine which cultural goods and events
they want to discuss. For instance, while Foreman-Wernet and Dervin’s 2013
study uses SMM interviews to ask informants about their experience watching an
online video of a piano concerto, the same researchers have also used this methodology
to assess the contributions of cultural experiences within the larger flow
of life.
Foreman-Wernet and Dervin
In Foreman-Wernet and Dervin (2011), the researchers
present four case studies in which they ‘Cultural experience in context: Sense-making
L Foreman-Wernet and B Dervin, 2011,
ask college students to ‘select cultural products or the arts’, in The Journal of Arts Management,
experiences from the past or present that had significant
meaning in their lives’ and then guide the
Law, and Society 41:1. 1-37.
students through extensive self-interviews using
SMM. While this would not be an efficient way for
arts organisations to measure the impact of their work—there is no guarantee that
respondents would discuss any of the organisation’s work during the interview—
this approach can shed light on the types of cultural experiences that leave lasting
impressions on people and what makes them so significant for the people who
experience them.
The experiences on which the informants in this study chose to report extend far
beyond what would generally be considered ‘the arts’. They discussed the impacts
that horror movies, action figures, TV sitcoms, stand up comedians and feminine
hygiene commercials had on their lives along with the impacts of ballet, novels
and musicals.
Foreman-Wernet and Dervin use the eight categories of impact listed above to
evaluate the participants’ responses and find that there is generally a common
thread flowing the discussions of each of the subject’s experiences. For each respondent
there is a personal identity struggle to which they keep returning in
their descriptions of the most significant cultural experiences of their lives (2011,
35).
Measuring Individual Impact: Post-Event Surveying 80
UNDERSTANDING the value and impacts of cultural experiences