Our methodology combined quantitative and qualitative research to assess the Center for Artistic Activism’s impact. It included data collection from workshops, surveys, interviews, and evaluations. Responses were analyzed for recurring themes, which were grouped into eight categories, revealing how C4AA’s training influences strategy, creativity, community engagement, and advocacy outcomes worldwide.
Answering the seemingly simple question of the Center for Artistic Activism’s impact was daunting. C4AA has worked with over 4,000 individuals and their organizations in over 15 years. These people then went on to work on tens of thousands of projects and campaigns around the world. Collecting, organizing, and analyzing the data for this report took the better part of a year.
We started with the numbers, gathering data on all in-person and online workshops organized by the Center from 2009 to 2024, listing alumni through the years and data about their nationalities. We parsed over 160 sessions and datasets and arrived at numbers that provide a global overview of the Center’s reach.
We needed to get to know the people behind the numbers to assess the impact of all the Center’s training and workshops, mentoring and research, tools, and resources. To this end, we:
- Designed and distributed detailed surveys to our alumni.
- Sent emails soliciting responses to the question, “How has any of the material we taught impacted how you work?”
- Collected evaluations at the end of workshops and programs, asking for participant reflections.
- Conducted in-depth one-on-one interviews with a select group of people we had worked with extensively over the years.
We then analyzed these people’s responses, looking for patterns and repeating themes. In the end, we arrived at thirty key themes that we used to code our interviews:
- Objectives
- Planning
- Testing, Iteration
- Joy!
- Emotion, Affect
- Play, Fun
- Community, Belonging
- Validation, Confidence
- Audiences
- Spectacle
- Dreaming, Utopia, Impossible
- Creativity
- Innovation
- Expanding Horizons
- Surprise
- Risk
- Impact, Assessment, Results
- Research
- Art and Activism
- Emulation, Expansion
- Tools, Resources
- Support (financial, tactical, etc.)
- Collaboration
- Pop Culture
- Clarification
- Excitement
- Method/Process
- Contextualization
- Professional Development
- Application
We then grouped these themes into eight categories, acknowledging that some themes, depending upon their inflection, might appear in more than one category:
- Imagination: Dreaming/Utopia/Impossible, Creativity, Spectacle, Expanding Horizons, Pop Culture
- Innovation: Innovation, Surprise, Risk, Creativity, Method/Process, Context, Professional Development
- Strategy: Planning, Objectives, Audiences, Research, Support (financial, tactical, etc.), Testing/Iteration, Clarification, Method/Process, Context, Application
- Assessment: Testing/Iteration, Impact/Assessment/Results, Research
- Pollination: Emulation/Expansion, Tools/Resources, Support, Professional Development
- Community: Community/Belonging, Collaboration
- Emotion: Emotion/Affect, Joy!, Play/Fun, Excitement
- Æffect: Art and Activism, Validation/Confidence, Clarification
From these categories, we began to get a coherent picture of how the Center for Artistic Activism has impacted advocates, who then use what they have learned to set their goals, plan their strategies, devise their tactics, and engage their communities—all in order to have an impact on the world.
You are reading a portion of our 15 Years of Impact report.
Learn more about the impact report and our nine global case studies. Here’s an example:
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Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (USA)
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign described working with The Center for Artistic Activism as a game-changer. When they first got involved in 2021, The Center helped them create a redistricting Loteria game to engage the community on crucial local issues.
