Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance attempts to define and measure how audiences
are transformed by a live performance. The study’s research design consisted of a pair of questionnaires – one administered in-venue just prior to curtain, and the other sent home with the respondent and mailed back. The first questionnaire collected information about the audiences’ mental and emotional preparedness for the performance.

The second questionnaire, related to the first by a control number, investigated a range of reactions to the specific performance, including captivation, intellectual stimulation, emotional resonance, spiritual value, aesthetic growth and social bonding. Between January and May 2006, six presenters surveyed audiences at a total of 19 performances representing a cross-section of music, dance and theatre presentations. This report builds on recent literature to address several hypotheses:
1) that the intrinsic impacts derived from attending a live performance can be measured,
2) that different types of performances create different sets of impacts, and
3) that an audience member’s ‘readiness-to-receive’ the art affects the impacts received.

The study develops a simple measurement tool to assess impact, provides an analytical framework
for considering the results, and suggests how performing arts presenters might begin to use this information to select programs that create specific benefits for their constituents.

Performing arts organizations, historically, have had difficulty articulating their true impact. In the absence of other measures, board members, staff and funders often rely exclusively on demand metrics such as ticket sales and attendance figures to gauge success when, in fact, their missions define success in very different terms.

This study builds on previous research and theoretical literature to empirically measure the short term benefits, on an individual level, of being in the audience for a performing arts program. The study explores pre-performance anticipation, expectations and familiarity – the individual’s “readiness-to-receive” the art – as well as the individual’s self-assessment of his or her own impressions of, reactions to, and satisfaction with the performance. The aim of this work is not solely to demonstrate that intrinsic impacts can be measured and used as evidence of impact and mission fulfillment, but to provoke discussion about how this information might be used by presenters in understanding the consequences of their programming choices and reaching higher levels of effectiveness in their work.

http://www.wolfbrown.com/images/books/ImpactStudyFinalVersionFullReport.pdf