Over the past 2 years, Consultants Miranda Jacobs and Kate Sanderson have been working with groups of arts organisations to set up benchmarking projects through aduk. The aim of these pilot groups has been to see what’s really involved in benchmarking, find some processes which seem to work and, ultimately, to be able to help other arts organisations who are also interested.
Miranda and Kate have worked with Disability Arts Organisations, Galleries, Arts Centres and Producing Theatres. Each group has decided on exactly what information it would like to collect, and has developed a list of performance indicators along with detailed definitions. They’ve also talked in detail about how they’d like to share this information and how often.
The learning from these pilot groups forms the basis of all of the benchmarking content on the aduk website; if you read on you’ll see that there are lots of details to be aware of, ideas for how to overcome problems, and suggestions about how to get started.
The first phase of the project is now nearing completion and some research is happening to see how best to develop the benchmarking with the existing groups and new members. If you would like to find out more, or if you have any thoughts about benchmarking, register your interest with fiona@audiencesyorkshire.org.uk
“Given the amount of partnership and collaboration in our industry, it’s extraordinary that arts organisations haven’t been sharing this sort of information for years. It’s so useful in working out how a company is doing, giving some clues about what could be improved and, frankly, giving you confidence that you’re not going mad. It’s not an easy thing to set up but the benefits are huge. All of the organisations we’re working with are really enthusiastic about the project and hugely ambitious for its future. And this is only the start; as everyone becomes more confident with the data, the implications for its informing strategic change for organisations are really significant.” Kate Sanderson, Indigo Ltd & Miranda Jacobs, Consultant.
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