Expert Workshop on "Exploring and Evaluating the Cultural Values of Arts and Creativity within the Criminal Justice System"

An expert workshop took place on 16 May 2014 at Central Saint Martins, King’s Cross, London. It brought together representatives from the Arts Alliance Steering Group - including those from Clean Break, Geese Theatre Company and the CEO of the Koestler Trust - along with expert criminologists, humanities scholars, and those linked to art and design education whose institutions wish to improve understanding about arts and their impacts in the criminal justice system and to share their design expertise in the field of evaluation. Speakers and practitioners across a variety of art forms discussed visual arts and crafts, theatre, music, design, writing and reading groups exchanging evidence and concerns about best practice in relation to the evaluation of impacts. The event aimed to promote knowledge exchange and to introduce new perspectives on how arts in the criminal justice system can be assessed and articulated within a broad framework of cultural value; also to understand which impact measurement processes work best in which contexts to assess the value of participatory arts and the way they can operate to inspire change and transform lives.