Evaluation
Most evaluation feels like it's for someone else.
A box to tick for the funder. A report that arrives after the work is finished and changes nothing. A process that extracts information from participants without giving anything back.
It doesn't have to be that way.
I work with arts, learning and community organisations to design evaluation that is genuinely useful: for your team, for your participants, and yes, for your funders too. Evaluation that happens alongside the work, not just at the end. That surfaces what's actually happening, including the things that are hard to name. That leaves your organisation with better questions, not just better reports.
What I offer
Co-designed evaluation frameworks - I don't arrive with a template. We develop the evaluation plan together, grounded in your specific context, values and theory of change. That means the questions you're asking are ones you actually care about, and the methods fit the communities you're working with.
Creative and participatory data collection - alongside interviews, surveys and observation, I use arts-based tools: visual mapping, body mapping, creative prompts, material responses. These methods open up knowledge that more conventional approaches miss, particularly with young people, neurodivergent participants, or communities with good reason to distrust formal processes.
Formative evaluation and learning support - not just a summative report at the end. I can work with you throughout a project to support ongoing reflection, spot what's working and what needs to shift, and build your team's own capacity to evaluate.
Reporting and outputs - clear, accessible reports, summative evaluations, infographics and toolkits that communicate your impact honestly and compellingly, to funders, partners and the people you work with.
How I approach it
Evaluation is a political act. Who gets to define success? Whose knowledge counts? What happens when findings are uncomfortable for the funder?
I hold these questions seriously. My approach is grounded in participatory, decolonial and trauma-informed principles: centring the voices of participants, being honest about what evaluation can and can't show, and treating the process itself as something that should be worth the time of everyone involved.
I bring ten years of experience across arts, education and community contexts, including current formative evaluation of the Artsmark programme in collaboration with Goldsmiths University, and project evaluation for organisations including The Line and Autograph.
Featured projects
- Spaces to Explore (The Line): A two-year evaluation of arts-based learning in East London schools, exploring engagement, creativity, and wellbeing through a mixed-methods framework.
- Acts of Solidarity (Autograph): Evaluation of artist development and public engagement for equitable change in arts, using emotion-led, somatic methods. (Tend Toward Justice project)
- Arts Education Exchange (AEE): Development of creative learning and evaluation frameworks for arts-based programmes working with young people.
A few questions people ask
Do you only work with large organisations? No. I work with organisations of all sizes, and I'm used to designing evaluation that is proportionate to the scale and resources of the project. A small programme with a limited budget still deserves evaluation that is thoughtful and useful.
What if the findings are difficult? Good evaluation sometimes surfaces things that are uncomfortable, for the team, for leadership, or for funders. I think that's part of its value. I work with organisations to make sense of difficult findings constructively, and to think about how to communicate them honestly without being unnecessarily damaging.
Can you help us build our own evaluation capacity? Yes. Alongside doing the evaluation work myself, I can support your team to develop skills, tools and habits that make ongoing reflection part of how you work, not just something you do when a grant requires it.
Do you work online or in person? Both. I'm based in Margate and work across the UK. In-person work is focused in Kent and South East England, with travel available elsewhere by arrangement.
Want to talk about what your project needs?
I offer a free 30-minute conversation to explore what evaluation could look like for your work.