Impact Communications

So after talking about investment in Arts at the Culture Business Conference, a close corollary concern was impact. How to measure it. How to communicate it. I was fortunate to attend two fabulous sessions presented by Marijke Smallegange on the work she has driven at Rijksmuseum. One insight that really rang out loud and clear is that impact communications is a thing and not just a nice to have. And it's probably absent from most communications position descriptions in the Australian arts sector. And what impact communications requires is not the same as your average PR story or project blurbette on your funding acquittal. It requires a holistic method of quantitative data (yes, the numbers still matter), qualitative data (yes, free text in surveys is not dead), a deep engagement with your institution's cultural DNA (legacy that builds your institutional identity) and future direction. All wrapped up in a damn good story. impact communications is all the more important now at a time when the arts is having to speak to such a diversity of interests in the funding and philanthropy sphere.