Given the ‘cooler climate’ in public funding, demonstrating the economic impact of the arts, culture and sports is more important than ever. Nationally the arts and culture sector pays its way, recent figures show an annual return of £2.35 billion to the Treasury – and the contribution to local economies is growing faster in the parts of the country worst affected by the recession like the North East. Employment in the sector is strong too, with the growth in jobs and skills feeding into an expanding knowledge and skills based economy – particularly important to young people entering the jobs market.

In 2015, Durham County Council commissioned PRG to develop an evaluation framework to measure the impact of the arts, cultural and sports events the Council supports. The overall aim is to establish an evaluation framework with flexible methodologies and KPIs which can be applied across all types of events and appropriate for use by different delivery organisations – large and small, public, private and third sector.

A single, standardised framework will allow meaningful comparisons, the aggregation of impacts and identification of savings; it will also produce a reliable evidence base for decision-making and strategy. And the more we understand what the sector does for us, in terms of the economy, education, health and wellbeing, and communities, the more we will be able to provide the evidence to give government and the taxpayer the confidence to invest.

During 2015 the events and festivals PRG has evaluated for County Durham have been very varied, including: Bishop Auckland Food Festival, the International Brass Festival, Durham Book Festival, culminating most recently with Lumiere Durham.

Each time we have revised and refined a range of evaluation tools, tailoring them to specific events and trying out innovative methods and approaches. For Lumiere, PRG also worked with Durham businesses to capture economic impact and help the businesses make the most of the festival’s opportunities. We also helped recruit and train more than 20 Durham University students to carry out on-street evaluation of Lumiere, helping them acquire valuable employment experience and become more involved in the life of the city.