“change” by flickr user samantha celera

At Createquity, we’ve written about theories of change before, and are a big believer in their power to depict strategy in a visual way. We’ve had our own theory of change for several years, but hadn’t gotten around to publishing it on the website until now. Below, you’ll see our take on how Createquity specifically, and leaders in the arts more generally, can begin to move the needle on some of our most pressing issues in the arts and beyond.

In reviewing the document, it may be helpful to focus on two “tracks” defined by the top two activity boxes in red. The first track, “Foster arts decision makers’ capacity to use information,” is about our regular non-feature programming: our monthly Newsroom articles, annual roundups of top arts policy stories, our Research Spotlight reviews of new and interesting research studies, as well as all of the content right here on Createquity Insider. The idea is that by sharing information and modeling a critical, big-picture approach to arts policy, we help to improve the quality of decision-making in the field more generally, independent of any specific issues.

The second track is all about our long-term mission to investigate the most important issues in the arts and what we, individually and collectively, can do about them. By identifying important issues and calling attention to them, we build momentum for finding a solution. Separately, we engage folks who have the power to make a difference in helping us think through what those solutions might be. The end result, if it all works, is a platform that’s grounded in evidence and high-quality analysis that has buy-in from the right people at the right time.

Our theory of change is a living document, so we welcome your feedback at any time.